Greams Road, Chennai - 600006
Greams Road Chennai is one of the famous roads for commercial developments in Chennai. It starts from the junction of Pantheon Road and College Road of Chennai and runs till Anna Salai. Greams Road, Chennai has the pin code of 600 006.
Greams Road has become popular because of the Fruit Shop that was started in small scale in this road and famous for unadulterated quality fruit fresh juices of the shop. The Fruit Shop at Greams Road is the head quarters with branches in various parts of Chennai City and an International branch in Dubai.
Popular Offices, Restaurants, Corporations in Greams Road Chennai
? The Famous Fruit Shop of Greams Road
? MRF
? Apollo Hospitals
? Polaris Software Laboratory Limited
? The Famous Good Shepherd Convent school of Chennai
? The Little Flower Sheltered School for special kids
? Regional Passport Office located nearer to Greams Road in the Haddows Road.
? Many small scales IT companies like Millennium Infotech, Micro Smart
Information Tech, Crystal Software Limited are located in Greams Road
Chennai.
? School of Audio Engineering Technology college
? Many small Computer Institutes are located in Greams Road Chennai.
? RR office Equipment Pvt Limited
? Back Office Xtensions
? Ricoh India Limited
? Restaurants like Gallopin Gooseberry Restaurant, New Neela Bhavan,
Dosa Diner, Sindhoori Restaurant, MovenPick are located in Greams Road
Chennai.
? Annamalai university Computer Training Center
? Apollo College of Nursing
? D5 Studios
? Accel BPO Pvt Limited
? National oxygen Limited
? Lotte India Corporation
? Financial institutions like State Bank of India Branch, IDBI Bank Branch are located in Greams Road Chennai.
? Apparao Galleries
Local Discussion BoardImportant Places
A Chennai road goes the Bengali way
DOWN the road from the Fruit Shop on Greams Road is the New Bengal Mess, which caters to an entirely different clientele from the yuppies who haunt the former. On the quiet, a small stretch of the road, right in the centre of the city has changed its flavour.
And it has gone the Bengali way. One can hear Bengali being spoken, get a Kolkata paan and even meal which is just so. The shops signs in Bengali advertise paan, van tours to temple towns in the South and the numerous STD booths.
One of the main reasons for the language shift is to cater to the relatives of patients who come to Apollo Hospital. The hospital has been attracting a large number of patients from other States over the years. A hospital spokesman said that there were a large number of patients from Bengal. For instance, in June this year 2330 patients were from West Bengal and the number of patients from that State accounts for almost 30 to 35 per cent of the total number of patients who come to the hospital each month for treatment.
Like other Indians, almost all patients are accompanied by an entourage of family members who want to stay close by. Along the road there are also some boarding places, which cater to this rather specialised clientele. At one of them all the rooms available were double rooms and the rates vary from Rs 125 to Rs 190 per day. The monthly rent ranges from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000. There is a common kitchen where food can be prepared. In another boarding house that caters to the Bengali clientele air-conditioned rooms are available for rent at Rs 600 per day.
Most of the people who come along with the patient spend their time in the hospital's lounge and corridors waiting for some news and helping out with various chores.
While this part of Greams Road has undergone a change, Khader Nawaz Khan Road, which links this road with Nungambakkam, has become a high street hosting a number of boutiques, designer stores, art galleries, gyms, a cafe and a deli. From being a quiet upmarket neighbourhood, with large garden houses, the entire character of the street has undergone a transformation.
The kind of the shopping available on this road is different from other parts of Chennai, says an interior decorator. Mr Vikram Phadke and Mr Atul Malhotra of Evoluzione.design said that when they were looking out for space in Chennai, Khader Nawaz Khan road fitted the bill as in the past five years it has evolved into the premier commercial destination in Chennai.
It draws people with varied interests and from different disciplines, said one retailer. For instance the specialty shops like Studio Loo, which showcases bathroom fittings, and Evoluzione design.living, a store focussing on interiors and lighting, would be interesting to interior decorators and designers. The sartorially elegant can have their pick from boutiques which range from Satya Paul, Cotton World and Wills Lifestyle, said another retailer.
