Sunday, March 1, 2009

One-glass building

There are several buildings in the city that appear to have been abandoned half-way into their construction. The hotel that was originally intended to be the Magunta Oberoi is a very visible example, right on Mount Road, but there are several others all over the city. One such is this 10-storey builidng which is also on Mount Road, but does not catch the eye so readily because it is next to the Gemini Flyover and sheltered from view on almost all sides.

Also not so readily apparent is the ownership of this building; one theory is that a former Prime Minister's son had taken up this project with funding from a Chennai based bank but had to pull out when the bank was caught in a scam in the mid '90s. Another theory credits the scam for work on the building being halted, but points to an entertainment group as the owner. A third theory is that some apartments in this building had already been sold to individual owners and the holdup is because of a dispute between some buyers and the seller. For evidence in support of the third theory, they point to that window on the 8th floor - the only one that is covered with a glass window pane.

No, it is not that this apartment is occupied. It is said that the owner has been able to generate some revenue by renting his apartment out for movie shoots - and it has been used for several - where the interiors are re-created for each movie. The glass window pane however seems to be a standard fixture!



Okay, I'm stretching it a bit.... it is 'Theme Day' today and the theme is 'glass'... my best 'glass' photo and story was posted long ago! To see how other City Daily Photobloggers around the world have interpreted the theme, click here.

9 comments:

Jilly said...

A very different take on today's theme. Sad when a building can't be finished and worse if it's because of corruption. Nice post.

Julie ScottsdaleDailyPhoto.com said...

actually an interesting post for theme day. i hope they can finish the building. i am always saddened when a building sits half-finished. it causes so many problems, but we see them in every community.

Lowell said...

Very interesting and humorous! Thanks.

Dina said...

That is a complicated story. The plot thickens . . .

Your blog is very nice; I'll come back to read more. Shalom.

Stefan Jansson said...

Some story!

Sally said...

Wow - what an image. Quite despairing really.

Anonymous said...

my u'standing was it was owned by the popular film lab and they ran out of funds ... b'cos one of my freinds was initially a supervisor when he finished his Engg at this site ... now no idea ...

Anonymous said...

Ny impression was that it was being constructed by some Govt Dept and incompleted due to some technical hitch as you can see in some parts of the country

Shantaram said...

@ Jilly / Julie / Sally / Chorinch: Always very de-moralising to see such structures... can't but think of what could have been! Thanks!

@ Jacob / Steffe: Glad you enjoyed the story!

@ Dina: Shalom! Welcome to the Chennai DP and look forward to seeing you here often!

@ Ram: Film Lab = Entertainment Group? Would be interesting to find out who actually owns this place... saw a movie crew out there even this morning!