Highways department workers expected to remove Anna arches, off Poonamallee High Road, by Sunday morning but failed.

The arches of Anna Nagar, which were erected decades ago, are being removed to facilitate the building of two flyovers at the junction of Poonamallee High Road and Anna Nagar 3 Avenue. The two flyovers are being built at a cost of Rs. 117 crore.

Workers took down the statue of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai and also shattered down the pedestal on which the statue was installed. The statue, which was constructed by the Madras Corp. to commemorate the platinum jubilee of the former Chief Minister, stood in the space between the arches.

Workers used high-power drills and cranes to break off chips of concrete but they failed to cut through the resistant concrete and its iron frame.

Speaking on the topic, a highways department engineer said, "We expected to remove one arch by Sunday morning but we could not. So we took permission from the traffic police to continue work through Sunday as well."

The work obstructed traffic. It took almost 45 minutes to drive between Aminjikarai and Tirumangalam, a drive that normally does not take more than 15 minutes.

An expert in pulling down such structures suggested that drill holes into the structure and filling explosive chemical into the holes would have made the work much easier.