Perambur


Perambur is a neighbourhood in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is 4 km from Chennai Central station.
In Tamil, pirambu means bamboo and ur means city or place. Before British rule, this place was widely regarded as a place which was a bamboo forest, around the Huzur Gardens area, which currently houses the Simpsons Pvt. Ltd. This area was annexed to Chennai in 1742 AD.
Perambur is a notable railway town in the Indian Railways landscape as it is home to the Vande Bharat Express, produced at the Integral Coach Factory located here and also the presence of Chennai Rail Museum,in addition to the railway station serving to decongest the Chennai Central station by serving as a major alighting point for long distance trains passing through or terminating in the city from the North-Western end. The Perambur railway station is considered as the oldest railway station in the city after Royapuram.
During the 2015 floods when most areas of Chennai was stranded in water, Perambur was the safest place available in Chennai. The water level came down rapidly and the people had their normal life restored much faster than other places in Chennai.

Railways

Perambur is served by three railway stations: Perambur, Perambur Carriage Works and Perambur Loco Works. It is one of the earliest British settlements in Chennai, mainly because of the railway establishments during the 1850s. Perambur is noted for the largest presence of Anglo-Indians in Chennai because of the erstwhile British settlements in and around Perambur, during the construction and running of the Integral Coach Factory. The ICF is located only in Perambur with an ancillary unit in Kolkata in India. ICF, Chennai is also home to Vande Bharat Express also known as Train 18, the indigenously produced trainset of the Indian Railways. Perambur also houses the Chennai Rail Museum which has a large collection of vintage coaches, engines and a railway coach themed restaurant.
Perambur is one of the major railway hubs in Chennai because of ICF and due to express/super-fast trains stops. Perambur is the fifth largest station in Chennai in passenger volume after Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Tambaram and Mambalam.

Entertainment

Perambur has a wide range of entertainment venues such as cinemas and parks. Perambur has the first shopping mall of the north Chennai: Spectrum Mall.
It has a five-screen multiplex named S2 Cinemas which is controlled by theater franchise SPI Cinemas. Sri Brinda Theatre and Sri Shanmuga Theatre is popular among cinema lovers. Perambur has many other cinema theatres such as Ganga Cinemas in Kolathur which is just 5 km away.

Parks

Perambur has Chennai's first disco waterpark — Murasoli Maran Membala Poonga — which is crowded on weekends.

Stadium

Perambur Railway Stadium is frequented for athletic events, annual sports meets and training sessions.

Neighbouring places

Perambur serves as an important link between the northern mofussils of Chennai to the rest of the Greater Chennai. The neighborhoods of Perambur are :
Some of the major connecting roads and streets include :
Apart from these, Perambur also has a Road named after Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scout Movement. The road is well known as BP road

Murasoli Maran Flyover

The rail over bridge connecting Perambur railway station with that Perambur Carriage Works had been a source of transportation discomfort because of its narrow pass and low road which used to flood during rain. In 1999 the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government decided to build a flyover along with nine others.
The work reached a halt when one of the columns started sinking. This led to the cost of the proposed flyover shoot from Rs.21 crore to Rs 34 crore. Furthermore, DMK lost in the consecutive 2001 elections which led to a further stalemate for the project. The flyovers became the centre of political debacle for the next five years. After DMK came back to power in 2006, it started working on the project once again, but this time with an even more shooting up of the proposed cost.
The flyover serves the people living in Perambur, Kolathur, T.V.K. Nagar, Periyar Nagar, Kumaran Nagar, Ayanavaram, Vinayagapuram, Madhavaram, Mathur and Kodungaiyur.
The flyover was constructed with different plan and was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Mr. Karunanidhi and the then Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Stalin on 28 March 2010. The flyover serves to reduce the traffic congestion in and around North Chennai. It is 1.3 km in length and 13 meters high from the ground, and is one of the tallest bridges in Chennai after Kathipara, Guindy. The bridge consist of three levels, road below, rail in the middle and road again at the top.

Places of worship

Temples