Advice on CIT Colony / Alwarpet

sg402

Hello Friends,

We spent the last 2 days looking at flats in Chennai. We found a place we liked in CIT Colony that is renting for Rs. 18,000 per month for an UNfurnished 2 BHK, 2 Western Bathrooms, 3 balconies (living room / hall; bedroom; kitchen). The place is in excellent condition and is on the 4th floor in a 6 floor (working elevator) building and has plenty of sun and air. Landlord lives in a nearby building.

I really prefer to buy new basic furniture so this seemed like a good option for me. Also, it is less than 1.5 km to my office.

Can I ask the seasoned Chennai friends on this list for some advice: is the rent reasonable? I would also have to pay a Rs. 650 per month to the building association for security & maintenance and pay for my own electricity. My company will do the 10 month deposit.

Any CIT colony advice / tips / warnings, shopping areas nearby, groceries, traffic towards TTK and Radhakrishnan Roads?

I would greatly appreciate it & thank you in advance!!!

Nick-H

Let us be sure if you mean CIT colony or CIT Nagar?

CIT colony is in the angle formed by TTK Road and Radakrishnan Salai. I don;t know it well, but I'd say it would be a very nice place to live, and you probably wouldn't need the car that much. Traffic towards those two roads? you're right on top of them!

Not up to date on rents, but it sounds good to me. In fact it sounds a lot less scary than things I was hearing about Chennai rents a couple of years ago.

Plenty of sun and air is something you might find you don't really want in Chennai --- plenty of sun means plenty of heat! But it's nice to have the choice. Get mosquito screens fitted for the windows, and maybe the balcony doors too. If you are going to let the air in (not to mention the goddess of wealth, who arrives at prime mossie time in the evening ) you don't want the other visitors that come with it.

Sounds lovely to me

rbbm

SG-my husband and I just moved to Chennai from sunny Cali for a year and as I just found out we're apparently living in CIT colony (and we thought it was Mylapore). The area is great-very clean and quiet. Your rent sounds great-we're at 40K plus 3K for the association (I think we got suckered-but then we do have air conditioneres installed in 4 rooms). So you sound like you have a great deal. Just make sure there's a security guard in your building if security is a biggie for you. Grocery stores are walking distance in this neighborhood so you should be all set.
And oh-welcome!

Nick-H

Yes, it could be said to be in Mylapore; no contradiction there!

sg402

Wow -- thanks for all that advice. Yes, Nick, you are absolutely correct, it is CIT Colony and not Nagar. But I do understand that it is often mistaken.

An auto rickshaw took me to CIT Nagar and insisted it was the same as colony and believe it or not, I was momentarily confused. However, the 2 neighborhoods are quite different. And I was relieved when I turned out to be correct. CIT Colony has impressed me with how green, leafy and peacefully quiet the residential streets are. The private homes are beautiful. Yet, a few blocks down and you are on some major & busy, as Nick said, roads with shops all around. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Nick, I've read SO many IndiaMike posts by now. Thanks for all the useful advice you put up for everyone. It really makes a big difference in moving to this city & feeling informed as you go about setting up.

RBBM, your place must be lovely..wow, 4 ACs will be great come the warm weather! Yes, I looked at a lot of places that were 2 BHK's, 2 baths, balconies, but once they included AC's they fell into the 25-30K range. And if they were furnished (I hate to sound so picky, but the furniture was not pretty. Sometimes it didn't look clean, either.) it would be another extra 5 to 8 K a month. Since I will be in Chennai for a year or two, it made much more sense to buy basic furniture, new AC for the bedroom and basic appliances.

So far, furniture and appliances have not been outrageously expensive.

RBBM, do you know if there is a park or a gym nearby? I think I'm in the same neighborhood as you. I'm told it is the border of Alwarpet and Mylapore. And where do you do your grocery shopping / marketing? Any fun things to do nearby? Have you had any electric outages or water issues?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Nick-H

Hey, thanks . People did the same for me when I was moving here.

Park: Nageswara Rao Park, which is the other side of Luz Church Road, to the South of CIT colony.

Shop: Nilgiris have a good supermarket on Radakrishnan Salai. To the East of your district is Vivekananda College, with Siva Swamy Road on the other side of it. Nilgiris is on the corner of Sivaswamy Road and RK Salai --- just at the end of the flyover. Axis bank is opposite.

If you have trouble with drivers, ask for Mylapore CIT Colony.

rbbm

SG-let me know how I can contact you via email to answer your questions.

