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{{short description|Arterial road in Chennai, India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox street
| marker_image =
| name = EVR Periyar Salai
| alternate_name = Grand Western Trunk Road, Poonamallee High Road, State Highway Urban 86
| namesake = [[Periyar| EVR Periyar]]
| maint = [[Highways of Tamil Nadu|Highways and Minor Ports Department]]<br /> [[Corporation of Chennai]]
| image = Park Town signal.JPG
| caption = Poonamallee High Road in [[Park Town, Chennai|Park Town]] (2008)
| map =
| length_mi = 8.7
| length_round =
| length_ref =
| length_notes = The 8.7-mile stretch refers to the stretch from Muthuswamy Bridge near [[Madras Medical College]] at [[Park Town, Chennai|Park Town]] in the east to the [[Maduravoyal Junction]] in the west. The stretch continues further west to a national highway (NH4).
| established =
| decommissioned =
| direction_a = East
| terminus_a = Muthuswamy Bridge near [[Madras Medical College]] at [[Park Town, Chennai|Park Town]], [[Chennai]]
| junction =
| direction_b = West
| terminus_b = Maduravoyal bypass junction, [[Chennai]]
| coordinates = {{coord|13.0746|N|80.2198|E|display=inline,title}}
}}

''' EVR Periyar Salai (SHU 86)'''(EVR High Road),<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/whats-in-a-name/article5048779.ece| title = What’s in a name? - The Hindu}} </ref> earlier known as '''Poonamallee High Road''' '''([[National Highway 48 (India)|NH 48]])''' and originally the '''Grand Western Trunk Road''', is an arterial road in [[Chennai]], [[India]]. It is the longest road in Chennai. Running from east to west, the {{convert|14|km|mi|adj=on}} road starts at Muthuswamy Bridge near [[Madras Medical College]] at [[Park Town, Chennai|Park Town]] and ends near [[Maduravoyal Junction]] via [[Kilpauk]], [[Aminjikarai]], [[Anna Nagar twin arches|Anna Nagar Arch]], [[Arumbakkam]], [[Koyambedu]]. It further continues west towards [[Poonamallee]] and traverses the towns of [[Sriperumbudur]], [[Walajapet]], and [[Ranipet]].

The road, particularly along its eastern end, has some of the most impressive civic institutions and [[Heritage structures in Chennai|heritage structures]] of the city, including the [[Ripon Building]] (the seat of civic body), the [[Victoria Public Hall]] (the city's Town Hall), the [[Chennai Central|Central train station]], the [[Moore Market]] (razed in the late 20th century), [[Madras Medical College]], and [[St Andrew's Church, Chennai|St Andrew's Kirk]].

It connects two of the vital transport installations of the city, [[Chennai Central]] railway station and the [[CMBT]]. The road has more hospitals than any other roads in the city and is popularly known as the city's 'Med street'. The road is named after the noted social activist and politician [[Periyar E. V. Ramasamy]].<ref>{{cite news
| last = Ramkumar
| first = Pratiksha
| title = Hospitals go in for specialty makeover
| location = Chennai
| date = 9 February 2013
| url = https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Hospitals-go-in-for-specialty-makeover/articleshow/18409743.cms
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130411033732/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-09/chennai/37007034_1_specialty-hospitals-general-hospitals-beds
| url-status = live
| archive-date = 11 April 2013
| newspaper = [[The Times of India]]
| access-date = 11 February 2013}}</ref>

==History==
The road was originally known as Grand Western Trunk (GWT) Road and was built in the 1850s by the then British government.<ref name="TH_GWTRoad"/> The road was numbered as [[National Highway 4 (India, old numbering)|NH4]] and was locally known as the Poonamallee High Road.<ref name="TH_GWTRoad">{{cite news
| last =
| first =
| title = 'Grand Western Trunk Road is old name of EVR Periyar Salai'
| newspaper = The Hindu
| location = Chennai
| publisher = Kasturi & Sons
| date = 14 April 2021
| url = https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/grand-western-trunk-road-is-old-name-of-evr-periyar-salai/article34314273.ece
| access-date = 14 April 2021}}</ref> Originally built to connect [[Fort St. George, India|Fort St. George]] to a British military installation some 23 kilometers west of the city, it remained the city's longest road.

