The current lighthouse is a landmark on the Marina Beach, which was built by the East Coast Constructions and Industries in 1976, and opened in January 1977.

[4] The lighthouse is located on Kamarajar Salai (Beach Road) opposite the office of the Director General of Tamil Nadu Police and All India Radio's Chennai station.

The lighthouse and the surrounding areas are served by the Light House MRTS station located nearby on Dr.Radhakrishnan Salai 13°02′42″N 80°16′36″E / 13.0450°N 80.2768°E / 13.0450; 80.2768.

As its capital, the city of Madras served as the nerve centre of the sea trade controlled by the British East India Company.

Ships approaching the shore of Madras after nightfall faced the risk of running aground on the shoals of Covelong (Kovalam) in the south and the sand-banks of Armagaon and Pulicat in the north.

Before the end of the 18th century, when Madras was an open seashore, where goods were loaded and unloaded from boats, bonfire lit by fisherwomen was used to guide the menfolk to the shore.

The arrangement of exhibiting light to assist British East India Company's vessels arriving at Madras and to enter the port during the 17th and 18th centuries is not known since no record is available.

In February 1795, maritime officials petitioned the British government to build a lighthouse at Fort St. George to serve as a navigational aid, allowing vessels to enter the open anchorage at all times.

[5] In 1834, further to the petition by vice-admiral Sir John Gore about the necessity to have a more advanced lighthouse, the East India Company asked Capt.

[5] This led to the choosing of a site on the Esplanade "between the Fort and the offices of Parry & Co" as the location for the new lighthouse.

[6] Work was completed in 1840[5] at a total cost of ₹ 60,000,[6] on which the wick lamp was shifted as the supply of the new equipment by Stone Chance, Birmingham was delayed.

On 9 October 1843, a public announcement was made that the new Madras Light was completed and it would be fully functional from 1 January 1844.

Responding to this, the government shifted this lighthouse equipment with lantern onto the dome of the new High Court building.

It started functioning on 1 June 1894, with argand lamps and reflectors manufactured by Chance Bros, Birmingham which had originally been installed in the 160-ft-tall lighthouse tower.

[5] This remained one of the primary reasons for attracting the attention of the German warship SMS Emden during World War I.

A ballad in Tamil, published by Vijayapuram Sabhapati Pillai in 1914, goes: To damage Fort and Light house too Hurl they did some bombs ...

Located north of the port, the entrance channel tower is about 24 metres (79 ft) high with a focal plane of 26 metres (85 ft), flashing white, red and green lights, and the tower is visible only from a distance closer to the entrance channel.

Functioning from the roof of the Officer's Mess, now housing the Fort Museum, it comprised a lantern with large oil-fed wicks.

The second lighthouse was a tall granite Doric column erected in 1841 and is located within the compound of the Madras High Court to the north of Fort St. George.

Unlike the earlier rotary model, it had a reciprocal type of light, with the ratio of bright-to-dark periods being 2:3 and with each unit of time being 24 seconds.

Given the inability of brick to withstand saline breeze of the sea, the surface of the tower was built with granite procured from quarries at Pallavaram.

However, following the construction of the taller High Court building in 1892, mariners started having difficulty in identifying the tower during daytime.

[4] The present lighthouse is a triangular cylindrical, red-and-white-banded, concrete one with lantern and double gallery and is 11 stories high.

The source consists of 440V 50 Hz main supply (with standby Genset), with a range of 28 nautical miles.

[4] The base of the present lighthouse tower was damaged by the waves from the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, but there were no reported casualties.

For administrative control, the entire coastline has been divided into seven districts having their regional headquarters at Jamanagar, Mumbai, Cochin, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata and Port Blair.

[13][14] The ninth floor of the tower has a viewing gallery where steel welded mesh panels have been erected for safety.

[15] The lighthouse was open to the public until the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, following which it was shut down over fears that it would be the target of an attack.

[18][19] The union shipping ministry is planning to build museums, rooms, cafeteria, souvenir shop, viewers gallery, 4D cinema hall, gaming zone and aquarium at the Chennai lighthouse.

[20][21] The heritage museum will showcase the history of marine navigation, where oil-bearing large wicks, kerosene lights, petroleum vapour, and electrical lamps used in the past will be on display.