Ambattur Industrial Estate has attracted a lot of IT companies due to its proximity to residential neighborhoods and the lower rentals. The lease rentals of IT Parks in Ambattur are half of those in the city. Information Technology (IT) companies such as MilesTs, HCL Technologies, Dell and Tata Consultancy Services have their development centres here. Out of the 22 facilities that HCL Technologies has in Chennai, six are in Ambattur. There are also a few BPO centres such as Perot Systems. Prince Info Park, Ambit Park, India Land Properties are some of the major IT parks in Ambattur. Chennai Tech Park, a 2,400,000 sq ft (220,000 m2), state-of-the-art, futuristic IT park, on 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land is commissioned since 2009. Royal Bank of Scotland a renowned UK Bank has stated its IT operations in India Land tech park. As a remarkable mile stone, CMA CGM, world’s 3rd largest liner started their documentation centre along with Regional eCommerce Team in AMBIT park.
The Chennai Central-Arakkonam railway line passes through Ambattur and has two railway stations in the neighourhood. Ambattur railway station serves the residential areas and Pattaravakkam railway station serves the Ambattur Industrial Estate area. Suburban Broad Gauge EMU trains operate daily from Chennai Central and Chennai Beach to Avadi, Tiruvallur, Patabiram Military Siding, Arakkonam and Tiruttani via Ambattur. By rail, Ambattur is 30 minutes from Chennai Central, 20 minutes from Perambur and 10 minutes from Villivakkam. Many fast EMU locals (suburban trains) towards Tiruvallur, Arakkonam and Tiruttani, stop at Ambattur railway station, but fast local trains towards Chennai central do not halt at Ambattur. By fast local train it takes 25 minutes from Chennai Central. There has been a long pending request of a Passenger Reservation Centre at Ambattur. The phase-2 of Chennai monorail will pass through Ambattur (proposed stations-Ambattur O.T.,Pudur).
The oldest school in Ambattur is the Sri Mahaganesa Vidhyasala; Other schools are Ebenezer Marcus Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Ebenezer Marcus International School & Junior College (CBSE), Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar Higher Secondary School—a Govt.-aided higher secondary school, G.K Shetty Vivekananda Vidyalaya junior college(founded in 1979 and celebrated silver jubilee in the year 2005, affiliated to CBSE), T.I Matriculation Higher Secondary School, (both run by AMM Foundation), Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Government Girls Higher Secondary School, T.V.Nagar High School, Hussain Memorial Mat.Hr.Sec.school, Sethu Bhaskara Matriculation Higher Secondary School (located in Pudur), Velammal Matriculation Hr. Sec. School (in Surapet), St.Joseph Matriculation HSS, Lake View Matriculation school (in Pudur), Emmanuel Methodist MHSS (in Pudur), Divine Matriculation School and Sharon Matriculation School (in Pudur).
Companies like Britannia, TI Cycles of India, Dunlop, and TVS have their plants in Ambattur. VSNL-Tata Communication has its satellite earth station at the Ambattur–Red Hills road, known as wireless among the locals. Jaya TV, Vijay TV, Asianet and Kairali relay signals from this facility. The Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF), which manufactures military tanks, is just 5 km from this place, adding to its importance. A railway concrete sleeper manufacturing company is located near the Ambattur railway station. Textile industries such as Ambattur Clothing Limited (ACL) and Bombay Fashions have their facilities here and employ thousands of women. The units in the Industrial Estate generate a combined annual revenue of over 35,000 million.
Ambattur is a town in the Ambattur taluk of the Thiruvallur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ambattur is a part of Chennai Corporation. Closer to Anna Nagar, Padi and Avadi, Ambattur is a fast developing residential locality and IT hub of Chennai. It covers an area of 45 km². The neighbourhood is served by Ambattur railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway.Ambattur has its origins in a village of the same name which can be located at present as areas oppsite to Ambattur telephone exchange. Ambattur was a village with large extents of agricultural farm lands irrigated by sprawling Ambattur lake. Ambattur started its journey from a quite village to busy city after Ambattur industrial estate was set up in the year 1964.
Ambattur comes under the Chennai North parliamentary constituency. It was previously under the North Chennai parliamentary constituency and along with Villivakkam, it was the largest assembly constituency in India. The delimitation process of assembly constituencies had given Ambattur a new identity of its own. Constituency no : 8, Tamil Nadu. Once a major panchayat, Ambattur was made a township in the 1960s and a selection grade municipality from April 1975. In May 1992, it was raised to special grade municipality. It was a municipality till October 2011. It had been divided into 52 wards. Ambattur Municipality included Padi, Korattur, Anna Nagar Western Extension, Mogappair and the Ambattur Industrial Estate areas.
The Ambattur Industrial Estate, spread over an area of 1,430 acres (4.9 km²), houses about 1,800 units and is the biggest small scale industrial estate in South Asia. It was commissioned in the year 1964 by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Several factors such as suitability of the soil, communication facilities, availability of raw materials, a large volume of ground water suitable for industrial and domestic purposes, and the like were responsible for seeking this place for the setting up of an industrial estate. An area of 4 km² adjoining the industrial estate was acquired by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board for housing purposes.
