Chennai
In terms of urbanization, growth, economy and economic freedom, Tamil Nadu emerges as one of the top players in the country and is securely placed within the top three in terms of attracting investment and development. The Economic Freedom rankings of different States in the country rate Tamil Nadu as the leader in this category and the State itself is one of the highest contributors to the nation’s GDP.
A variety of economic drivers of growth, including ports, automobile manufacturing, IT/Software, electrical engineering, education and more, fuel the development of the State and this in turn creates a cosmopolitan climate within the city of Chennai. According to a study in 2008, 53% of Tamil Nadu’s population (35.4 million people) lived in urban areas (the highest percentage in the country) while it is projected that by 2030 the urbanisation rate will reach 67% in the State with close to 53.4 million people living in cities and urban areas.
Hence, there is a pressing need to create more housing and better infrastructure. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are an important step, in that context. “The idea behind promoting SEZs was to decentralise industrial growth and promote a balanced activity across regions,” says B Elangovan, General Manager (Projects), TIDCO (Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. “At the moment, TIDCO is helping develop a variety of special zones across the State and the Chennai region with a view to promoting balanced growth. These include SIPCOT in Oragadam (for the automobile industry) that is showing tremendous promise.
Taramani is seeing more IT SEZs in the stage of completion. Integrated public-private partnerships such as the Mahindra World City and Sriperumbudur SEZ also boost the profile of development for electrical manufacturing and IT industries to grow. The SEZ in Perambalur (3,000 acres) and Ennore that are scheduled to come up, will have far reaching socio-economic benefits. In addition to providing huge employment opportunities, SEZs can bring in urbanisation to the areas surrounding them.
Connectivity of infrastructure between SEZs and other urban areas should be planned. This will bring in balanced growth across the region and promote integrated industrial parks whether there are SEZs or not. While the business climate in the last couple of years, and the sunset clause for benefits in these special economic zones have detracted development, there are immense opportunities and benefits for private developers to come forward and create SEZs at this point.”
The city itself is expanding three times over with the creation of Ring Roads and redevelopment of the existing highways. The development of high speed rails, metro, exclusive bus transport corridors and more will enhance connectivity and lead to significant suburban growth in the next couple of years and this in turn will help fill the demand-supply gap in terms of quality housing.
“We find that migration patterns are westwards from Georgetown towards Kilpauk and Anna nagar to Sriperumbudur,” says Prashanth Gopinath, Senior Manager – Marketing, Golden Homes, “Poonamallee High Road already has all the social and connectivity infrastructure necessary for good living. So our current project is set on 8.10 acres (815 apartments) near Poonamallee on the highway and one of the first such developments in this area. Already enjoying good connectivity by bus, two lines of monorail are also slated to come up here. In addition, the development of the Tirumazhisai satellite township nearby and the Indo-Singapore SEZ development are of major importance.”
With space crunch and soaring land prices in the city, it is good to know that there are plenty of good investment options in the vicinity.
Source: Times Property in The Times of India, Chennai