When the city of Madras became the most prominent port city, arterial roads emerged from the city's center traversing in all the three directions. The roads that traversed north, west and south were respectively named the Grand Northern Trunk (GNT) Road, the Grand Western Trunk (GWT) Road, and the Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road. The GNT Road eventually became the Chennai–Kolkata Highway, the GWT Road became the Chennai–Mumbai Highway (NH4), and the GST Road became the Chennai–Kanyakumari Highway (NH45). The stretches of these road within the city came to be known as [[Wall Tax Road, Chennai|Wall Tax Road]], Poonamallee High Road, and [[Anna Salai|Mount Road]], respectively.<ref name="TH_GWTRoad"/>

==The road==
EVR Periyar Salai is {{convert|6|m|ft|spell=in}} wide in most stretches, except for the stretch between [[Koyambedu]] and [[Anna Nagar twin arches|Anna Nagar Arch]], which has only four lanes.<ref>{{cite news | title = Traffic happier as PH Road widened | newspaper = The Hindu | location = Chennai | date = 5 March 2013 | url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/traffic-happier-as-ph-road-widened/article4476120.ece?ref=sliderNews | access-date = 6 March 2013}}</ref> The width of the road varies from two to nine lanes or from {{convert|12|to|35|m|ft}}. The road narrows at the stretches between [[Ripon Building]] and [[Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai|Government Fine Arts College]], [[Pachaiyappa's College]] and Shenoy Nagar junction, and [[DG Vaishnav College]] and Koyambedu. The road has not been widened since the 1980s.<ref name="TOI_90MinNightmare"/> The road is used by more than 185,000 vehicles every day. Heavy containers from and to the [[Chennai Port]] use this road at night, making it one of the heavily worn roads of the city and necessitating regular re-laying.<ref>{{cite news | title = Re-laying of Poonamallee High Road begins | newspaper = The Hindu | location = Chennai | date = 3 February 2014 | url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/relaying-of-poonamallee-high-road-begins/article5646313.ece | access-date = 9 Feb 2014}}</ref> As of 2008, about 11,000 passenger cars cross any given point of the road every hour. As of 2013, this has been projected to 19,000 passenger cars, more than five times the designed capacity of the road.<ref name="TOI_90MinNightmare">{{cite news | last = Mariappan | first = Julie | title = 90-minute nightmare to cross nine kilometres | newspaper = The Times of India | location = Chennai | date = 6 March 2013 | url = http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2013/03/06&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00200&ViewMode=HTML | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095521/http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2013/03/06&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00200&ViewMode=HTML | url-status = dead | archive-date = 4 March 2016 | access-date = 6 Mar 2013}}</ref>

==Bridges==
[[File:Ripon Building panorama.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Panorama of the Ripon Building]]
[[File:GH Chennai.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Government General Hospital]]
[[File:Chennai Central .jpg|thumb|right|200px|Chennai Central railway station]]
[[File:Victoria Public Hall, Chennai.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Victoria Public Hall]]
[[File:Chennai Moore Market Station.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Moore Market Complex Building]]
[[File:St Andrews Church - The Kirk.jpg|thumb|right|200px|St Andrews Church]]
[[File:Southern Railway HQ.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Southern Railways headquarters building]]

In 2011, the bridge across [[Cooum River]] at Aminjikkarai was widened at a cost of {{INR}} 69 million.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

In 2013, a new and wider bridge on the road across the Cooum river near [[Ampa Skywalk]] was planned at an estimated cost of {{INR}} 80 million under the Chennai Metropolitan Development Programme (CMDP). The 47-m-long bridge with 10 lanes, which will be the third "high-level bridge" over the river, will be broader than the road with 6 lanes. The bridge, at road level, will be at a height of 9.5 m from the riverbed. The bridge will have the same design as the old one abutting it, with two abutments and two piers.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Hemalatha
| first = Karthikeyan
| title = Poonamallee road to get wider bridge over Cooum
| location = Chennai
| date = 25 June 2013
| url = http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-25/chennai/40185105_1_new-bridge-second-bridge-highways-department
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130630124748/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-25/chennai/40185105_1_new-bridge-second-bridge-highways-department
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 30 June 2013
| newspaper = [[The Times of India]]
| access-date = 30 Jun 2013}}</ref>

=='Med street'==
With several hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and diagnostic laboratories dotting its entire length, EVR Periyar Salai is often called Chennai's 'med street', similar to [[London]]'s [[Harley Street]]. The establishment of two of the major government-run hospitals, the [[Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, Chennai|Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital]] and the [[Kilpauk Medical College|Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital]], remains a significant reason behind the road's morphing into a medical destination. The stretch is also home to Pandalai Nursing Home, one of the earliest private hospitals in the city, established in 1932, prior to which all hospitals were run by either the British or missionaries. Many private healthcare centres were opened since then, such as [[B M Sundaravadanan]] Nursing Home in 1934 and Ramarau Polyclinic in 1938, which had one of the earliest X-ray units. The stretch also has about 25 standalone pharmacies.<ref name="Hindu_DocsDreamDestination">{{Cite news
| last = Josephine M.
| first = Serena
| title = P.H. Road remains doctors' dream destination
| newspaper = The Hindu
| location = Chennai
| date = 10 March 2014
| url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/ph-road-remains-doctors-dream-destination/article5767689.ece
| access-date = 27 Mar 2014}}</ref>

