T Nagar emerging as IT & BPO centre

When one thinks of Thyagaraya Nagar ( popularly known as T Nagar), immediately the image that comes to one's mind is shopping for jewellery and clothes, but T Nagar is fast emerging as an important locality like Ambattur, Guindy for information technology and BPOs companies in Chennai.

Ramesh Nair, associate director-corporate solutions, Jones Lang LaSalle, says that the total quantum of IT and IT-enabled service office space under construction in Thyagaraya Nagar is 300,000 sq ft and the total area proposed to start in the next one year is 1,50,000 sq ft.

As a location, T Nagar offers advantages such as easy accessibility, nearness to middle income catchment areas and availability of public transportation, adds Nair.

The companies that have its presence in Thyagaraya will include SlashSupport, Thinksoft, Birla Soft, Connecticut-based Integrity Research Associate (Irevna), among others.

Slash Support has four technical support delivery centers, spread across 180,000 sq.ft. in Chennai and three of them are in T Nagar and the other one in Alwarpet.

Sandip Deb, the executive vice-president of SlashSupport, said that the company chose to have its presence in Thyagaraya Nagar.

"Unlike traditional software development companies, which work for 8-10 hours a day, our technical support business is a 24 by 7 affair. Moreover since our business is people-centric and we employ over 2000 engineers, its makes tremendous logistical sense for us to be in the heart of the city.

Most of our employees come from areas such as Anna Nagar, Adayar, Perambur, Nanganallur, Mylapore etc. and that's why we choose Thyagaraya Nagar, which can probably be also termed as the central point of Chennai, as it reduces employees commute time significantly, says Deb.

Moreover for our employees, this place means that anything is easily accessible "� transport facilities, food, shopping entertainment etc, adds Deb.

Industry observers say IT and BPO companies which require less than 2.5 lakh sq ft commercial space and which desire to have a presence in the central business district will chose Thyagaraya Nagar.

Chennai-based True Value Homes Pvt Ltd setting-up a 50,000 sq ft commercial space for IT companies is also expected to set up in T Nagar and to be called TVH Virukshaa.

The investment for TVH Virukshaa is about Rs 25 crore.

However, Nair points out that the key drawbacks of the locality are high land prices, traffic congestion and shortage of large land parcels which affects floor plate sizes required by software companies.