From high art to in-your-face kitsch: there are fun rides and statues straight out of tacky film sets at the garish VGP amusement park (with Pink Floyd playing in the background). For families, there are boat rides in the lagoon at Muthukadu and a six-screen multiplex, shopping, pool, bowling and go-karting at the massive Mayajaal. The entertainment complex also has a games village which recently hosted an icl cricket camp. "The ECR throbs with entertainment and leisure activities," says writer Sudha G. Tilak. "It's a unique entertainment highway concept in India," says B. Udeep, CEO of Mayajaal. If VGP is for the masses, Mayajaal is for the elite, what they call the Sec A crowd. And, of course, the beachfront is for everyone. "It's a very egalitarian road," says Tilak.
The ECR personifies the hedonism and consumerism of post-liberalisation India. It's about the new economy, reflecting a "loosening up" of Chennai. The once austere city is looking out, literally. "There is no infrastructure and space within the city. The ECR gives families more to do than just eat sundal (chickpea salad) at Marina Beach," says Tilak. "On weekends, Chennai empties out but the ECR is loaded with people," says Jebaraj. Burnt-out techies live it up at weekend parties in the many beach houses on the way along this route, or relax with their kids at Mayajaal.
Mayajaal gets about one lakh visitors a month now, and its turnover for the year is pegged at Rs 20 crore. "Our footfalls have doubled in the last two years," says Udeep. "In 2003, only three per cent of consumers used credit cards, now that's risen to 40 per cent," he adds. The six-screen multiplex reports 95 per cent occupancy over the weekends. No wonder it's going to add four more screens this Diwali. The company is also planning to open a similar entertainment complex five kilometres from Pondicherry, also along the ECR.
The shore temples at Mahabalipuram, a UNESCO heritage site
The route takes in the Taj Group's Fisherman's Cove luxury hotel too, famous for hosting Jackie Kennedy, among other celebrities. "A few years ago, 90 per cent of our visitors were leisure travellers, 10 per cent were corporate. Now 70 per cent are corporate and 30 per cent are tourists," says duty manager Anil Daniel. The ECR provides them fast access to offices in Chennai, and brings them back here quickly, for some R&R.
Not surprisingly, real estate prices have soared along the entire route, which is dotted with a KSA Contractors here and an ECR Real Estate there. Beach resorts are dime a dozen, especially near Mahabalipuram. M. Senathipathi, president of the Artists' Handicrafts Association, remembers taking a boat ride to Mahabalipuram in the late '60s, since there was no bridge to connect him to the temple town. He remembers a place with palm trees, white sands, cashew and casuarina groves, where the climax chases of Tamil films used to be shot. It was a deserted and wild place, but today it's hard to find a piece of land here. "For Rs 400, you could pick up all of 2,400 sq feet of land in 1968...now it costs Rs 75 lakh," says artist Gopinath. In just the last two years, prices are said to have escalated between 200 and 300 per cent. Near Fisherman's Cove, property prices have gone up 3-4 times. "A flat that cost Rs 2 lakh 10 years ago now goes for Rs 16 lakh," says Daniel.
The IT push is only getting stronger. A new IT corridor will link Chennai with Mahabalipuram. It will house IT parks and offices along the way and will also provide interesting display board for artworks commissioned by the Tamil Nadu Roads Development Corporation. The first major crossing on this upcoming corridor already has a Dashrath Patel installation, portraying fire. Works on other elements will come up at major junctions along the way.
It all makes for a rather curious mix of art and technology, the sacred and profane, the traditional and modern. "It's a creative hotch-potch. The more pure and isolated you are, the more sterile you get," says Veenapani Chawla, artistic director and managing trustee of Adishakti. No, the ECR is certainly not sterile. Unlike expressways made for speed and nothing else, the ECR has colour and madness. It is a road with attitude, character and possibilities. The journey, it seems, is the destination.
