Anna Salai

Anna Salai
	அண்ணா சாலை
	Mount Road
Maintained by	Highways and Minor Ports Department; Corporation of Chennai; National Highways Authority of India
Coordinates	Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
South end	GST Road / Inner Ring Road, Mount-Poonamallee 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, T.Nagar/Eldams Road; Cenotaph Road; Venkatanarayana Road/Chamiers Road; South Usman Road, T.Nagar; Taluk Office Road ,Velachery Main Road(Little Mount); Sardhar Patel Road; Guindy Race Course Road; Maduvankarai Bridge Road
North end	Flag Staff Road, Island Grounds, Chennai

Map of Chennai showing Anna Salai

Anna Salai, formerly known as St. Thomas Mount Road or simply Mount Road,^[1] 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 Chennai Airport, Tambaram and beyond to form Grand Southern Trunk Road (GST Road or NH45). Anna Salai 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.

There were several flyover projects under proposal along the stretch, many of which have been shelved owing to the construction of the Chennai Metro Rail project, which runs along the median of the road.^[2] Famous Anna Salai Head Post office is located on this road. Anna Salai Head Post Office was established in 1854 as Mount Road SO as a non- gazetted delivery office. With the growth of commerce & 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 15.9.1974. In the year 2015 , Alok Ojha ( Indian Postal Services) officer , took the Charge of Chief Postmaster Anna Road Head Post office.

History

Mount Road in 1900

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. 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.^[3] Today, most of Chennai's business and corporate offices are located on Anna Salai.

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 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.^[1]

The Stretch

Statue of Thomas Munro in The Island, Chennai

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 Teynampetareas. 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 and Nandanam was used by over 16,000 vehicles during rush hour. Anna Salai is used by over 0.183 million vehicles every day.^[4] The Metropolitan Transport Corporation in Anna Salai carries about 14,000 passengers per hour per direction.^[5]

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.^[6]