==Traffic==
As of 2014, the arterial stretch carries around 250,000 vehicles a day, of which two-wheelers constituted 60 percent, cars 30 percent, and buses and other heavy vehicles the remaining.<ref name="Hindu_AlignmentFixedForElevatedCorridor">{{Cite news
| last = Ramakrishna
| first = Deepa H.
| title = Alignment fixed for elevated corridor in Chennai
| newspaper = The Hindu
| location = Chennai
| date = 28 October 2014
| url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/alignment-fixed-for-elevated-corridor-in-chennai/article6538895.ece
| access-date = 1 November 2014}}</ref>

==Landmarks==
Major landmarks dotting the road include the following:

* [[Madras Medical College]]
* [[Southern Railway headquarters, Chennai|Southern Railway headquarters]]
* [[Government General Hospital]]
* [[Chennai Central railway station]]
* [[Moore Market Complex]]
* [[Chennai Park railway station]]
* [[Victoria Public Hall]]
* [[Ripon Building]]
* Siddique Sarai (built 1921)
* [[Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai|Government Fine Arts College]]
* [[Chennai Traffic Police Headquarters]]
* [[St Andrew's Church, Chennai|St. Andrew's Church]] (built 1821)
* [[Wesley Church, Chennai|Wesley Church]]
* [[Nehru Park, Chennai|Nehru Park]]
* [[Sangam Theatre Complex]]
* [[Kumaran Hospital, Chennai|Kumaran Hospital]]
* [[Kilpauk Medical College|Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital]]
* [[Ega Theatre]]
* [[Pachaiyappa's College]]
* [[St. Georges Higher Secondary School]]
* [[Ampa Skywalk|Ampa Skywalk mall]]
* [[Government Hospital of Indian Medicine]]
* [[Anna Arch]]
* [[Dwaraka Doss Goverdhan Doss Vaishnav College]]
* [[Koyambedu grade separator]]
* [[Rohini Theatre Complex]]
* [[Maduravoyal grade separator]]
* [[Sindhi College]]
* [[ACS Medical College and Hospital]]
* [[Saveetha Dental College]]

==Widening==
In May 2013, a 300-m stretch of the road at Shenoy Nagar near Aminjikarai which acted as a bottleneck was widened, following a Madras High Court ruling. Officials of the state highways department cleared the encroachments that had reduced the width of the road.<ref>{{cite news | last = Selvaraj | first = A. | title = Highways pulls down shops, widens road near Aminjikarai | newspaper = The Times of India | location = Chennai | date = 1 May 2013 | url = http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2013/05/01&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00403&ViewMode=HTML | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130630104209/http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOICH/2013/05/01&PageLabel=4&EntityId=Ar00403&ViewMode=HTML | url-status = dead | archive-date = 30 June 2013 | access-date = 5 May 2013}}</ref>

==Future projects==
In the early 2000s, [[Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority]] (CMDA) conceived an idea of a 6.5-km stretch connecting the two arterial stretches of Poonamallee High Road and [[Anna Salai]] in the city. The idea is to create a traffic corridor connecting Anna Salai and Poonamallee High Road through the congested neighbourhoods of Chetpet, Nungambakkam and T. Nagar. In 2014, the Corporation modified the original alignment to create two corridors, namely, a 3.5-km stretch from Anna Salai to Mahalingapuram and a 3-km flyover connecting Thirumalai Pillai Road and Poonamallee High Road (covering five traffic bottlenecks in Chetpet junction, Sterling Road junction, Tank Bund Road junctions and Valluvar Kottam High Road junction).<ref>{{cite news | last = Xavier Lopez | first = Aloysius | title = Anna Salai-P.H. Road corridor idea takes shape | newspaper = The Hindu | location = Chennai | date = 7 February 2014 | url = http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/anna-salaiph-road-corridor-idea-takes-shape/article5661585.ece | access-date = 9 Feb 2014}}</ref>

In 2014, the highways department fixed the alignment of a 5.18-km-long, 4-laned elevated corridor that will take off at Raja Muthiah Salai, near Ripon Buildings, and descend near Pulla Reddy Avenue in [[Shenoy Nagar]]. The project has been estimated to cost {{INR}}4,500 million.<ref name="Hindu_AlignmentFixedForElevatedCorridor"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|India}}
* [[Transport in Chennai]]

==References==
{{commons category}}
{{reflist}}

{{Roads of Chennai}}
{{Chennai Topics}}
{{Transport in Chennai}}

[[Category:Roads in Chennai]]

EVR Periyar Salai - Revision history

Commercial Noida at 17:21, 1 April 2025