When LIC was the best known landmark in Madras

There was this plot with a chequered history and a go-getting man with a magnificent dream. The plot on Mount Road was surrounded by colonial landmarks and to challenge them and their histories, Chidambaram wanted to build his own. The architect would have listened breathlessly when he heard the dream of the tallest building in India modelled on the world-famous UN Secretariat in New York City. Chidambaram had even selected a name — United India Building.

A 5-acre property across the Cooum River, the land seems to have had a series of owners and tenants including the city’s oldest freemason lodge, a tailor, a publisher, a laundry and an auctioneer. It also had the history of having used piped water from Kilpauk and electricity for the first time in the city.

Into the picture in 1951, came M Ct M Chidambaram Chettiar, a scion of one of the largest business houses. Leaving aside his conventional business havens, Burma and Malaya, Chidambaram forged ahead in his own enterprises. By the time he was 40, Chidambaram ran an insurance company, a rayon factory (Travancore rayons was one of the largest industrial ventures in south India) and Indian Overseas Bank. The tallest building in India, on one of its oldest existing roads, was planned to make the headquarters for them all.

But the building seemed to have a mind of its own! Unbelievably, the proposed name, its floor plan, promoter and architect were not the same from start to finish of the building. Problems started when the construction was commenced in 1953. London-based architects HJ Brown and LC Moulin walked out in a huff and local architect Chitale and Sons finished designing it. Its construction marked the transition to concrete columns and pile foundations.

Tragically, when the building was still under construction, in distant Singapore, a constellation aircraft of BOAC from Sydney crashed while landing. All the crew jumped to safety but the passengers were burnt alive. Most bodies could not be identified and were buried in a common grave. One of them was Chidambaram Chettiar.

To add more oil to the existing conflagration, insurance businesses were nationalised in 1956 and the government took over the building’s construction. Its height was reduced to 14 floors and 2 basements. The construction was completed in 1959 and the building was unveiled on August 23 the same year by the then Union Finance Minister Moraji Desai and christened as the ‘Life Insurance Corporation Building.’

In spite of the ill luck, the 177-feet building on the city’s main thoroughfare was the cynosure of all eyes with its glass façade. The building consumed about 26,000 sq. ft. (half a football field size) of water resistant glass.

About 1,000 tons of steel and 3,000 tons of cement were used in the construction of the building. More importantly, LIC Building was the tallest building in India when it was inaugurated in 1959 for two years before being surpassed by the Usha Kiran Building in Bombay. In Madras, it held the record for 35 years. It had become the best-known landmark of the city (movies saved pages of dialogue explaining that the actor/actress had moved to Madras just by showing a shot of the LIC building).

On July 11 1975, a major fire occurred in the building. The fire spread rapidly from the lower floor through the AC shafts with the sea breeze aiding it. The entire firefighting resources of the city, including borrowed units from the Chennai Port Refineries and some factories, were not enough. 

Twenty four hours of brave firefighting (splinters of glass and molten metal kept falling on the firefighters) was hampered by mediocre equipment and water scarcity. Water lorries provided by the Corporation were utilised for transporting water from the nearby Cooum River. 

No loss of life was reported, but on many floors, there was nothing left except the scorched walls and deformed steel. One of the earliest computers in Madras, a huge ‘IBM machine’ as it was referred to, escaped because it was in the basement. As an aftermath, new rules were formulated for fire-protection measures for the entire city. Post this incident, the fire service got its high rise snorkels.