Chennai Outer Ring Road best positioned to address all problems of a home buyer

The Outer Ring Road (ORR) is where the next wave for housing will happen, said Gautam Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer of Casagrand. “There are no large land parcels within the city. ORR addresses all the problems which a home buyer has,” he said during a round table discussion with Rosella Stephen, Property Plus Editor and Ideas Editor, The Hindu, on the topic ‘The ORR Opportunity: Infrastructure, Liveability, and Long Term Value’. The event was presented by Casagrand.

Mr. Agarwal said that ORR has fueled growth of cities across the world. Hyderabad has seen this success and growth and ORR will do the same magic to Chennai, he added. “Buyers in Chennai are asking for better living spaces. And buyers in Chennai are very conscious and ask whether the area would flood or not. We help them navigate all these issues,” he explained. He also spoke about the largest candy themed inflatable park that has been set up at Casagrand property. “The Theme park has been doing good. It is getting a good response and we are sold out everyday,” he said.

Sanjay Chugh, City Lead and Director of ANAROCK Property Consultants Private Limited, spoke on what is needed on ORR and said: “The biggest thing we really need to create on ORR is infrastructure. We have a great road. But beyond the road, we need to build social infrastructure. You need reliable piped water, proper drainage systems, and consistent power supply.” He added: “If you want to attract people, you need to build a complete ecosystem around them. Growth happens by creating jobs, housing, and retail—this is how development follows.”

To a query on whether ORR would have sufficient water supply, Mr. Chugh said: “I don’t see water being an issue as of now and the quality of water here is good. It will take another 30-40 years for ORR to see water shortage.” He also noted that this corridor does not have any polluting industries and has more warehouses.

Karthik Nagappan, CEO of Super Chennai, said, “One of the biggest outcomes of the Super Chennai enclave is the vision of a 30-minute city—where residential and work clusters are within a convenient 30-minute reach, enabling better work-life balance. The ORR is uniquely positioned to bring this to life, with its strong connectivity, available land parcels, and the right ecosystem to drive this transformation, setting a benchmark for future urban development.”

He then added: “In Chennai educational institutions have always grown in the suburbs. There are places you can stop and have a great view.” “Earlier, most people would travel to T. Nagar or Tambaram for their needs. Today, places like Urapakkam and Guduvanchery have well-known brands every ten minutes. This transformation happened because of developments such as Shriram City, SRM University, and Mahindra World City,” Mr. Nagappan said.

Vidhya Mohankumar, Founder and Principal of Urban Design Collective, said that ORR is a greenfield development which is an advantage. “ORR is already growing at this point. The question now is how will it grow,” she said. She also pointed out that although OMR is an economic success, it still has several shortcomings—for instance, even after 20 years, basic infrastructure like sewage connections remains inadequate. She said that things like this should be factored in while developing ORR.