For many years, Valsaravakkam lay just outside city limits. As if on cue, when I moved out of the locality, the area was added to the Chennai Corporation limits. That was five years ago.
Not just improved status in terms of administrative classification, but Valarasarvakkam has also been on an accelerated growth curve, in recent times — well, that is, if you equate growth with a proliferation of commercial establishments.
In this period, the locality made up for the slow growth it had been witnessing for a long time and for anyone visiting the locality after a long time, would be struck by the changes.
A diversity of lifestyle stores now line Arcot Road from Alwarthirunagar (where I used to live) to Porur.
For me, the Aavin Junction, located in Alwarthirunar, Valasaravakkam, is a powerful symbol of this transformation. Located near Megamart, this facility has come up exactly where a board stood for decades, announcing the outer limit of the Chennai Corporation.
The Aavin parlour at Valsaravakkam is part of an ambitious plan to provide the city with many hi-tech parlours, which would have free wi-fi and other trappings of modernity. Each of them will be known by the brand name — Aavin Junction — borrowed from Metrorail terminology, according to an Aavin official.
The Valasaravakkam facility is noticeably upmarket, a feature it shares with the other hi-tech parlours in the city. It is the biggest of these parlours.
The Aavin official says there are five of them, excluding the one in Anna Nagar (which was set up around ten years ago) that are sufficiently modern, which includes technological upgrades.
The facility at Valasaravakkam is the biggest of them all, and promises to be bigger than any of the other 11 hi-tech parlours that are in various stages of planning and execution.
The Valsaravakkam facility sprawls over 22,000 sq.ft, including 1,800 sq.ft of built area, the official says. It has a huge parking area, which makes it singularly striking.
Going by sales figures, this facility is a money spinner. “On Saturday and Sunday, sales worth Rs. 2 lakh is made. During the week, it is Rs. 1.5 lakh every day. On rainy days, the parlour registers sales worth Rs. 80,000,” says the Aavin official.
The other areas where Aavin Junctions are coming up include Teynampet (opposite JBAS College), Guindy, TTK Road, Anna Nagar Park Road, Velacherry and Madhavaram Milk Colony.
“The one opposite JBAS College and the one in Guindy are nearing completion. Half of the work at the facility coming up at TTK Road is complete.
