Sengundram, known in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

as Red Hills, is a neighbourhood in the northwestern part of

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The name was derived from the red hills (Semman Kuviyal) that was formerly present in the area.

History

The first railway proposals for India were made in Madras in 1832. The country's first transport train, ''Red Hill Railway'' (built by

Arthur Cotton General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 – 24 July 1899) was a British general and irrigation engineer. Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals throughout British India. He helped many people by b ...

to transport granite for road-building), ran from Red Hills to the Chintadripet bridge in Madras in 1836-1837. A town named Sholavaram has a unused airstrip build by British for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was originally operated by the Royal Air Force as an airbase during World War II. After the war, it was abandoned until the airstrip was turned into a venue for drag racing. Most notably, the Malayalam actor

Jayan Krishnan Nair (25 July 1939 – 16 November 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan, was an Indian actor, naval officer, stunt performer and cultural icon of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in over 150 Malayalam films. During his film car ...

was killed in a helicopter accident here during the shooting of his film Kolilakkam on 16 November 1980. After the Madras Motor Sports Club was formed in mid-1950s, Sholavaram was selected to conduct its racing events. According to some estimates, entries across all the various categories of motorcycles and cars together numbered over 800. The state government would ply buses ferrying fans, who travelled from all over India, to and from the track. There was even a thriving black market for forged tickets. Participants included Vijay Mallya's Formula One Ensign or Chandhok's Formula 2 Chevron B42. Since then racing events took place every year and continued till late 1980s until the Madras Motor Sports Club built a new track at Irungattukottai, Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The Indian Army later recovered the lands, which had been illegally occupied by local residents. The military used the area and the remaining airstrip as a surveillance base. There were also plans to use the airport as a secondary landing location for commercial aircraft. In 2020 the airstrip was taken over by the Government of India, with plans to construct a new airport under the UDAN scheme.

Diversity

Iyyappan temple in Red Hills is an important Hindu temple in the neighbourhood. The Church of South India church opposite the Iyyappan temple is one of the larger churches in the surrounding area, and the Aysha mosque is also near the temple. Vishalayam special needs school is the only special school at Red Hills. There are also two government schools, one for boys and one for girls, besides a government boys higher secondary school at Vadagarai.

Red Hills Lake

Puzhal aeri, or Puzhal lake, also known as the Red Hills Lake, is located in Ponneri taluk of Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu. It is one of the two rain-fed reservoirs from where water is drawn for supply to Chennai City, the other one being the Chembarambakkam Lake and Porur Lake. The full capacity of the lake is 3,300 million ft³ (93 million m³).

Transport facility

A Red Hills bus stand has buses to various parts of Chennai. It is easy to get connected to CMBT, Broadway, Poonamalle, Avadi, Tiruninravur, Tambaram and Vandaloor Zoo through bus from Red Hills. Many mofussil buses also pass through Red Hills. In Phase II of metro Rail, three lines covering a distance of 63 kilometres have been proposed in the second phase of the network. Line 4 is envisioned to be a 22-kilometre route with 8 stations from Moolakadai to Thirumangalam Junction. Stations are planned at: Moolakadai, Vinayagapuram/Teachers Colony, Surapet, Red Hills, Vadakarrai, Ambattur OT, Maduravoyil Junction, MMM Hospital and Thirumangalam Junction

References

External links