Wall Tax Road, Chennai
| வா . உ. சி. சாலை | |
| Wall Tax Road | |
| Maintained by | Corporation of Chennai |
|---|---|
| South end | Poonamallee High Road—Chennai Central junction at Park Town, Chennai |
Wall Tax Road, also known officially as V. O. C. Salai, is a road in Chennai, India, adjacent to the Chennai Central railway station. The road runs parallel to the railway tracks of the station and borders George Town on the west. The eastern entrance of the terminus lies on the road. The road is named after the wall built as a protective measure by the British in 1772–1773, which still remains partially.
After being under the French control for a brief period from 1746 to 1748, the city of Madras was returned to the British following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Soon after the treaty, the British began planning to strengthen Fort St. George and its protective Esplanade. The attacks by Hyder Ali in 1767 catalysed the process, which resulted in the building of a protective wall around the new Black Town, including the neighbourhoods such as Muthialpettah and Peddunaickenpettah (parts of the present-day George Town), located at the northern and western sides of the Fort. The Black Town Wall, as it was known then, was conceived by the company's chief engineer John Call and completed in 1772 by Paul Benfield, a contractor with the British government bidding about ₹ 500,000. With the Fort to the south and the sea to the east, the wall with 17 bastions ran for about 3.5 miles. Some of the remnants of the bastions, in which debtors and prisoners were believed to have been confined, are still found along Old Jail Road. The wall also had several gates, including Pully, Boatmen's, Trivatore, Ennore, Elephant, Chuckler's and Hospital gates. However, only one of them, the Elephant Gate, which was then used to load and unload goods transported in trams, remains today. During the 1782 war with Hyder Ali, with the exception of Monegar Choultry, all buildings near the wall were destroyed by the government.
The wall originally ran from Cochrane Canal on the northern side, now known as the Buckingham Canal, to the junction of Poonamalle High Road and Madras Central railway station on the southern side. The outer side of the wall had provisions measuring about 600 yards for setting up a clear field for fire in the event of a future attack, which was later developed into People's Park and a railway goods shed named Salt Cotaurs in 1859. A mini-fort with gun emplacements was built at the sea-end side of the wall, and the fort was named Clive Battery, after Edward Clive, governor of Madras from 1799 to 1803, which was later demolished to build a flyover connecting Royapuram and Rajaji Salai. A 50-feet road was built on the inner side of the wall to facilitate connectivity. When the road was completed, the government decided to impose the cost of the newly laid road on the public in the form of tax, but the people refused to pay it. Thus, the tax was never collected. This eventually lead to the road acquiring its name.
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