Chennai has opened a new dog sterilisation centre and pet hospital in Ambattur zone, adding capacity to the city’s municipal animal-management network and enabling sterilisation surgeries for up to 35 stray dogs a day. The Rs 2.30-crore facility was inaugurated on Wednesday by Textiles Minister M Vijay Balaji at the Athipattu solid waste management facility.
Spread across 5,300 sq ft, the Chennai dog sterilisation centre includes an operation theatre, laboratory, pharmacy and pet treatment room. It also has kennels to accommodate 150 dogs, 100 rooms, a kitchen, a doctors’ room and toilets, according to a report by DT Next.
Stray dogs caught in Ambattur and Anna Nagar zones will be brought to the centre for sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination. This links the new facility directly to municipal operations in two major parts of the city, while creating a designated location for treatment, surgery and temporary accommodation.
The centre is the 14th facility operated by the Greater Chennai Corporation for dog sterilisation. Its stated daily capacity of 35 surgeries provides a defined operational scale for the programme, although the report does not specify the number of staff assigned to the centre, the current number of dogs awaiting procedures or the timeline for reaching full capacity.
The facility’s opening took place alongside an inspection of stormwater drainage and desilting works in Ambattur, Anna Nagar and Teynampet zones. The minister inspected stormwater drain work carried out by the Water Resources Department from Cuckson Road to the Cooum River over a 5.10-km stretch near the Ambattur Telephone Exchange junction.
He also reviewed stormwater drainage works in Padi being funded by the Asian Development Bank. In Anna Nagar, he inspected the strengthening of a 500-metre retaining wall along the Otteri Nalla near Tirumangalam Road. In Teynampet, he inspected desilting at the point where the Virugambakkam and Trustpuram canals join the Cooum at West Namachivayapuram.
Officials were instructed to expedite the drainage works before the monsoon and ensure regular removal of silt from drains. The simultaneous focus on animal-management capacity and stormwater infrastructure places two different municipal functions within the same zone-level review: public health and stray-animal control on one hand, and drainage maintenance and flood preparedness on the other.
The immediate next steps for the new centre will involve receiving stray dogs from Ambattur and Anna Nagar, carrying out sterilisation surgeries and administering anti-rabies vaccinations. The civic body’s broader operational target and the centre’s performance will depend on how consistently the facility is used and how regularly its kennels, treatment rooms and surgical capacity are deployed.
