Anna Salai (), formerly known as St. Thomas Mount Road or simply Mount Road, is an arterial road in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India. It starts at the Cooum Creek, south of

Fort St George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

, leading in a south-westerly direction towards St. Thomas Mount, and ends at the Kathipara Junction in Guindy. Beyond the Kathipara Junction, a branch road arises traversing westwards to

Poonamallee Poonamallee is suburb of Chennai, India under the Chennai Metropolitan Area. It was historically called ''Pushpagirimangalam'', later renamed in Tamil as ''Poovirundhavalli'' (), and now colloquially called as ''Poondhamalli''. It is a town in ...

to form the Mount-Poonamallee Road while the main branch continuing southwards to Chennai Airport, Tambaram and beyond to form Grand Southern Trunk Road ( GST Road or

NH45 National Highway 45 (NH 45) is a primary national highway in India. This highway runs in the states,sagartola of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The route of NH-45 was extended from Jabalpur to Bilaspur in June 2016. Route NH45 traverses ...

). Anna Salai, which is more than 400 years old, is acknowledged as the most important road in Chennai city. The head offices of many commercial enterprises and public buildings are located along Anna Salai. It is the second longest road in Chennai, after EVR Periyar Salai. There were several flyover projects under proposal along the stretch, many of which have been shelved owing to the construction of the

Chennai Metro The Chennai Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is the 4th longest metro system In india. The system commenced service in 2015 after partially opening the first phase of the project. The network c ...

Rail project, which runs along the median of the road. Anna Salai Head Post office, one of the most important post offices in the city, is located on this road. It was established in 1854 as Mount Road SO as a non-gazetted delivery office. With the growth of commerce and urbanization, this SO was upgraded to gazetted in the year 1955. Nomenclature of this Head Post office was changed from Mount Road Head Post office to Anna Road Head Post office on 15 September 1974.

History

Anna Salai can be traced from at least the early 17th century, and has its origins in a cart track which was used by the European employees of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

to travel from the factory at

to the holy town of

St Thomas Mount Parangimalai (known in English as St. Thomas Mount) is a small hillock in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, near the neighbourhood of Guindy and very close to Chennai International Airport. The ancient Syrian Christian community of India trace t ...

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 This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947. English Agents In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized be ...

. With the construction of Marmalong Bridge in 1724, the road started gaining prominence. In the following years, the road became part of the city's central business district which originally covered only George Town. Today, most of Chennai's business and corporate offices are located on Anna Salai. In the 1700s, the road was lined with garden houses and large colonial mansions with balconies and verandas set amidst lush gardens. By the 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 the early 1900s, the road became the entertainment hub for the British. 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 A hire purchase (HP), also known as an installment plan, is an arrangement whereby a customer agrees to a contract to acquire an asset by paying an initial installment (e.g., 40% of the total) and repaying the balance of the price of the asset pl ...

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 LIC Building is a 15-storied building in Chennai, India, serving as the southern headquarters of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. It is the first skyscraper built in Chennai and an important landmark in the city. Located on the arter ...

, was built on Anna Salai 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.

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 Thousand Lights is a constituency of the legislative assembly of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Its State Assembly Constituency number is 20. It forms a part of the Chennai Central Lok Sabha constituency for national elections to the Parli ...

and Teynampet areas. 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. By the 2010s, the stretch between

Parry's Corner George Town is a neighbourhood in Chennai (formerly Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is near the Fort St. George (India), Fort Saint George, Chennai. It is also known as Muthialpet and Parry's corner. It is an historical area of Chennai city from ...

and Nandanam was used by over 16,000 vehicles during rush hour. Anna Salai is used by over 0.183 million vehicles every day. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation in Anna Salai carries about 14,000 passengers per hour per direction.

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.

Landmarks on Anna Salai

Major landmarks

* Agurchand Mansion (built late 1800s) *

Anna Flyover Anna Flyover, also known as Gemini Flyover, is a dual-armed grade separator in the central business district of Chennai, India. Built in 1973 and dubbed one of the top-rated flyovers in the country, it is Asia's First Grade Separator, the firs ...

Ashok Leyland Ashok Leyland is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturer, headquartered in Chennai. It is owned by the Hinduja Group. It was founded in 1948 as Ashok Motors and became Ashok Leyland in the year 1955. Ashok Leyland is the second-most ...

- ALCOB Building * Bharat Overseas Bank Headquarters *

Indian Overseas Bank Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) is an Indian public sector bank based in Chennai. It has about 3,214 domestic branches, about 4 foreign branches and representative office. Founded in February 1937 by M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettyar with twin objec ...

