For decades, Mount Road (now known as Anna Salai) has been the city’s significant artery and the hub of commercial activity. It was initially named Mount Road during the British era as it begins at Muthuswami Iyer Bridge and goes up to St. Thomas Mount.
It’s interesting to note how, in the last few decades, Chennai’s central point has shifted from George Town 40 years ago to Mount Road. The commercial buzz that it was known for has faded and shifted to malls sprinkled across the city.
Mount Road was at its prime in the 80s. Over time, areas such as T. Nagar, Nungambakkam, Adyar and OMR developed, with Anna Salai gradually turning into a divider between north and south Chennai. Today, Anna Salai — the stretch from Saidapet to Central Station — has seen major development, but one cannot ignore the number of old, dilapidated buildings, vacant plots, and rundown heritage structures along the length of it.
With the city grappling with a space crunch and an ever-increasing demand for housing, it’s important to analyse why spaces along the city’s major road lie abandoned.
Lost charm
Apart from ownership controversies and building violations, issues such as changing land values, the lack of parking space, and poor pedestrian infrastructure have also been reasons behind Anna Salai losing its charm. “At the moment several buildings are underutilised but as the economy accelerates these will be utilised,” says Durganand Balsavar, Design Chair, VIT University School of Architecture, Vellore.
While many buildings are vacant, the construction of several others has been halted midway. Apart from factors such as legal conflicts, lack of market absorption, and irregularities in title documents, work has also been stalled because the loans taken by builders often exceed the actual building value.
S. R. Raghuram of RANK Associates, a city-based law firm, says, “Builders mortgage the building to get a loan for its completion. If the construction gets stalled, the loan along with the interest tends to rise above the value of the building. Banks are then left with no option but to wait for a real estate boom to mitigate losses, or to auction the building for a lower price.”
Realty value
Anna Salai has a great mix of commercial, industrial, institutional, hospitality, retail, and even a few residential developments. Statistics reveal that prices differ among various land pockets along the road.
The stretch between Anna Statue and Nandanam gets the highest returns, especially for retail rentals, which are in the Rs.120 to Rs. 250 price range.
A new Grade A office building offers Rs. 90 to Rs. 105 per sq.ft., whereas old buildings attract a rent of Rs. 30-40 per sq.ft.
Legal battles
The road also has numerous buildings mired in legal battles and thus remaining vacant. An example is the Bharat Insurance Building that has, unfortunately, deteriorated over the years. The Court has not allowed for it to be demolished but has ordered for its upkeep and maintenance.
Experts suggest that such work be funded by the government and monitored by the Heritage Conservation Committee.
If such buildings are cleared for reuse after a delay of, say, 10 years, they fail to cope with the growing infrastructure needs. For example, a building constructed in 2006 would have far fewer parking spots than a newly constructed building on Anna Salai today. This adds to the problem.
Metro impact
The ambitious Metro Rail is easily one of the city’s biggest infrastructure projects. It is expected to ultimately reduce congestion and improve mobility, but current construction work has stalled development activity along Anna Salai. City-based architect Xavier Benedict says this is unavoidable when large-scale projects are implemented, however, some aspects could have been avoided.
Increasing the road level along many stretches of the Metro corridor has impacted commercial buildings such as the TVS-Tata service centre, British Council Library, etc. It is also hoped that certain vacant lots will be converted into public spaces such as flea markets or parking lots.
Experts hope that once operational, the Metro will give Anna Salai a much needed facelift and push up realty prices.
As A. Shankar of JLL India says, “When demand increases, the buildings lying vacant will get occupied and Anna Salai will witness high density development, as we see in other cities that have Metro connectivity.”
Reusing heritage
Another major factor that impacts realty prices on Anna Salai is the heritage value it holds. It is dotted with structures such as the LIC building, Spencer Plaza, Higginbotham’s, etc. While organisations such as INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) are strongly for the adaptive re-use of such buildings, little is being done about it.
Heritage conservation is not taken seriously and Chennai has no rules, apart from a listing by the CMDA, that categorises buildings with heritage value, says Ranee Vedamuthu, Professor of Architecture, at Anna University. Government guidelines for restoration need to go beyond the mere beautification of such structures.
Silver lining
But the abandoned buildings along Anna Salai also come with a silver lining for developers who are patient enough to tap into their potential, especially since they are valued much lower than neighbouring buildings.
Developers willing to take them on and iron out legal issues could acquire them for a fraction of the market price.
