Sunday, October 10, 2010

DAY 8 - In Chennai

Friends,
A businessman friend of mine wanted me to check out the prospects offered by the 6000 acre SriCity development at Tada on the Tamil Nadu – Andhra Pradesh border. The industrial development in TN has seen an explosion of heavy vehicle movement on the roads, be it project cargo, input material or finished products. This puts a lot of strain on even the 4 and 6 lane roads, since many of them still pass through densely populated ‘village towns’.
The SriCity property is less than 5 kms from the border on the AP side. It is a very interesting business model, which combines 3000 acres of Special Economic Zone, 2000 acres of Domestic Tariff Zone and 1000 acres of Free Trade Warehousing Zone. The entire property has been mapped out for complete development in the next 5 years. Presently, less than a dozen units function in the SriCity.
During the visit to the SriCity I got a call from Indus Motor saying that the suspension and the wheel bearings of the car have no problem – all the panic of the previous days subsided. They identified the poor condition of the tyres as the reason for the unusual sound; they changed the tyres and found that the car ‘behaved’. They asked me to change one of the horns that was malfunctioning. I collected the car after paying Rs. 513 for the repairs – a huge relief from the Rs. 20,000 estimate given by the garage I had initially taken the car to! I took the car to a friends’ shop to change the balloon tyres that were fitted in the car. The 4 rims and the tyres were changed – this should last me for the rest of the journey, hopefully.
Pius Dominic was a pioneer in the Kerala Food specialties sphere in Chennai. His ‘Kayal’ restaurant in Anna Nagar was a huge hit with the locals and it promoted similar ventures in Chennai. A Chennai visit was incomplete without an outing to ‘Kayal’.  In late August this year he relocated ‘Kayal’ to Perungudi. The business has been picking up steadily and the IT companies in the neighborhood will ensure its success. Pius typically starts his day at 6 am and winds up close to midnight, every day of the week. He is very choosy about the fish, the meat and every other ingredient that enters his premises so that there is consistency in the food that he serves to his clientele. Besides the food, which is excellent, a novel feature he is experimenting with is live music by Manu. The boy is so incredibly talented that I wish he is spotted by film persona looking for newcomers. I am sure his day will come. His mellifluous rendering of some old and new hits and the incredibly tasty food made me eat more than I should have. I strongly recommend ‘Kayal’ at Perungudi to the gourmets.

1 comment:

  1. So what tyre did you finally put? and U changed the rims to what????

    ReplyDelete

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