In 1984, C.L. Narayana Pillai relocated to Neelankarai from Besant Nagar, leaving behind the familiarity of a house they owned and inhabited for years.
There was a striking starkness to Neelankarai of the 1980s. What passed off as roads were hardly roads. Connectivity by Pallavan Transport Corporation (as MTC was known then) was abysmally poor. Neelankarai lay much beyond the last outpost of Madras, which was Thiruvanmiyur in those days.
Why would Narayana do the unthinkable?
“Although we had our own house in Besant Nagar with sufficient civic facilities to buffer the challenges of everyday living, the high TDS in the groundwater was bothering us. In the three to four visits I made to Neelankarai, I noticed water from the area being transported in lorries to parts lying within Corporation of Madras. I was convinced that the aquifer was good with water being available 10 feet from ground level,” says the engineer who runs his own business at age 72.
During the Republic Day celebration at the Nagar.
