This week, the city has had something new to talk about. Our favourite whinge, the Metro-induced traffic, took a backseat for just a smidge, as the Anna Arch took over.
For a long time, I commuted every day, from Kilpauk to Amabttur Industrial Estate, where I worked. Every day, I would pass the twin structures that serve as a landmark to anyone who wants to find their way into Anna Nagar. Ask any auto driver, cop, or a roadside vendor: “Anna, Anna Nagar 4 avenue?” and they will immediately guide you from the arch onwards. They’re big and white, and the moment you go through them, you feel better. Long, leafy trees envelope you and the city seems cooler.
Getting to the arches though, is the difficult part. At every traffic light before and after it, there is a pile-up. It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, whether it has been raining, or whether it is a public holiday: jam there invariably will be. For about twenty minutes, all you do is twiddle your thumbs and watch as autorickshaws make a mad dash to edge towards the front of the signal, motorcycles squeeze through impossibly narrow gaps between cars, and bus drivers lean on their horns. Every day, I set out from home 50 minutes before I was due in office, for what was barely a 12 km journey. Every day, I arrived in office with my ears ringing from the cacophony on the roads.
The proposed flyover is meant to ease the congestion between Poonamallee High Road and Anna Nagar 3 avenue. As any commuter on that stretch will testify: it is needed, and quickly.
Every Chennai resident will admit that traffic is a mounting problem. Old-timers in the city will tell you that even five years ago, it wasn’t so bad. It’s become such a constant complaint that two strangers on a bus can instantly bond over the subject.
Today, I commute from Kilpauk to Mount Road every day. And what should be barely a 15-minute drive invariably takes me nearly 30.
The metro rail, proposed mono rail and the several flyovers in progress, are meant to be attempts at curbing this problem, both by decreasing the number of vehicles on the road, as well as by giving those driving more space to move in.
In a few instances of late, these proposals have encountered roadblocks, often over landmarks.
When metro rail sought to acquire property it needed on Mount Road for its construction work, the city was up in arms as the heritage P Orr and Sons building was in the firing line. Anna Arch was to make way for a flyover, and was hailed as a landmark in the city.
Don’t get me wrong: these are heritage buildings and iconic structures. A city that does not appreciate its past is a city without character. And without doubt, they need to be protected from constant neglect and relentless assaults.
But how much really, do we as residents enjoy our heritage? When immobilised for over twenty minutes on an arterial road, do we admire the contours of a beautifully- designed structure or do we wait in impatience for the light to change?
This is not intended to be a heritage vs. development debate – it’s never that simple. But I do wonder if for most of us, the possibility of cherishing our heritage is often overwhelmed by the sheer chaos prevailing on the roads.
Isn’t more breathing space – on the roads and the footpaths – perhaps the first step to appreciating our city better?
The way things are now, it would seem both heritage and development – and by that I mean infrastructure the city is crying out for – get a raw deal. While one is either neglected or destroyed, the other is delayed, making the original problem – traffic – even worse.
This is admittedly a dicey stand to take. I have immense respect for those who fight tirelessly to conserve our history. Our history is what defines us, it gives meaning to the present. Besides, we are not the first to face this issue; cities across the world offer lessons in ways to balance the two.
Sometimes though, it’s hard to decide what is more important – a hundred-year old shop or a public transport system the city so desperately needs.
Keywords: Chennai flyovers, Anna Arch, Chennai heritage buildings
No Politician or Official has any sense of Heritage or being proud about the
past.Most politicians have false pride about glory about the language and their
caste.Both are destructive.They are like frogs in the well and keep talking about
the well as they have seen the world beyond the well.
Ann Arch is a just structure.This can be rebuilt once the metro is commissioned.In
Bangalore they are screwing up residential areas in the name of BMTC Busstations
and allowing thousnads of buses and trucks near lalbaugh and polluting the whole
area including residential areas.They are allowing all sorts of vehicles into
residential areas like Wilson Garden creating traffic jams with great honking all
the time day in day out.We should have great planners and rulers than great actors
and tamasha people at the helm of affairs.
The author is right. Chennai is a completely unplanned city, which is
definitely worse than the three metros. We keep taking pride in the
fact that we are better than Bangalore.
Large parts of Chennai should be razed and rebuilt. Mount Road is a
prime example. No other city has a bunch of such dilapidated
buildings. Most flyovers have been built for no reason at all, but to
provide parking space below. Traffic in Madras is awful. The city
still has open drains, when even Calcutta has improved. P Orr & Sons
is an incompetent watch repair shop which survives by claiming
heritage building status. One could go on and on.
Our heritage is not defined by physical structures, especially those built in the last 50 years.
Our heritage is reflected in our culture, how we treat each other, our principles, our sense of
values and ethics, our integrity and our beliefs in equality, in justice, in right and wrong, in
putting country and nation before personal desires. But all of this "heritage" has been
destroyed a long time ago, so why focus on an arch, it is only a cement structure standing in
the way of a future need to expand.
And by the way the only reason it could not be removed is because of the incompetence of
the individuals that tried.
Why should the metro rail or the 'flyover' be on the surface? Metro
rails are other such transports could very well be subterranean.
Instead of destroying places with sentiments attached, we can very
well try build a flyover around them... Who knows it may well become a
tourist spot for an amazing architecture. Similarly, underground
routes could also ease the traffic.
All it needs is the will to do, an open-mind, and really good
architects (the ilk that India exports/exiles every year to other
countries). The TN Govt. can also get some idea of the amazing
roads/bridges all over the world...
It is a very important landmark of the city, yes but standing before the landmark during the traffic one can't admire about it!
Also social organisations,newspapers, should have taken a survey about people's need and their mindset.
With this current democratic policies, though we select and elect people, sometimes our people need of the hour is not addressed, there is not way forward!
500+ Engineering Colleges are there to make money but no engineers to
offer a workable solution?
The whole point of Arch being relocated could have been avoided if
politicians & city planners worked towards the better of the city and
not for their pockets. A simple straight flyover over the Poonamalai
High Road at the Arch from DG Vaishnav College to beyond Aminjikarai
would have been the easiest way out but due to the ill-conceived Port
Connectivity Project, the DMK Govt. planned multiple flyovers & a
subway - complicating the whole area. Hope Planners understand that
N.M.Road into which a flyover goes in is narrow at this end and the
road is jam packed for most of the day.
Ill-conceived flyovers built just to increase the count are already
proving to be disastrous for the city.
When the government is singing the sentimental chord in keeping the nearly 40 years old anna nagar arches in place,why cant the same yard stick be used to preserve 100 years old Heritage structure,which the author refers to as a shop,it is more than a shop for four generations to come.
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