Many major electronics, mobile and textile retail chains have their branches at Ambattur. Single-brand exclusive showrooms include Sathya Electronics in Ambattur O.T (Opp to Stedford Hospital), Sony India, Samsung (near Ambattur Estate bus terminus), Adidas (Redhills Road) Watch Square and Titan Eye+. Popular multi-branded showrooms include Viveks(near Ambattur Estate Bus Terminus), Next, Univercell, Sangeetha Mobiles, Poorvika Mobiles, Challenger Computers, Modern Computers, JFA Furnitures, Naidu Hall, Vision Express, Purple Optics, Reliance digitals, Reliance trends, Maxx and Mode.
The Ambattur bus terminus is located adjacent to the MTH Road and has MTC (city buses) connecting Ambattur with various points in Chennai city. Ambattur does not have a proper bus terminus despite being one of the biggest localities of Chennai. A lot of buses from Avadi and the outskirts of Chennai also pass through Ambattur, offering good connectivity. There are also a few buses operating to Nagercoil, Madurai and other parts of Tamil Nadu from here. Buses to the famous pilgrim center of Tirupathi can also be availed from Ambattur.
As of 2011 Census of India, Ambattur had a population of 478,134. Males population is 241,181 which constitutes 50.44% of the population and females population is 236,953 which constitutes 49.55% of the population. Average literacy rate of Ambattur city is 92.69 percent of which male and female literacy was 95.71 and 89.62 percent. 9.64% of the population is under 6 years of age. The sex ratio of Ambattur city is 982 per 1000 males. Child sex ratio of girls is 960 per 1000 boys.
Ambattur has a few notable Departmental Stores. They are: Nilgiris Departmental Store on Redhills Road(Opp. to Naidu Hall), Ponnu Super Market on Redhills Road, Farm Bazaar and Rajan Super Market in North Park Street, Golden Fancy & Super Market, Reliance Fresh in North Park Street, Shopping Singapore and Sekar Stores(in MTH Road), B.S.V supermarket,(near Canara Bank), Raja Stores Super Market at Pudur, Palani stores at vinayagapuram
The Chennai-Tiruvallur High Road (CTH Road or NH205) passes through Ambattur and the Chennai-Kolkata highway is just about 7 km from the place making it a strategic location. On an average, about 40,000 passenger car units use the CTH Road. The new Chennai Bypass road between Maduravoyal and Madhavaram passes through Ambattur Industrial Estate. It connects NH4 with NH5 and NH205 via Ambattur Industrial Estate.
Ambattur has two main waterbodies, namely the Ambattur Eri and the Chithu Oragadam Lake and the bigger Puzhal eri on the outskirts. The upkeep of the Ambattur Eri is plagued by problems such as dumping of garbage, water mining and construction of buildings and the Chithu Oragadam (Thangal) Eri suffers due to pollution by sewage. The local body generates nearly 250 tonnes of garbage daily.
Rakki Cinemas (multiplex Complex) near Ambattur O.T. Sri Murugan near the Ambattur railway station . Kannan Theatre near senthil nagar was closed and being converted to Dolphin Sports Acadamy. The park in Krishnapuram is used by many people and walkers for pastime and fitness respectively; this has been recently renovated.(Oct. 2009). Thangal lake park near anjalamaram.
The Branch Library, as it is now called, was opened in May 1971 by the then Minister of Education and Local Administration V. R. Nedunchezhiyan; it was earlier known as Murugappa Library, as the building it is housed in belongs to the A.M.M. Charities Trust. The library is situated near P.K. Govt. Girls Hr.Sec.School.where they provide books to all members.
Velammal Engineering College is located about 5 km from Ambattur at Surapet on the Ambattur-Red Hills road. Annai Violet College of Arts and Science at Menambedu, Soka Ikeda College of Arts and Science for Women at Madhanankuppam, Benson College of Hotel Management and Culinary Arts at Ambattur are some of the other colleges in Ambattur.
This place is one of 108 Shakthi Sthals in the country. The Amman (Durga) temple here is 51st in the order and therefore this place was called “aimbaththu Oram ur’ (???????? ??????? ???), meaning 51st place/Temple village in Tamil, which later transmuted as Ambattur. The Goddess is worshiped in the form of Vaishnavi.
However, the demand for commercial space in Ambattur is not as robust as Rajiv Gandhi Salai which is marketed extensively by the government. While IT and ITeS firms in Ambattur have brought in a new image to the industrial belt that has been known for its garment and auto-ancillary units, it has increased the real estate prices.
There are many temples dedicated to various Gods in Ambattur.Then Thiruppathi at Lenin Nagar, Ayyapan Temple (Kallikuppan), Gangai Amman Temple (Cholapuram), Selva Vinayagar Temple (Sathyapuram), Sakthi Vinayar Temple (T.V.Nagar), Muthu Marriyamman Temple (Ambattur O.T), There are several churches and mosques here in Ambattur.
Venkatapuram, Vijayalaksmipuram, Vinayagapuram, Kallikuppam, Ramnagar, Menambedu, Karukku, Prithivipakkam, Gnanamurthy Nagar, Vijayalaksmipuram, Pudur, Krishnapuram, Thiruvengada Nagar, Venkateswara Nagar, Sathyapuram, Cholapuram, Oragadam, Venkaeshwara nagar, Banu Nagar, Lenin nagar, Abiramipuram, Thirumalai priya nagar.