How Loop Road along Marina beach came to be

Articles published in 1949 and 1959 show that decisions were made to lay a road at Santhome Foreshore Estate, where the four villages of Nochikuppam, Dommingkuppam, Mallikuppam and Srinivasapuram existed

Until the 1960s, Loop Road along Marina beach as we know it today did not exist. Articles published in The Hindu in 1949 and 1959 show that decisions were made to lay a road at Santhome Foreshore Estate, where the four villages of Nochikuppam, Dommingkuppam, Mallikuppam and Srinivasapuram existed.

These were proposals by the City Improvement Trust in 1949 and the Slum Clearance/Improvement Scheme formulated by the Central government in May 1956 and being implemented by 1959. Both were to beautify the Marina beachfront.

The initial idea was to move them to the Karaneeswarar Pagoda area, which was objected to by the residents of Nochikuppam. The government, taking into consideration the objections, then decided to provide proper plots to a section and houses to others so that the huts might be replaced. In 1959, the scheme envisaged the construction of four tenement blocks for the four villages.

Another report in 1981 talks of a ₹14-lakh proposal to re-lay the bypass road on Marina beach behind the Santhome Cathedral and construct a sea wall to prevent sea erosion. The 12-m wide road had been battered and the space was being used by fishermen to dry fish. Then too the idea was to allow traffic on it to prevent congestion on Santhome High Road.

Today, starting from the Light House side, the road lines Nochikuppam, Nochinagar, Dommingkuppam, Selvaraj Gramam, Bhavanikuppam, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Nambikkai Nagar, Mullaimanagar and Mullikuppam alias Srinivasapuram.