This is one landmark that was literally pulled back from the jaws of demolition. Anna Arch has got a new lease of life thanks to the State government’s decision to not pull it down to construct a flyover.
The work to construct the flyovers is being carried out by the Highways Department at a cost of Rs. 117 crore.
An official press release here said that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who had chaired a meeting at the Secretariat on Wednesday, sought to know details about the proposal to demolish the arches.
The flyovers had been proposed in 2010 during the erstwhile DMK regime to reduce congestion at the junction of Poonamallee High Road and Anna Nagar 3 Avenue.
The arches were constructed to commemorate the platinum jubilee celebrations of former Chief Minister C.N.Annadurai and inaugurated by the then Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandran on January 1, 1986. After discussing with Ministers and senior officials it was decided to retain the arches and instead change the design of the flyover.
The change in the design would mean shifting of an arm of the flyover by 20 meters towards the Parry’s Corner side to accommodate the arches.
Traffic proceeding from Parry’s Corner side and entering Anna Nagar will take this arm.
A revised detailed project report would have to be drawn up that would study the requirements of additional land, shifting of any service lines and also the modification in design and geometrics.
Work to demolish the arches and remove the statue of C.N. Annadurai has been going on for a week now but the contractors were not successful in pulling it down. They were merely able to scratch the surface. Experts put the damage to the 59 feet high structure as below 5 per cent. The arch would be repaired after due inspection by experts.
