Siruseri – The Past, The Present and The Future
When somebody mentions “Siruseri” (pronounced Si-rue-say-ree) today, the first thing that comes to mind is the SIPCOT IT Park – an expansive 1000-acre development by the State Industries Promotion
Corporation of Tamil Nadu(SIPCOT), a subsidiary of the Government of Tamil Nādu. The Siruseri of today is a beehive of commerce, employing the most brilliant of minds, exporting software and
services across verticals, worldwide. By virtue of creating such value for the economy, social infrastructure has developed at break-neck speed, and Siruseri is now one of the hottest, most sought-after residential destinations for home buyers looking to invest in apartments on OMR.
Located between Navalur and Kelambakkam, Siruseri’s transformation from a quaint village into a buzzing high-technology business district is one of India’s many success stories in creating
self-sufficient ecosystems to cater to the burgeoning IT and ITES sector for the 21st century. Just drive down OMR and you’ll see a whole new Chennai unfurl in front of your eyes like never before.
From restaurants that serve world cuisine on a platter, to business class and 5-star hotels, from convention centres to resorts, from state-of-the-art medical institutions to sprawling educational
campuses, with a smattering of tall residential complexes that offer a 360-degree view of the city of the future. And to wonder that none of this existed just 15 years back!
For Chennaivaasis who graduated in the late 1990s and now currently working probably in middle management in Siruseri, the journey to-and-from office is sure a trip down memory lane. For until
the early 2000s, the Old Mahabalipuram Road was anything but a bustling IT Expressway. A two-lane road starting at Madhya Kailash, but for the shining new Tidel Park that opened in 2000, OMR had
just a handful of manufacturing industries, dotted by a few illustrious engineering colleges from Kandanchavadi to Thiruporur. The only traffic the road saw was college buses plying, like trains, ferrying
future technologists, entrepreneurs and leaders back and forth from their colleges.
One of the first corporates to set up their own campus on the OMR was Tata Consultancy Services, at Shollinganallur in 1999. Not only was it TCS’s first own building in Chennai (most IT companies were
in rental properties then) it was also India’s first fully integrated IT campus. Designed for a workforce of a thousand engineers, the building was a magnificent structure of exposed brick and concrete,
famous for its intelligent design and spatial planning. It was made famous even more being the workplace of Tabu in the cult hit Tamil movie Kandukondain Kandukondain (a faithful adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility), directed by Rajiv Menon. Infosys set up their campus a few years later close to TCS, and was followed by Cognizant (Cognizant Technology Solutions then), both in the early 2000s. Thus was laid the foundation for OMR to become one of the top IT belts in Asia. And today, Siruseri is a microcosm of this rapid urbanization.
Replete with gated communities, Siruseri is the perfect definition of work-life balance. You can give your children the best education possible, you can walk to work, you can buy all the pleasures of life
money can buy – from basic groceries to staycations at one of the hotels. Your elderly parents can live an active retired life in the company of peers, you can spend idyllic weekends in the very many
amenities that the projects offer and just watch your home investment gradually appreciate in value, year on year. Not just that, with the core of the tech population living there, you can network
and collaborate with like-minded people and create the next big thing in technology.
Beyond adeptly balancing the demand-supply curve, developers in Chennai are competing with each other to go one-up in their offerings. From developing green buildings with best practices in
water and waste management, to energy-efficient design and clear traffic orientation within their campuses, real estate companies are leveraging the talent of world-class architects and designers to
create sustainable living spaces. This bodes well for the future of not just the nation, but for us law-abiding citizens who demand values worth for our hard-earned money. Gone are the times when we had
to be worried about maintenance, water stagnation, frequent power cuts, safety or being stuck in traffic. Siruseri gives you the best that life has to offer, so you can double-down and focus on creating the
best version of yourself both career-wise and in personal life.
India is at the forefront of technology. People of Indian origin have gone on to become world leaders – from heading the largest corporations to leading first-world countries into the next decade.
With a highly-skilled, well-travelled english speaking workforce we are all set to take on world of innovation and development by the horns. What a time to be alive in!
Looking to move to Siruseri for work and reside? Wondering what kind of companies you can work for, or start your own business? Researching the kind of talent you can work with or tap into, to make
a dent in the universe? Stay tuned. We’ll explore all that and much more in our next blog.
Take care and stay safe.