Ambattur is located in northwestern part of
Chennai City, in
Ambattur taluk of the
Chennai District, surrounded by
Avadi,
Anna Nagar,
Padi,
Mogappair,
Kallikuppam,
Surapet
{{Infobox settlement
, name = SURAPET
, native_name_lang = தமிழ்
, other_name =
, nickname =
, settlement_type = Neighbourhood
, image_skyline = Chen ...
,
Korattur,
Ayappakkam, and
Thiruverkadu
Thiruverkadu (; literally 'a forest of holy herbs and roots') is a Western suburb of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It comes under Thiruvallur district administration. It is famous for its Devi Karumariamman Temple. There is also Vedapureeswarar Templ ...
. It covers an area of . The neighbourhood is served by
Ambattur railway station
Ambattur railway station is one of the main railway stations of the Chennai Central– Arakkonam section of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network. It serves the neighbourhood of Ambattur, a suburb of Chennai located 17 km west of the ci ...
of the
Chennai Suburban Railway
The Chennai Suburban Railway is a commuter rail system in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, operated by the Southern Railways branch of Indian Railways. It is the second largest suburban rail network in terms of route length and the third ...
. Ambattur has its origins in a village of the same name which can be located at present as areas opposite to Ambattur telephone exchange. Ambattur was a village with large extents of agricultural farm lands irrigated by the once-sprawling
Ambattur Lake. In 2011, the neighbourhood had a population 466,205.
Etymology
This place is one of 108 ''Shakthi Sthals'' in the country. The Amman temple (for the Hindu deity
Durga) here is the fifty-first in the order, giving the locality the Tamil name "aimbaththu onraam oor" (ஐம்பத்து ஒன்றாம் ஊர்), meaning fifty-first place/temple village, which later transmuted as Ambattur. The goddess is worshiped in the form of
Vaishnavi.
Ambattur is also called so because it was a collaboration of 51 small towns (ambathu onraam oor in Tamil), from which the name ''Ambattur'' was derived.
History
Along with
Avadi,
Sembium,
Ennore and
Tiruvottriyur, Ambattur is part of the "auto belt" in the city's industrial north and west regions that developed when the automobile industry developed in Madras, in the early post-
World War II years. Sir Ivan Stedeford, chairman of Tube Investments, United Kingdom, was instrumental in starting the TI factory and TII complex in the country. Sir Ivan signed a joint venture agreement with A. M. Murugappa Chettiar of the
Murugappa Group
Murugappa Group is an Indian conglomerate founded in 1900. The Group has 28 businesses including nine companies listed on the NSE and the BSE. Headquartered in Chennai, the major companies of the Group include Carborundum Universal Ltd., Chol ...
, which was then a small business house manufacturing sandpaper and abrasives for the war effort and also trading war surplus. It was the first joint venture agreement to be signed in South India after Independence. This resulted in the establishment of the TI Cycle factory in a mango grove in Ambattur by 1951, and manufacture of the 'Hercules India' bicycle soon began. By 1954, the word 'India' was dropped from the name when international quality standards were met.
In 1954, Sir Ivan signed his second joint venture, Tube Products India, with the Murugappa family. The factory was established on what had been the British Government of Malaya's Immigration Camp. By 1956, production was started in the new factory and soon resulted in the establishment of other TI factories in the Ambattur-Avadi industrial stretch. This led to a rapid growth in population in the region and several public amenities were established in Ambattur by TI company, such as the Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar Higher Secondary School (named after the person who had initially introduced the partners to each other), a post office and a bank. When the growing population demanded a hospital, the company established one between Ambattur and Avadi in 1966 from a gift of around £5,000 from Sir Ivan. The hospital was named the
Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital in his honour.
Geography
Waterbodies
Ambattur has two main
waterbodies, namely the
Ambattur Eri and the Chithu Oragadam Lake and the bigger
Puzhal eri
Pulhal is a Northwestern residential town in Chennai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Pulhal is located on the banks of Pulhal Lake. The town is known for Pulhal Central Prison.
The area is one of the 163 notified areas ( megalit ...
on the outskirts. The upkeep of the Ambattur Eri is plagued by problems such as dumping of garbage, water mining and construction of buildings and the Chithu Oragadam (Thangal) Eri suffers due to pollution by sewage. The local body generates nearly 250 tonnes of garbage daily.
Ambattur has a stormwater drain network of 177.95 km, the largest of the eight zones newly added to the Corporation of Chennai in 2011.
Flora and Fauna
Several species of birds reside and frequent the places in and around Ambattur. Woodland birds, water birds and many more visit here.
Demographics
According to the
2011 census, Ambattur had a population of 466,205 with a sex-ratio of 985 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929.
A total of 48,444 were under the age of six, constituting 24,829 males and 23,615 females.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 11.49% and 0.33% of the population, respectively. The average literacy of the town was 82.61%, compared with the national average of 72.99%.