IM has been a blessing for me so I intend to return the favor to a newbie (although I've just been here a month!).

sg402

RBBM,

I was about to ask you for your information as well as I think we are both transplants and you are relatively nearby. You can email me at: sg402 (at the rate of) yahoo.com

Trying to avoid automatic spam, don't know if that will work or not.

Would be fun to meet up for coffee & to explore the area. Possibly before the next IM meet-up.

Thanks!

Nick-H

Hope this doesn't sound like trying to impose on anyone's personal freedom --- but remember that information that you share on the forum is helpful to all, even those that come in the future, and it is often the smallest details, stuff that would be an insignificant part of life "back home" that are most useful to newcomers.

It was googling for stuff like that, when I was about to move here, that brought me to the site

casacullen

Alwarpet is a lovely area of Chennai. I live near Mylapore and I wish we had the same quiet, tree-lined streets. There is a great coffeehouse/boutique/book store called Anokhi on Chamiers Road in Alwarpet, and a grocery store called Amma Naana that is expensive, but has lots of imported goods if you are craving a taste of home! (Usually I shop at Nilgiri's, though). I am also a recent transplant here from the US - 2 months in Chennai now - and would love to meet sometime.

ISN

The rent for that area is good, and since you are on the 4th floor you might not have to deal with mosquitos. Negotiate for an AC in the bedroom. My wife and kids moved to Alwarpet in June from Minnesota and I will be moving during December, I should organize a Christmas IM meetup. . Feel free to post any questions about Chennai, there are lots of people in Indiamike to help and there is always Mike he is the Guru of Chennai. Once you move in to your apartment get a Gas connection check out this thread *venting mode* how does one get a gas cylinder?

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Indian Students Network http://www.IndianStudentsNetwork.com

sg402

I've now been in my flat for a complete week & I love this neighborhood! It is so picturesque, green & peaceful. Yet a few blocks away there are major shopping areas, music academies, shopping malls, etc.

Some of the things that newbies like me might appreciate knowing is that during your move, if you are ordering furniture or getting things (AC!!) installed -- expect to be at home at all odd hours as deliveries are rarely made when they are promised to be made...! I've been at my wit's end about this. Also, be wary about delivery people who demand huge tips for deliveries that are supposedly free. I found myself handing over Rs. 300 (!) to a man who delivered a refrigerator and completely argued with me about the 100 Rs. tip I was giving him, then realized my mistake when the furniture deliver men requested only 200 Rs. for delivering multiple pieces of very heavy furniture...ugh. I'm not complaining about a few bucks here and there -- but this was not fair, which bothered me. I ordered my stuff from Sathya furniture which has been great, fairly inexpensive pieces. Also, someone recommended the 'Home Centre' on TTK Rd in Alwarpet...nice stuff, but out of my budget. Finally, look around Craig's list, Facebook, etc -- I've gotten my bed and a few other pieces for free from expats who were moving away and kindly donated their items. Finally, I bought a mirror and a lamp at FabIndia -- pretty things, but again, a bit too pricey for extensive shopping.

sg402

ISN,
Thanks for the tip to order gas, have to do that & soon.

Anyone have any tips of what to do for water? Buy a filtration system or order bubble tops / 20 L cans?

Nick-H

Please remember that tips are optional. You don't have to pay anything at all, and Rs100 even is rather a lot unless the guy has trudged up and down stairs and assembled stuff for you. If the company said delivery was included, that's it. If the delivery man doesn't like it, well tough, and you're probably never going to see him again anyway, so his reaction doesn't really matter to you.

Having said that, I suspect I might have given Rs100 for those multiple pieces of heavy furniture, and I suspect my wife would have told me, afterwards, that I should only have given 50!

I'm not mean about tipping, but demands like that bring out the meanness in me, and if any delivery man asked me for 300 he'd be sent away with nothing. Do not let them do it to you.

It's usually to give the gas guy Rs20 per cylinder. I used to give the water boy Rs5 per can --- and my wife used to say, "we usually don't tip the water boy" Now we have a filter.

Filter or buy: If budget is no problem, get a purification unit with Reverse Osmosis, or even RO plus Ultra Violet. That way, you know where your water comes from. The stuff you buy will have been produced by a scaled-up version of the same machine; using your own, you know its service history. But, while you shop around for this, obviously you'll need to buy cans.

Glad you are settling in happily

ISN

Since you are staying for a short amount of time a bubble top will be good, if you decide to buy bubble top then use kinley water its from coca cola, Just Dial is a free directory service provided in Chennai, if you call 6999-9999 and ask for any information they will send you an instant SMS.