The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Far from madding crowd, they make a beeline for Mudichur

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Thursday, Aug 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Far from madding crowd, they make a beeline for Mudichur

K. Manikandan

Land investors’ take on the panchayat is that it has all better amenities

Photo: K.Manikandan

Picture perfect: A view of Madanapuram in Mudichur. —

TAMBARAM: With copious fresh water and clean air, Mudichur near Tambaram is becoming a preferred destination for those planning to invest in realty and get away from the dusty and congested roads of the city.

Located at a distance of about five km from Tambaram, Mudichur village panchayat is part of the St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union and its level of amenities is relatively better, compared to many other rural local bodies in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

Madanapuram, Habibullah Nagar, Lakshmi Nagar, Senthil Nagar and A.N. Colony, among other new residential localities that have sprung up, are examples of real estate development in Mudichur over the past decade. Like other villages in the city’s fringes where houses have come up on farmland, Mudichur too had to lose a large chunk of cultivable land, though agriculture is still carried out in small patches.

The rural local body’s administration has been laying stress on clean and neat surroundings for a long time and it was also presented an award by the Central government some years ago. It has implemented a solid waste management scheme in partnership with private and voluntary agencies as part of its efforts to achieve a zero waste town status. Staff in the panchayat office said the mere reputation that Mudichur enjoyed as being among the clean localities did not draw people here, but it was an added asset.

Good connectivity

The Mudichur Main Road connects the Grand Southern Trunk Road at Tambaram with Mannivakkam on the Vandalur - Wallajahbad Road and there are plenty of bus services that ensure connectivity. Its proximity to Tambaram has been the single most important reason for new settlers to come to Mudichur, the staff said.

Builders said that some decades ago, most of the real estate activity was restricted till West Tambaram. It was extended to Krishna Nagar some years later. It has now spread to places further down such as Mudichur, Manimangalam and Mannivakkam. While Manilangalam was further away, Mannivakkam was not a favoured spot owing to a high crime rate. Hence Mudichur was the preferred location.

And unlike many other clusters around Tambaram, where apartment complexes were the preferred housing options, not many of them could be seen in Mudichur. They were quick to add that with soaring land price and cost of construction materials, the demand for building individual houses was on the decline.

Staff at the panchayat added that real estate activity began to boom about a decade ago, peaked three years ago and is now witnessing a slump. Builders said that a problem house-owners in places such as Mudichur faced was the occurrence of petty crimes. With houses coming up in far-flung areas, petty offenders could strike at ease and vanish easily.

Vast open spaces that were once agricultural lands have now been converted into housing plots. A few years ago, buying housing plots was possible for salaried sections and those who made the wise decision of investing in them would be laughing all the way to the bank if they were to sell them now as the prevailing markets are nothing less than Rs. 800 a square foot anywhere in Mudichur.

The rates make it near impossible for middle class sections to purchase land that come with an inflated price tag — a trend not restricted to Mudichur but all those real estate hotspots on the city’s fringes.

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