Story of D Monte Colony

Chenthil in an earlier post, had rasied a few questions regarding De Monte Colony. So I decided to some digging and have a rough idea regarding its history.

The land De Monte Colony sits on belongs to the Church nearby, this is the church diagonally opposite Park Sheraton on TTK road. There was a company named Easun engineering (I hope I got the spelling right) which leased the land from the church to build housing quarters for their employees, especially their managers. This is where I encounter my first loophole, I am not able to trace who owns the buildings, did Easun Engineering merely lease the land and construct buildings on the property, or did the church build the houses? The former seems likely since most houses seem identical, and are like what would be typically found in housing quarters.

Easun Engineering was owned by Eshwara Iyer, whose uncle is Sunduram Iyer. Sunduram Iyer was the initial promoter of Enfield India, and Easun Engineering was the auto components supplier to Enfield India. With the gradual decline in the fortunes of Enfield India, Easun Engineering fortunes also declined, when Enfliend India was sold to Eicher, Essen engineering was closed down.

This is the second loophole I encounter, I am not able to trace whether Easun Engineering has been dissolved or still exists just on paper like numerous companies in India.

It seems likely that it is the second case, in that case the lease would still be valid, and therefore the church hasn’t been able to use the land. The alternative would be that the church and Essen Engineering are involved in a legal battle over the lease, since Easun Engineering would have defaulted on payments.

Since the property is involved in a legal battle, and the company doesn’t exist, it could be possibly why the property remains unoccupied.

4 Comments so far

  1. Ravages (unregistered) on July 17th, 2006 @ 6:05 am

    Great post Vatsan. Good piece of reporting.

  2. Ravi (unregistered) on July 17th, 2006 @ 3:08 pm

    Thanks Vatsan for that good research and interesting read!

  3. wolf (unregistered) on July 18th, 2006 @ 12:48 pm

    I rememebr reading abt Chennai and pirated dvds in an earlier write up. Im in Chennai next week. Can you tell me where can you get pirated dvds of english tv serials? :)


  4. Thad E. Ginathom (unregistered) on July 22nd, 2006 @ 9:12 pm


    I’d love one of those houses, now, a today’s absurd prices, worth a fortune.

    Wondered about that area every time I go past.