Headquarters *

Bharat Insurance Building Bharat Insurance building is a heritage building in Chennai, India. Located on the arterial Anna Salai, it was built in 1897. Originally known as Kardyl Building, the building is an example of the Indo-Saracenic architecture, a hybrid of Muslim ...

(built 1897) * Century Plaza * Christ Church (built 1852) * Cosmopolitan Club * Cosmopolitan Club Golf Links *

American Consulate The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

* Devaneya Paavaanar Library * Devi Theater *

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

MK(Party Headquarters) * Gove House (built 1916) * The Grand Chola Hotel * Guindy Railway Overbridge * Higginbotham's (India's oldest bookshop) (built 1844) * Hindustan Teleprinters Limited (built early 1900s) *

Hyatt Regency Hotel Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vaca ...

* Indian Oil Building * Intellectual Property India Headquarters * Island Grounds Exhibition Centre * Kalignar Satellite Television Headquarters * Kamaraj Memorial Hall * Kathipara Cloverleaf Intersection * Le Royal Meridien Hotel *

(Chennai's first skyscraper) *

Madras Gymkhana Club The Madras Gymkhana Club (MGC) is a club in Chennai, India, which was founded in 1884 to promote sports and social and cultural activities. It owns and operates one of Chennai's two 18-hole golf courses, one of Asia's oldest courses. Tamil Na ...

* Maraimalai Adigal Bridge * Mount Road Mosque * Thousand Lights Mosque (built early 1800s) * Mount Road Head Post Office * ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...

'' * '' The Mail'' (built 1921) * Thevar Statue * Oxford University Press * P Orr & Sons (built 1873) * Panagal Building *

The Park Hotel ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

* Poombuhar Building (built late 1800s) *

Rajaji Hall Rajaji Hall, previously known as the Banqueting Hall, Madras, is a public hall in the city of Chennai, India used for social functions. The hall was built by John Goldingham to commemorate the British victory over Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Angl ...

(built 1802) * Raheja Towers * Rani Seethai Hall * Rayala Towers * Sacred Heart School, Church Park *

Safire Theatre complex The Safire Theatre complex was India's first largest multi-theatre complex located in the southern city of Chennai that functioned from 1964 to 1994. The theatre complex was located on Mount Road (now Anna Salai) and consisted of three screen ...

(now demolished) * Saidapet Teachers' College * Semmozhi Poonga * Simpsons *

Spencer Plaza Spencer Plaza (Tamil: ஸ்பென்சர் பிளாசா) is a shopping mall located on Anna Salai in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and is one of the modern landmarks of the city. Originally built during the period of the British R ...

* SPIC Building * State Bank of India building (built early 1900s) * St. George's Cathedral (built 1816) * St. Thomas Mount * Sterling Towers * Taj Connemara Hotel * Tamil Nadu Electricity Board Headquarters * Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Government Estate * Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL) * Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board * Tarapore Towers *

The British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh la ...

* VGP Victory House * Victoria Technical Institute * Voltas * Willington Bridge * YMCA

Railway Stations

* Chintadripet MRTS railway station * Guindy railway station File:Anna Salai shops.jpg, Anna Salai shops File:Gemini Flyover-Mount road-Chennai.jpg, Gemini Flyover-Anna Salai File:Anna Salai2.jpg, Anna Salai near old Anand Theater File:Thomas Munro classic.jpg, Statue of

Thomas Munro Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB (27 May 17616 July 1827) was a Scottish soldier and British colonial administrator. He served as an East India Company Army officer and statesman, in addition to also being the governor of Mad ...

The Island, Chennai The Island, also called as Island Grounds, is a river island situated on the Coovum River in the northern part of the Indian city of Chennai. The island was created artificially in the early 19th century by merging the Coovum River with the th ...

File:State Legislative Assembly (5319604341).jpg, The Tamil Nadu Omandurar Government Multi Speciality Hospital and Medical College File:The Hindu and The Mail.jpg, The offices of ''

'' and the now-defunct '' The Mail'' in Anna Salai File:LIC Building Anna Salai Chennai.jpg,

File:Spencer Plaza from Anna Salai.jpg,

from Anna Salai File:Thousand Lights Mosque (6708375421).jpg, Thousand Lights Mosque File:Equestrian Statue Anna Salai Chennai.jpg, Equestrian Statue on the Nungambakkam side of Anna (Gemini) fly over. File:Anna Salai seen from Chennai MRTS near Willingdon Bridge.JPG, Near Willingdon Bridge, seen from Chennai MRTS File:Panagal Building.jpg, Panagal Maaligai or Panagal Building, Saidapet

References

{{Transport in Chennai Roads in Chennai Central business districts in India Memorials to C. N. Annadurai