Says Mr Manu Reddy, Director, Food Alliance, the company than owns restaurant brands such as Cascade and the deli Marmalade, being on Khader Nawaz Khan Road suits Marmalade.
He said that a deli like Marmalade has a product mix that requires a special ambience. "We find that on Khader Nawaz Khan Road the neighbours complement each other. There are a lot of women driving up and down the road shopping. They stop and pick up pastries and bread from Marmalade. The hassle free parking space is an added advantage."
The area has gained in importance as a high street with a number of IT and ITES moving into the neighbourhood, early this year. According to Cushman Wakefield, a number of IT companies such as HCL, IT Solutions and I Soft have leased office space in the vicinity. Retailers in this area feel that the trickle down effect would benefit them.
Touching Lives' is the tag line attached to the first corporate hospital established in India. It was an attempt at providing specialised health service in the cardiac sector of medicine that brought about the rise of the Apollo Hospitals. On September 12, 1983, the Hospital was conceptualised and brought to life on Greams Road, Chennai by Chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy. At that time, it had only 150 beds. Today, as one walks down the same Greams Lane, the presence of Bengali signboards indicating eateries and lodging is inescapable. CEO George Eapen attributes them to the fact that South India has traditionally been a hub for healthcare. As a result, since the early days Apollo Hospitals had witnessed an influx of patients from the North of India, especially from the North East of India where good medical attention had been lacking. "Till today that loyalty and faith in the Apollo hospital down here in Chennai still remains though we have a presence in Kolkata," says Eapen.
"With the kind of resources and the services that Apollo provides, we have no competitors"
- George Eapen
CEO, Apollo Hospitals
Today, the renowned super speciality healthcare unit has a bed strength of 610 with 263 doctors, 998 personnel nursing staff, nearly 70 to 75 surgeries a day including 10 surgeries for cardiac ailments.
The Hospital has pioneered many revolutionary procedures and technologies such as Total Knee Replacement, Birmingham Hip Resurfacing Procedure, liver, multi-organ and cord blood transplants, Coronary Angioplasty and Stereotactic Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery. It was the first to perform liver, multi-organ and cord blood transplants in India.
"I have no competitors," says Eapen, when asked to comment on the rising competition. "With the kind of resources we have and the services that Apollo provides, it is impossible for others to catch up with us," says he.
Apollo has been trying to tap this potential and influence the travellers' choice through its reputation in medical excellence. "Although we never gave it serious thought during our early days, today it has a major influence on our revenue.
Nearly 10 per cent of our patients, every year, have been from the West alone, leaving apart those from the Middle East and south Asia, at the Chennai hospital," says Eapen.
The Hospital is one of the only four in India to be given accreditation by the Joint Commission International. The Hospital is also considered to be a National Reference Centre in medicine.
The Growth
With a Rs 205 crore revenue for the year 2006-07 alone, a 66 per cent growth in net profit, translating into Rs 1,002 million for the year 2007 as compared to Rs 602 million for the year 2006, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited (AHEL) is growing fast. The company's net profit for the quarter that ended on March 31 stood at Rs 147 million compared to the same quarter last year that was Rs 124 million. A noteworthy achievement for the company is its top-line growth of 25 per cent at Rs 899.5 crore as against Rs 719 crore during financial year 2005-06.
The Asan Memorial Senior Secondary School was started in the year 1966. It is the first CBSE School in Chennai, India and one of the largest in the country. The cherished objective of the school is to equip young boys and girls with knowledge, in all subjects perfected with character and true sense of human values. The school is located in the heart of the city at Nungambakkam on Anderson Road. It is situated on a 3 acres plot with a built up area of more than 1 lakh sq.feet. The school has well equipped labs for physics, chemistry, and biology. It has a large, modern computer lab with pentium based systems and is the first school in Chennai to introduce multimedia facilities for the primary, middle and secondary school sections.
