Press Release

As a part of Madras Week Celebrations, Doshi Housing, the well-known builder from Chennai, officially launched the “OMR OMG Express”, a free AC Bus Service for people employed on the IT corridor of OMR and for those who are interested in knowing the historical importance of OMR. The Service will be operational for one month starting from today. The bus was flagged off by Mr. C. Ramkumar, Head of HR, TCS Chennai.

The Free A/C bus shuttle service will operate from Madhya Kailash to Shollinganllur (OMR) with 5 stops in between – Tidel Park, SRP Tools, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam and Karapakkam. Around 4 trips will be made in a day from Aavin Dairy, Sholingnallur to Madhya Kailash and 4 return trips will be made from Madhya Kailash to Aavin Dairy, Sholingnallur. The trips will be run 7 days a week and in an hourly frequency. The first trip will start at 9.30 AM from Aavin Dairy, Sholingnallur. Even non-working tourists can take advantage of this special offering by Doshi Housing.

Mr. Mehul Doshi, Director, Doshi Housing said, “The development of areas around OMR has been tremendous after the advent of IT companies. The idea of organizing this free bus trip is to create awareness about the History and development of OMR and surrounding areas, which has somehow not been recognized so far. A booklet containing interesting facts about OMR and an audio presentation, put together by renowned Chennai Historian Mr. V. Sriram, will be made available to the passengers to enjoy and understand the importance of OMR.”

Mr. V. Sriram, Historian said, “In all the hype about it being the IT ExpressWay, what is forgotten is that OMR has been a knowledge centre of Chennai almost since Independence. It has been home to several low profile centres of excellence. It also boasts of centuries-old history in some of the villages that it connects, all of which are now parts of Chennai. The OMR area comprises of 480 IT Companies, 132 Hospitals, 160 Colleges, 330 Restaurants, 55 Banks, 7 Gas Agencies and 1 Golf Village. Some of the notable landmarks in OMR are Buckingham Canal, The Roja Muthiah Research Library, MS Swaminathan ‘Research Foundation, Asian College of Journalism, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NIFT, Aavin Dairy at Sholinganallur, Voluntary Health Services, Central Polytechnic Campus etc. This shuttle service will get the public aware of these amenities at the OMR .”

A free AC bus ‘OMR OMG Express’ plying from Madhya Kailash to Sholinganallur will be flagged off on Thursday as part of Madras weekcelebrations.

The month-long ride, organized by Doshi Builders, will inform passengers of the historical importance of significant buildings on the Old Mahabalipuram stretch before the city evolved from Madras to Chennai narrated in the voice of historian V Sriram. Visuals of the significant places on the stretch would be played along with the voice-overs.

“It is only today that the OMR is known for the IT boom but the area was once known for the development of academics,” said Sriram. He added that some of the oldest educational institutions in India were started along the stretch – for instance, Central Leather Research Institute, Film and TV Institute, the Trade School, Institute of Printing Technology and the 102-year-old Central Polytechnic College.