The town had 120,248 households. There were 184,390 workers, comprising 1,252 cultivators, 1,128 main agricultural labourers, 2,467 in house hold industries, 159,242 other workers, 20,301 marginal workers, 507 marginal cultivators, 453 marginal agricultural labourers, 641 marginal workers in household industries and 18,700 other marginal workers.
As per the religious census of 2011, Ambattur had 86.53%
Hindus, 3.68%
Muslims, 8.95%
Christians, 0.05%
Sikhs
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...
, 0.04%
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, 0.17%
Jains, 0.57% following other religions and 0.01% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.
During 2001–2011, Ambattur registered a population growth of 49.9%.
Administration
Ambattur comes under the
Sriperumbudur
Sriperumbudur is a town panchayat in the Kanchipuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located 40 kilometers southwest of the capital city of Chennai on the National Highway 4 (India)(old numbering), National Highway 4 and i ...
Parliamentary constituency. It was previously under the North Chennai parliamentary constituency, and, along with
Villivakkam, it was the largest assembly constituency in India. The Fame organisation sangam originated here. The
delimitation process of assembly constituencies had given Ambattur a new identity of its own: Constituency No. 8, Tamil Nadu. Once a major panchayat, Ambattur was made a township in the 1960s and a selection-grade municipality from April 1975. In May 1992, it was raised to special-grade municipality. It was a municipality till October 2011. It had been divided into 52 wards. Ambattur Municipality included
Padi,
Korattur,
Mogappair,
kallikuppam,
Ayapakkam TNHB and the Ambattur Industrial Estate areas.
On 15 June 2011, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India to expand the city limits of Chennai by which the Ambattur Municipality would come under the new scheme.
Since 2011, it is part of
Chennai Corporation as Zone 7 with 15 wards (Ward Nos. 79 to 91, 93).
Amenities
Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital is in this area.
Library
The Branch Library, as it is now called, was opened in May 1971 by the then Minister of Education and Local Administration
V. R. Nedunchezhiyan
V. R. Nedunchezhiyan (11 July 1920 – 12 January 2000) was an Indian politician and writer. He served thrice as the acting Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He was also finance minister under the governments of C. N. ...
. It was earlier known as Murugappa Library, as the building it is housed in belongs to the A.M.M. Charities Trust. The library is situated near Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Government Girls Higher Secondary School (Girl's High School).
Economy
The economy of Ambattur is mainly industrial. It was well known as an auto ancillary hub. However, in the late 2000s many IT companies have come up in Ambattur.
Ambattur Industrial Estate
The Ambattur Industrial Estate, spread over an area of 1,430 acres (4.9 km
2), houses about 1,800 units and is the biggest small scale industrial estate in
South Asia. It was commissioned in the year 1964 by the
Government of Tamil Nadu. Companies like
Britannia Industries,
TI Cycles of India
Tube Investments of India Limited (Initially established as TI Cycles of India Limited, Madras) is a Murugappa Group company that specializes in engineering, bicycles, metal formed products, and chains. It is based in Chennai. It was incorpora ...
,
Dunlop, and
TVS TVS may refer to:
Mathematics
* Topological vector space
Television
* Television Sydney, TV channel in Sydney, Australia
* Television South, ITV franchise holder in the South of England between 1982 and 1992
* TVS Television Network, US dis ...
have their plants in Ambattur.
Tata Communications has its
satellite earth station at the Ambattur–Red Hills road, known as wireless among the locals.
Jaya TV,
Vijay TV,
Asianet and
Kairali relay signals from this facility. The
Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in
Avadi, which manufactures military tanks, is just 5 km from this place, adding to its importance. A railway concrete sleeper manufacturing company is located near the Ambattur railway station. Textile industries such as Ambattur Clothing Limited (ACL) and Bombay Fashions have their facilities here and employ thousands of women. The units in the Industrial Estate generate a combined annual revenue of over 35,000 million.
The Industrial Estate has a bus terminus. The Ambattur Estate terminus and the maintenance centre with a capacity of 100 buses were opened in 1967. However, , the centre handles 125 buses a day, with a staff count of 1,100.
IT parks
Ambattur Industrial Estate has attracted a lot of IT companies due to its proximity to residential neighbourhoods and the lower rentals. The lease rentals of IT Parks in Ambattur are half of those in the city. Information Technology (IT) companies such as MilesTs,
HCL Technologies,
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
and
Tata Consultancy Services have their development centres here. Out of the 22 facilities that HCL Technologies has in Chennai, six are in Ambattur. There are also a few
BPO centres such as Perot Systems, Telebuy, Polaris BPO, Serco, First Source & iOPEX Technologies. Prince Info Park, Kochar Technology Park, Ambit IT Park.
Chennai Tech Park, a , state-of-the-art, futuristic IT park, on of land is commissioned since 2009 by IndiaLand Park. Now that 10 acres commercial building is bought by Indiabulls Securities Ltd for Rs 600 crores and renamed it as One IndiaBulls Park, current occupiers of the complex include Royal Bank of Scotland, Kone, Britannia Industries, Ajuba, Covenant, Telebuy, Ibox, Bean Balls, Germany's Modisch, Yes Bank and Etisalat.