The school has a well stocked, spacious library with nearly 50,000 volumes of books and several periodicals and magazines. It has an impressive and well furnished auditorium with a seating capacity of more than 600 and a large play-ground with facilities for football, volley-ball, basket ball and other sports and games.
The Fruitshop on Greams Road is something that most of us people from Chennai are in love with. A juice shop that sells only fresh, unadulterated juices and also has a drive in facility is certainly a unique concept, at least in India. The prices are a tad bit over the top, but it?s defiantly worth it because the quality is assured. I generally have a pineapple juice without ice for my dinner! I also like the Jughead Special, which is an ice-cream based drink and the Sheik Shake which is a date milkshake. The Fruit Shop on Greams Road gets its name from its first branch that was located on Greams Road, but now they have plenty of branches; Greams Road, Harleys Road Kilpauk, Besant Nagar, Spencer Plaza, Nungambakam, Meenambakam and East Cost Road are the ones that I am aware of and have visited. But the one I frequent is the one on Harleys Road mainly because the location is convenient and the service is extraordinary. Hats off to the boys there. Another added advantage is the fact that my hairdresser is on the floor above it and I like to have a nice head massage along with a Lemon Mint Cooler, generally referred to as the LMC! I hear they are opening a branch in Dubai sometime this month, maybe Chuckeroon or DBluey from the Dubai Daily Photo could get us a picture of the Fruit Shop on Greams Road in Dubai?
Thousand Lights Mosque is a well-known worship place for the Muslims in the Chennai city of Tamil Nadu. It is situated at the Anna Salai Road in the city. The mosque is popular for a number of reasons, such as its name, its architecture and its historical and religious importance. In early 19th century, the place where the mosque presently stands used to be the assembly place of the Shiite Muslims, during the month of Muharram. Later, the assembly hall was built, following which the mosque was constructed.
The total area of the land, which was donated by Nawab Wallajah, occupied by the Thousand Lights Mosque is 3 acres. There is an interesting story behind the name of the mosque. It is said that 1000 lamps needed to be lit in order to illuminate the assembly hall. From this, it derived its name, Thousands Lights Mosque. However, there are others, who are of the belief that the lights were provided by the Indian National Congress to mark their first visit to the city of Madras. The mosque is a medieval architectural style building.
It has an exhilarating structure, with multi domes and spearing minarets. The average height of the minarets is around 64 feet above the ground. Besides, the mosque is adorned with the quotes from the holy book of Muslims, the Quran. There is a main hall at the ground floor to offer prayers for men, while there is a separate room for women. There are two rooms on the second floor which are known as Bargah and represent the sanctuary. Thousand Lights Mosque holds great importance for the Shiite Muslims and is a pilgrimage site for them.
If you'd left Chennai a year ago and were returning to the city now, you are sure to find a world of difference in the attire of the city's youth. Gone are the days when semi-casuals were in fashion. Now is the time of printed wear, better known as 'beach wear', track bottoms, sleeveless tops...the list goes on. When we met Mr. Rajesh of Cool club, Greams Road, he had a lot to say regarding the styles prevalent in Chennai.
'Cool Club' is a garment store (opened in November '99) with clothes catering to the needs of the youth. While talking about the reason for a change in the wardrobe market, he said, "Today's youth are aware of what's new in the world market. So we make it a point to identify their needs and satisfy them. These days, boys prefer semi casuals, regulars, T-shirts, while girls are for anything that suits the weather and is comfortable
When asked how they adapt themselves to the changing tastes of the consumer, he said that to survive in the market they have to constantly update their designer wear with innovative stuff. He emphasized on selling goods at a reasonable price. "Today's youth want to do justice to their expenditure. Hence, we ensure that we sell quality goods at a reasonable price. These days parents are also concerned about the appearances of their wards, so they don't mind spending a good amount on clothes."
When asked whether the mushrooming of several garment stores had affected them, Mr. Rajesh answered cheerfully, "We always appreciate healthy competition; it is competition that helps us to improve and develop our business."
