Anna Salai

Anna Salai
Anna Salai
	Mount Road
Coordinates:	13°03′52″N 80°15′57″E / 13.064369°N 80.265808°ECoordinates: 13°03′52″N 80°15′57″E / 13.064369°N 80.265808°E
South end:	GST Road / Inner Ring Road, Kathipara Junction at St.Thomas Mount, Chennai
Major; junctions	Pallavan Salai; West Cooum River Road/Swami Sivananda Salai; Wallaja Road/Blackers Road; General Patters Road; Binny Road/Spencers Plaza; Whites Road/Greams Road; Peters road; Lloyds Road; Nungambakkam High Road/Cathedral Road (Anna Flyover); Vijaya Raghava Road; Sir Thyagaraya Road/Eldams Road; Cenotaph Road; Venkatanarayana Road/Chamiers Road; South Usman Road; Taluk Office Road (Little Mount); Sardhar Patel Road; Race Course Road; Maduvankarai Bridge Road
North end:	Flag Staff Road, Island Grounds, Chennai

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Anna Salai

Map of Chennai showing Anna Salai

Anna Salai (Tamil: அண்ணா சாலை), formerly known as Mount Road, an abbreviated form of St. Thomas Mount Road, is an arterial road in Chennai, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of Fort St George and ends at the Kathipara Junction in Guindy. Beyond the Kathipara Junction, the road branches into two, with one traversing westwards to Poonamallee to form the Mount-Poonamallee Road while the other continues southwards to Tambaram and beyond to form the national highway NH 45. The road was an indicator of development as the city of Chennai grew up mostly along its eastern and western sides.

There are several flyover projects under proposal along the stretch. However, many of them have currently been shelved owing to the construction of the Chennai Metro Rail project, which runs along the median of the road.^[1]

The milestone for Chennai's Kilometre Zero is placed just near the northern end of the road on Muthuswamy Road–Flag Staff Road near the Island Grounds.

[edit] History

Anna Salai is almost 400 years old and has its origins in a cart track which was used by the European employees of the British East India Company to travel from the factory at Fort St George to the holy town of St Thomas Mount where the apostle St Thomas was crucified^{[citation needed]}. The road, in its present form, took shape during the time of Charles MaCartney who served as Governor of Madras. Most of Chennai's business and corporate offices are located on Anna Salai.

By 1800s, Mount Road has become the traders' area of the city of Madras while First Line Beach in Georgetown remained the seat of processing, shipping and manufacturing businesses. However, the business activities of Mount Road was responsible for the city's economic growth. Several giant firms had beginnings on Mount Road, from the Amalgamations group to the TVS group. The road's proximity to the Government House, the home of the Governor, and the palaces of the Nawabs of Arcot resulted in several firms selling cars and other luxury goods setting up shops on the road. Simpson & Co, which moved to its current location opposite Government Estate after 1875, began building carriages and coaches and then cars. In 1903, the first steam-driven car was taken for its debut drive on Mount Road. To overcome the Great Depression of the 1930s, Simpon's introduced the hire purchase system for cars and trucks. In the 1930s, the TVS group, which was a travel operator in mofussil areas, was established in Madras by acquiring the Madras Auto Service property. In the 1940s, Anantharamakrishnan helped with the formation of Amalgamations & Co. The city's first skyscraper, the LIC Building, was built in 1959. Several major firms were then established, namely, Spencers & Co, Victoria Family Hotel (the present location of the Indian Overseas Bank Headquarters) and Higginbothams.^[2]

[edit] The Stretch

Anna Salai starts from the Parktown area of Chennai city where Chennai Central railway terminus is situated. It, then, traverses the Island with its statue of Sir Thomas Munro to the other side of the Coovum before entering the neighbourhoods of Thousand Lights and Teynampet. From Teynampet, it continues straight southwards to Nandanam and Saidapet before traversing the Maraimalai Adigal Bridge across the Adyar River to Little Mount and finally, Guindy. Anna Salai is maintained by the Tamil Nadu Highways Department. The road extends for a total of 11 kilometres and traverses the heart of the city.

[edit] Safety level

Anna Salai remains the road in the city experiencing second most number of accidents annually, next only to Jawaharlal Nehru Road (100 ft Inner Ring Road), with one person being injured every 1.13 days. Together, these roads account for almost 14 per cent of the 5,101 accidents that occurred in Chennai in 2010.^[3]

[edit] Landmarks on Anna Salai

Panagal Maaligai or Panagal Building, Saidapet

Equestrian Statue on the Nungambakkam side of Anna (Gemini) fly over.

Spencer Plaza

LIC Building

The offices of The Hindu and the now-defunct The Mail in Anna Salai

Near Willingdon Bridge, seen from Chennai MRTS

St. Thomas Mount
Kathipara Cloverleaf Intersection
Hindustan Teleprinters Limited
Intellectual Property India Headquarters
Guindy Railway Overbridge
Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL)
SPIC Building
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board
Ashok Leyland Towers
Little Mount
Maraimalai Adigal Bridge
Panagal Building
Saidapet Teacher's Training Institute
Cosmopolitan Club Golf Links
YMCA
Temple Towers
Apollo Speciality Hospital
Indian Oil Building
Voltas
Anna Arivaalayam (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [DMK] Party Headquarters)
Kalignar Satellite Television Headquarters
Century Plaza
Kamaraj Memorial Hall
Sterling Towers
Semmozhi Poonga
Anna Flyover
Parsn Manare
Rani Seethai Hall
American Consulate
Oxford University Press
Safire Theatre complex
Thousand Lights Mosque
The British Council
Devaneya Paavaanar Library
Victoria Technical Institute
Indian Overseas Bank Headquarters
Bharat Overseas Bank Headquarters
Spencer Plaza
Rayala Towers
Raheja Towers
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Headquarters
Gove House
Higginbotham's (India's oldest bookshop)
Bharat Insurance Building
Addison's
LIC Building (Chennai's first skyscraper)
Mount Road Mosque
Tarapore Towers
Cosmopolitan Club
Mount Road Head Post Office
Offices of The Hindu and The Mail
Devi Theater
Simpsons
Government Estate (Upcoming Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly)
Willington Bridge
Madras Gymkhana Club
Island Grounds Exhibition Centre

[edit] Hotels on Anna Salai

[edit] Statues on Anna Salai

Nehru Statue (Kathipara Intersection)
Maaveeran Dheeran Chinnamalai Statue (Guindy)
Ramaswamy Padaiyaachiyaar (Guindy)
Rajiv Gandhi Statue (Little Mount)
Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar Statue (Nandanam)
Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan' Statue - feudatory of the Chola kings (Gemini Flyover)
MGR Statue (Spencer's Junction)
Arignar Anna Statue (Wallajah Road Junction)
Arthur Havelock's Statue
Lord Ampthill Statue
Periyar Statue
Kamaraj Statue (Island Ground)
Munro Statue (Island Ground)