Tharamani

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Tharamani (also called Taramani) is an important area in the south Indian city of Chennai. It is known for the famous world class IT parks like Tidel Park, ASCENDAS, Elnet Software City, and TICEL Biotech Park which are situated in this area. It is located adjacent to the posh residential locality of Adyar in south Chennai.

Tidel Park, an information technology (IT) park that houses many IT companies, is the first of its kind in south India. Before building this IT park the land in which it is located is mostly a vacant land and the remaining space for parking is taken from MGR film city.

Tharamani borders the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, one of the seven IITs. The Tharamani gate of IIT Madras is a small, unmotorable gate, used by pedestrian and bicycle traffic. It is frequently used by the students of IIT Madras, due to its proximity to the IIT Madras hostels. Tharamani's population consists of villagers who were displaced from the region that IIT Madras now occupies, when the Institute was first set up. Tharamani, known as "Tarams" to IITians, is an integral part of campus life in the IIT, having a number of tea shops, cigarette shops, bicycle repair stores and liquor stores near the IIT gate.

Tharamani is also home to several research labs and institutions, such as Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), and Voluntary Health Services and the most renowned polytechnic of Tamil Nadu, Central Polytechnic (CPT). 80% of those who have studied at CPT are working abroad. The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), is also present in Taramani. Further south, several small scale industries and factories are located in the Vikram Sarabhai Instronics Estate.

The area is served by several buses. There is a bus terminus in Taramani. It will be served by metro rail station on the Chennai MRTS line from January 2007. Now the nearest stations are the Thiruvanmiyur, Indira Nagar and Kasturibai Nagar MRTS stations.

The Chennai Film City was constructed in Tharamani in 1996. The Film City was a major project of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha during her first term in office. Recently, however, it has fallen on hard times, and there have been news reports that it is being converted into a "Knowledge Park" [1]

The Old Mahabalipuram Road is Tharamani's arterial road, with most of Tharamani's institutions having been constructed on it. This road was originally the main thoroughfare to Mahabalipuram, but with the construction of the East Coast Road (ECR), it is not used as frequently nowadays. It is being renamed as the IT corridor. Another important road in the area is the Tharamani Link Road which links Tharamani with Velchery.

In spite of the rapid developments in the area, it is still having a large amount of slum population. There are four large slums in the area named as Periyar Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, Anna Nagar and MGR Nagar. Here thousands of people live in a very small area without basic amenities of life. Also there is a small marsh land in the southern end of the area beyond which there is the Tharamani Railway Station coming up. Currently there are no good roads to link the main road with the upcoming railway station. It is also near to the newly developing residential locality of Velachery. The modern devlopments are mainly due to the rapid movement of people working in IT companies into the neighboring area of Velachery, since it is nearer to their offices.

The temple of Madhya Kailash, at the junction of the Old Mahabalipuram Road and Sardar Patel Road, marks the beginning of Tharamani. Tharamani adjoins Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur and Velachery. The developments in the neighbouring areas Velachery and Perungudi would further stimulate the progress of Taramani as a well developed area in South Chennai.