Ambattur's evolution: Once a manufacturing hub, now a data centre hotspot

In 2024, the clang of metals colliding and the scent of welding fire and chemicals greet visitors to Ambattur - a 45-minute drive from Chennai city

Whether it is Mumbai’s choked-up streets or a scenic rural village in the Northeast, for every Indian, Hercules cycles are part of their nostalgia. But not too many know that it was part of the first joint venture agreement to be signed in South India after Independence and one of the first foreign investments too.

 

By 1951, the JV resulted in the birth of the TI Cycle factory in a mango grove in Ambattur that came out with the first Hercules, and sowed the seeds of the Ambattur Industrial Estate later in 1964. 

 

Come 2024, the clang of metals colliding