Chennai: Where to live? Jobs? Mahabalipuram/Oragadam?

Hi,
My husband will work for Delphi TVS. Could you please tell us where it is the best to live ? not too far from his work.
Many thanks
laurie

Laurie, welcome to the site. You'll find heaps of useful information about Chennai here --- it seems to be a very popular ex-pat working destination just now. We'll also be interested in your experiences as you settle in.

We need more information: I think Chennai is about as big as London (I've never quite got the comparison straight, despite having lived in both places) with many outlying nearby towns too.

A quick google for Delphi TVS suggests that they might be in Sriperumbadur. Can you confirm this, or give the locality.

If that is the case, it is off my map, and way off my known areas (limited ) but hopefully others can help. Wikimapia might be useful to give you an idea of locations and distances.

If you want to live closer to the city, rather than closer to the job (other considerations? any children to educate?) I'd guess that, depending on how good the deal your husband is getting from his company, then a rather nice house by the sea somewhere on The East Coast Road might be possible.

Thank you so much for your reply!
Yes it is Sriperumbadur. It is scary as we have never been in India before but it will be a amazing experience.
I would like to live somewhere nice ! I hope to find a job too.
My husband would like to live not too far from the company because of the traffic...
By the way we are french and we arrived in the Kent (uk) nearly 5 years ago
thank you again for your help

Laurie,I think u should look for a place in Anna Nagar.
Where do the Delphi expats generally stay?
Or the Nokia ones(they also work at Sriperumbudur).. ?

Some very nice places in that area: much nicer than addresses like "G Block 2nd Street" (I made that up but it is typical) might suggest.

many thanks again for your posts. How far Anna nagar is it from delphi ? I suppose the traffic is terrible ?
I would like to be able to work to if I can find something
have a lovely

Hey Laurie,
If your husbands working for delphi in Sriperembatur, then Anna Nagar or even Koyembedu would be great from him. Anna Nagar would be about 20 kilometers, Koyembedu would be about 18. travel time would be about 30-40 minutes depending on where in anna nagar. But if you would want to be out most of the time, id reccomend something like kilpauk or egmore. 20 minutes more for your husband to work, but your right in the heart of the city.

As for the traffic, its bad, but its primaraly because the road to SriPerambatur ( just a small stretch called poonamale ) is srill incomplete. But that work is progressing fast, and should be okay in a few months. Traffic within the city however is always congested, except for sunday mornings

That's Chennai!

Anna Nagar is leafy suburbs; Egmore is pretty central.

I'd advise you to get a good map of the city, so you can start getting a feel for where these places are --- otherwise its just people saying names. In the meantime, wikimapia, googleEarth, andmapmyindia.com are very useful.

Laurie

There is an Overseas Womens Club here. I am also new to Chennai and have met some of the ladies. If you would like to get information from them, I can try to get you an e-mail address. As a new 'expat' here in Chennai, it would be very useful for you to have contact with another expat. I do not know how willing they would be to help, but I can try.

In connection with working here, I would suggest that you do your homework on getting a work permit.

Cheers

Another thought - an apartment was chosen for me before I arrived here. I would not have chosen it. I would advise you to stay in a hotel when you arrive here and then look for housing with the help of you husband's company administrator. The standards here are very different to the UK. eg most homes do not have cookers as we know them as not many people use ovens here. The stoves are like camping stoves but with 4 burners. You can send me a private message if you wish.

I would suggest Chetpet or Kilpauk or Anna nagar ..being born and bred in Chennai, I live off Poonmalle High road between Kilpauk and Egmore and my brother studied in Sriperumbudur.It used to take us a good 45 mins - 1 hour in peak traffic time to get there ..

I would suggest roads like Taylors Road or if you want Annanagar, look at Annanagar East or blocks like AD, AE, AJ

Chennai is a lovely city and Im sure you will enjoy staying there . I miss it mostly everyday, ever since I shifted

Woops! Posted in wrong thread

many thanks for you post.
Yes I would be interested in sending you a private message. Can I do that on the forum ? could not find the link
have a lovely day
laurie

You are right Nick..its Poonamallee High Road and its one of the key arteries of Chennai and the route to go to Bangalore from Chennai ..

Also one of my favourite place names. It just rolls off the tongue, sounding like a name from a poem I might have heard as a child.

Passed through it once, and stopped for tea in the hours of the night. The impression I had was a place that a lot of lorry drivers were doing the same. Not very romantic!

That's Poonamallee. My impression of Poonamallee High Road, in Chennai, is of a very main road (as Backpacker says, a main arterial route for the North of the City). Very much shops and very much traffic. Interesting road; lots of life!

Yes..it connects one end of Chennai with another..actually starts somewhere near Parry's , I think and it ends in the town Poonamallee which is on the road leading to Bangalore ..One end of the road is pretty upmarket ..Egmore, Kilpauk, Chetpet , Annanagar , Aminjikarai are some suburbs that are linked to this road .