- Anna Salai
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Anna SalaiMap 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.
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. 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.
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]
Contents
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 National Highways Authority of India. This is the only road in Chennai where traffic follows the lane system. The road extends for a total of 11 kilometres and traverses the heart of the city.
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.[2]
Landmarks on Anna Salai
Panagal Maaligai or Panagal Building, SaidapetEquestrian Statue on the Nungambakkam side of Anna (Gemini) fly over.LIC BuildingThe offices of The Hindu and the now-defunct The Mail in Anna SalaiNear 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
- Hyatt Regency
- Century Plaza
- Courtyard Marriott Hotel
- Kamaraj Memorial Hall
- Sterling Towers
- Semmozhi Poonga
- Anna Flyover
- Parsn Manare
- Rani Seethai Hall
- American Consulate
- Oxford University Press
- 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
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)
Railway Stations in Anna Salai
- Guindy Railway Station
- Chindadhiripet MRTS Railway Station
Gallery
References
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Categories:- Roads of Chennai
- Roads in Chennai
- Central business districts in India
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