Roundtana

In the early 1950s, the village of Naduvakkarai had a truly rural essence, with green paddy fields and a sparkling river flowing nearby. It was a haven away from the madness of the city. Just about two decades later, it began to witness rapid development and was rechristened Anna Nagar. Located in the North Western part of Chennai, Anna Nagar was developed by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board in the early 1970s following the World Trade Fair held in the area in 1968. Even then, it was seen as a quiet residential area. It is only over the last few decades that the area has blossomed. Anna Nagar’s rise in the 1980s and 1990s has been attributed to three factors:

• The development of the Ambattur Industrial Estate through the 1980s
• The moving in of business communities, especially migrants from Sri Lanka, during the mid-1980s
• The much debated regularisation scheme of the Tamil Nadu Government that paved the way for a real estate boom through the late 1990s.

Today, Anna Nagar is one of the city’s prime residential areas. Real estate prices have nearly doubled in the last few years. New shops are springing up everyday on Fourth Avenue, also known as Shanthi Colony Main Road. Independent houses are giving way to multi-storeyed apartments. In short, Anna Nagar has become a city within a city, especially in the last few years.

Roundtana

Anyone and everyone who has ever been to Anna Nagar knows Roundtana. It is located at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and 3rd Avenue. It was initially developed for the Trade Fair during the 1970s and was named "Round Turn Over." Since then, the name has colloquially changed to "Roundtana" with the use of Tamil.

Anna Nagar has grown to become self sufficient over the last few decades. A few people even say that they won’t be surprised if it tries to break away from Chennai and become its own city. Roundtana is one of the major reasons behind the growth and development of Anna Nagar. Today, it is considered the centre of Anna Nagar with all major roads leading to it and arising from it. Roundtana is the locus of activity in the area. Propinquity or physical proximity is an important factor here. It is the commercial hub of the area with easy access to stores such as Croma and Odyssey, restaurants such as McDonalds and KFC, banks, hospitals and even a college. All these are within walking distance of each other and Roundtana itself.

Synekism is also at play. It is the coming together or growing together of proximate beings, communities and places into one. It is the stimulus of urban agglomeration (Edward Soja) and the spark of city life (Jane Jacobs). We see a sort of interdependence of all the establishments, here, in Roundtana. For example, Odyssey and Croma are side-by-side. Visiting one invariably leads to visiting the other. The items that they sell complement one another perfectly. You buy a printer from Croma and then you go to Odyssey to buy printing paper. Then you’re hungry so you cross the road to eat at McDonalds. It’s a perfect fit. This complementarity and interdependence is what makes Roundtana what it is.

Though Anna Nagar is considered as a primarily residential area, Rountana and its immediate surroundings see mixed-use zoning. It provides a combination of residential, commercial, office, institutional, recreational and other land uses. The 2026 Master Plan for Chennai proposes an increase in mixed-use zoning in Anna Nagar with Roundtana being a jumping-off point. It will be developed as a Regional Sub-Commercial Centre.

Traffic

The roads in Anna Nagar are designed based on a matrix strcuture similar to roads in developed countries in the West; all roads are laid parallel and perpendicular to each other. Roundtana is the nucleus of this structure. Just a few decades ago, Second Avenus was nothing more than a dirt road. Today, no one can even imagine it like that as Anna Nagar, now, glows with rows of streetlights lighting up Second Avenue.

There is traffic at any time of the day. Unlike major cities, traffic here is not restricted to automobiles. There is a mix of motorcycles, bicycles, autos, pedestrians, trucks, buses and cars.

Roundtana evokes a sense of collective urgency and purpose, with each vehicle trying to stay ahead and get through the intersection. You feel like you are in a hurry, whether or not you actually are. It is no wonder that no one sticks to lanes! Rules do not seem to matter here. It is quite a regular sight to see signals being cut. (It is another thing that signals sometimes run for two minutes) You also see people running through traffic and almost causing accidents. Sometimes it seems that the footpaths are used more by autos and bikes than the pedestrians. However, there seems to be some reason, some order behind all this. You know that some cars will cut signals; that some people drive right in the centre of the road and block traffic so you prepare yourself for it. What Roundtana essentially is, is organized chaos. It is traffic, together in an (un)orderly manner but still apart with every vehicle fending for itself.

Roundtana is always alive. Not just in terms of this movement but also in terms of the noise. Sometimes the incessant honking sort of feels like a badly composed symphony with every instrument (vehicle in this case) trying its hardest to be noticed.

When describing Los Angeles, Reyner Banham says that the freeway system in its totality is a single comprehensible place, a coherent state of mind, a complete way of life for an Angeleno. The freeway is where the Angelenos live a large part of their lives. One can draw parallels to Roundtana here. Roundtana is an experience. It is a combination of the senses. You can never really understand the chaos of the intersection unless you are there. You take in the sights – the sea of automobiles, the numerous establishments. You hear the engines and the horns. Occasionally, you also hear people screaming at one another because of accidents. You sense the hurry. You smell the fumes. Just as freeways are Los Angeles’ true urban monuments, Roundtana is Anna Nagar’s and arguably Chennai’s as well. What is important is not just the form and function of Roundtana but its ability of making the experience of mobility central to the area’s character. Banham sees the automobile as the extension of the self. Los Angeles is the automobile city, to him. This is not true of Roundtana. Here, firstly, the automobile is not available to all. Secondly, it is just as a convenient and quicker way of movement. This is seen by the fact that people do not follow rules. If the automobiles were extensions of the individuals, they would take more care to ensure that they don’t get in accidents. Another reason why Roundtana could be seen as the Anti-Los Angeles is that there is no concept of lanes here. Banham says people follow lanes perfectly in Los Angeles. At Rountana, it is about getting a move on not following the car in front.

Conclusion

I have lived in Anna Nagar all my life. I have seen, firsthand, how Roundtana has changed. When I was in primary school, I would walk to Roundtana with my mother (my house is about 5 minutes away) to pick up my elder brother from his cricket coaching at the college near the intersection. Today, my much-younger cousin goes to that very college for tennis coaching. He gets dropped and picked-up by car. The college still runs a cricket academy though. It also holds fairs and expos now. This is the essence of Roundtana and its impact. It has been the stimulus for the growth, development and diversification of the region. From a sleepy neighbourhood, Anna Nagar has now become a bustling yet self-sufficient area and Roundtana is at the heart of this – literally and figuratively. It is interesting to see how something built ‘for show’ for the Trade Fair has been so intrinsic to identity and functioning of the area.