Tech park

The second big IT park promoted by the Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation was the ITPC - the International Tech Park, Chennai. But very few refer to this facility by that name, preferring to address it by the name of TIDCO's partner for this venture: Ascendas. 

Covering approximately 2 million squarefeet of built up space, ITPC is located close to TIDEL Park, TIDCO's earlier venture. Unlike TIDEL, which is one building with four towers, Ascendas has three separate units: Pinnacle, Crest and Zenith. Again unlike TIDEL, the buildings of Ascendas are close to the road - which makes it feel like just another office building. It lacks the sense of awe that TIDEL invokes in a first-time visitor.

For all that, Ascendas is still a swanky address for a new-age company. At least to that extent, it has gone ahead of its bigger brother, the TIDEL Park!

Stop, rain?

Somehow, the rains this year seem to be following a different drummer. Apart from one day last week, when it poured over the city throughout the day, the rains have been behaving more like Singapore than anything else. Sharp showers, pouring down intensely for fifteen minutes, followed by bright sunshine. Makes it rather schizophrenic, at times.

But this was last week. Skies greyer than what they said and the drizzle kept at it right through. Bad enough for the motorcyclists to have to ride in the rain, but worse when they have to stop for the lights. And at the Tidel Park signal, that's a long - and wet - wait!

Old and new trees

Looking out from the MRTS coach as it runs parallel to Rajiv Gandhi Salai (earlier called Old Mahabalipuram Road), it is nice to see the recently planted saplings all in a straight line, well trimmed and providing a green border to the road. The median, while needing a little more filling out in its shrubbery, adds to the green motif.

As far as I have been able to make out, the saplings and the shrubbery are all non-native plants, even if they have been around for a while. But what caught the eye was the lonely palm a little away from the margins of the road. It is obviously not part of the planned landscaping, but one that has been on this stretch for a long while. Maybe it was left standing out of respect for its status as the state tree of Tamil Nadu!

Playful Park?

A couple of years ago, one of my friends from Delhi misunderstood where I was going to on a workday morning. He thought I was going down to a beach for the day, while I was trying to let him know I was going to be working out of the most high-tech office space in the city. For a while there was confusion, while we were trying to understand what each other was saying.

To me, that bit of conversation highlighted how much part of us the Tidel Park has become. No one in Chennai will think of anything other than IT or ITES if you say 'Tidel' to them. But I must admit, it does sound like a theme park by the Bay of Bengal, fed by the tides!

The building itself looks grand and it is quite a good start to the IT Corridor - and to think that, less than 10 years ago, it was the beginning and the end of the Corridor!