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(ARCHIVE) Vol. XXIII No. 7, July 16-31, 2013
The Founder of South Madras
By Bernard Ryan

In the middle of 1940s, when Rao Bahadur J.C. Ryan was Registrar of Co-operative Societies, South Madras was a God-forsaken village. There were only the Raj Bhavan and the College of Engineering surrounded by bullock-cart roads.

On holidays, Ryan and his three sons used to hide behind the trees and bushes on the Adyar river-bed early in the morning to shoot rabbit and other animals that had strayed out of Raj Bhavan. It was on one such occasion that it occurred to him that a co-operative housing colony could be built on the vast acreage of neglected land on the riverside. He purchased the land from the Most Rev. Louis Mathias, the then Archbishop of Madras, for Rs.14.5 lakh, and it was there that Gandhi Nagar and Kasthurba Nagar came up.

Four types of houses were built by the co-operative society in Gandhi Nagar and given to its members on a 20-year instalment basis while Kasthurba Nagar was sold as plots with all infrastructure provided as a site and service project.

Out of the 'Common Good Fund' set aside by the Society and money advanced by the State Co-operative Bank, the board of management then purchased about 100 acres on the new East Coast Road near Mahabalipuram and sold them as one or two-ground plots to the public.

Thanks to the foresight of J.C. Ryan, South Madras has been and is spreading and you can say it is the best area in the city.

In April 1947, Ryan had registered the Katpadi Co-operative Township Society Ltd and acquired 411.30 acres and allotted 1240 plots to the public. Katpadi is now a flourishing town.

Thereafter he built houses and also sold 50,000 plots in the then Madras Presidency. Thousands of people live in houses in these plots today. The Vedachella Nagar in Chengalpattu, Crawford Colony and Thillai Nagar in Trichy came up due to his initiative.

He also helped build the Nirmala Co-operative Housing Society (Colony) in Bangalore, the Yemmiganoor Weavers' Co-operative Housing Colony now in Andhra Pradesh and introduced the concept of co-operative housing colonies in many Third World countries where he served as adviser to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

Inspired by the work of J.C. Ryan, his son Felix Ryan promoted a co-operative housing colony for about a hundred families in the Ullagaram Village behind St. Thomas' Mount railway station for use by his staff when he was a Director in the Ministry of Industry, Government of India, stationed at Guindy. The colony, which is called SISI Colony, is now a landmark in South Madras.

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In this Issue

Yet another Cooum clean-up!
T. Nagar multi-level parking lot revived, again!
Path of industrialisation
Always first with the latest equipment
Down memory lane
The founder of South Madras
A gold chain from the Prince of Wales
Draw up your plans for Madras Week
The Mr. Versatile of Indian cricket

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Short 'N' Snappy
Our Readers Write
Quizzin' with Ram'nan
Madras Eye

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