One IndiaBulls park is one of the major IT parks in Ambattur. As a remarkable mile stone, CMA CGM, world's 3rd largest liner started their documentation centre along with Regional eCommerce Team in AMBIT park.
However, the demand for commercial space in Ambattur is not as robust as Rajiv Gandhi Salai which is marketed extensively by the government. While IT and ITeS firms in Ambattur have brought in a new image to the industrial belt that has been known for its garment and auto-ancillary units, it has increased the real estate prices.
Transport
Road
The
Chennai-Tiruvallur High Road (CTH Road or
NH205) passes through Ambattur and the Chennai-
Kolkata highway is just about 8 km
puzhal from the place making it a strategic location. On an average, about 40,000 passenger car units use the CTH Road.
The new
Chennai Bypass road between
Maduravoyal and
puzhal passes through Ambattur Industrial Estate. It connects NH4 with NH5 and NH205 via Ambattur Industrial Estate.
The Ambattur bus terminus is located adjacent to the MTH Road and has MTC (city buses) connecting Ambattur with various points in Chennai city. Ambattur does not have a proper bus terminus despite being one of the biggest localities of Chennai. A lot of buses from Avadi and the outskirts of Chennai also pass through Ambattur, offering good connectivity. There are also a few buses operating to Nagercoil, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Vellore and other parts of Tamil Nadu from here. Buses to the famous pilgrim centre of Tirupathi can also be availed from Ambattur.
On 4 October 2013, the Tamil Nadu Highways department issued a GO extending the entire stretch of the road till Tirutani to 6 lanes at a cost of 1,680 million, by means of land acquisition from 12 villages.
In the first phase, the road will be widened to 100 ft (4 lanes) with centre median at a cost of 980 million.
Rail
The
Chennai Central-
Arakkonam railway line passes through Ambattur and has two railway stations in the neighbourhood.
Ambattur railway station
Ambattur railway station is one of the main railway stations of the Chennai Central– Arakkonam section of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network. It serves the neighbourhood of Ambattur, a suburb of Chennai located 17 km west of the ci ...
serves the residential areas and
Pattaravakkam railway station serves the Ambattur Industrial Estate,
kallikuppam and Karruku neighbourhood areas.
Suburban Broad Gauge EMU trains operate daily from Chennai Central and Chennai Beach to
Avadi,
Tiruvallur, Patabiram Military Siding,
Arakkonam,
Vellore,
Tirupathi Tirupati is a major pilgrimage city in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Tirupati may also refer to:
Andhra Pradesh, India
* Tirupati district, a district in the state of Andhra Pradesh
* Tirupati Temple, in Tirupati
* Tirupati Municipa ...
, and
Tiruttani via Ambattur. By rail, Ambattur is 40 minutes from Chennai Central, 20 minutes from
Perambur and 10 minutes from
Villivakkam. Many fast EMU locals (suburban trains) towards Tiruvallur, Arakkonam and Tiruttani, stop at Ambattur railway station, But fast local trains towards Chennai central do not halt at Ambattur because non availability of platform in fast line. By fast local train it takes 25 minutes from Chennai Central. Ambattur having Passenger Reservation Centre Timing 8.00Hrs to14.00Hrs. There is a pending request to extension of Platform length to accommodate express trains, Increase timing of Passenger Reservation Centre, subway, and overbridge at Ambattur
Sports
Kannan Theatre near Senthil Nagar was closed and converted to Dolphin Sports Academy.
The Ambattur Badminton Association has constructed an indoor stadium ( Kamalam John Samuel Indoor Stadium) name after the Late parents of JCD PRABHAKAR, for playing shuttle badminton, located near the
TI Cycles of India
Tube Investments of India Limited (Initially established as TI Cycles of India Limited, Madras) is a Murugappa Group company that specializes in engineering, bicycles, metal formed products, and chains. It is based in Chennai. It was incorpora ...
factory.
Parks
Parks include Pudur park (Old Pond) near menambedu, Thangal Lake Park near Anjalamaram, Krishnapuram Corporation Park (renovated in October 2009) and the Thiruvengada Nagar Corporation Park (opened on 11 October 2013), Venkatapuram Park at Kubera Vinayagar Temple Ground (opened in 2014), Greater Chennai Corporation Park - VGN Shanthi Nagar, Ambattur. There are many parks in Ambattur which people can use for recreational activities.
Media
''South Indian Post'' leading bilingual ''(English and Tamil)'' newspaper, ''Town News'', ''Seithi Mazhai'', ''My Vyapar'' is the leading bilingual (English and Tamil) newspaper. ''The Neighbour City'' and ''Kutty News'' are the newspapers in Tamil. ''Ambattur Talk'' is in English.
Educational institutions
Schools
Colleges
LIC Zonal Training Centre
Ambattur also houses the Chennai Zonal Training Center of
Life Insurance Corporation of India, located near prithvipakkam.
References
External links
Ambattur
{{Chennai topics
Cities and towns in Tiruvallur district