| Anna Salai | |
|---|---|
| Mount Road | |
| 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 |
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]
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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.
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]
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