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Royapuram or Tambaram ?

ROYAPURAM or TAMBARAM?

Madras, that is Chennai, has two Railway terminals - Central and Egmore. As the city has grown and expanded now, a need is felt for a third terminal to be built. Should it be Royapuram in the north Madras or Tambaram in the south Madras? Today (20 Jan 2012) a team is visiting Royapuram to have a proper personal perspective.

Now, to history:

Madras was founded over 370 years ago by Francis Day (and Andrew Cogan) in 1639 when he purchased 3 sq miles of land north of San Thome. Madras started growing, mostly around the Fort. George Town [Black Town] for formed for the settlement of Indians working for the British. Business houses were developed near and around Town. A road was built in 1814 to reach these main business houses.

First Line Beach, it was then called, later changed to North Beach Road, and now renamed as Rajaji Salai. Parallel to this road was built Second Line Beach. On these two roads British constructed great merchant houses and banking institutions. Virtually just from these two roads, the British "ruled" financially the Madras City ! Those days, the First Line Beach was indeed THE beach - with Marina being reserved for the Blacks [local Madras people]

In 1845 a plan to build a Harbour was mooted, plan approved in 1857, work commenced in 1859 and a mole was opened in 1861. By 1881 the work was more or less completed and Madras had a harbour finally in 1881. Madras Harbour Board [1886] became Madras Port Trust in 1905 - fortunately, this name still exists even today. Sir Francis Spring [1905 - 1919 ] who was the chairman is considered the Father of today's Madras Port. Business on the Harbour started growing by leaps and bounds.

Side by side of this growth of the harbour, North Beach Road also grew [some of the finest buildings of Madras are in this road]. Need for a Railways was felt and the FIRST RAILWAY STATION of the Madras Province was built at the end of this North Beach Road at ROYAPURAM and inaugurated in 1856. it had been the Main Terminus and Hqrs of Madras Railways since then.

Onto Railways:

The first rail track (steam locomation) was laid in 1853 linking ARCOT (now called Wallajahpet in the Bangalore line) to the west with ROYAPURAM in the north Madras. this line was later extended and steam locomation traffic opened on July 1, 1856 [three years after VT - Thane opened].

Royapuram was the premier station till 1907 when Madras Central station took over this honour. In 1873 Central was a small station. After Central became the premier station, ROYAPURAM started losing its importance and traffic.

Neglected Royapuram Station

Today, this station lies totally neglected and forlorn. However in recent years with the MRTS coming up, local trains to Ambattur, Avadi and beyond, run via this station. Seven long-distance trains to Hyderabad, Kolkatta, and the North speed past this old station. There is a vast open land (about 76 acres) here, so the pro-Royapuram activists say the proposed Terminus can easily be built here. More than enough land-space is available for parking, they say.
Royapuram Station after re-modelling in 2007

 I too vote for Royapuram, since it would greatly improve the North Chennai which is totally neglected by successive Govts.

*** Most of the material taken from MADRAS REDISCOVERED by S Muthiah. My sincere thanks to Mr Muthiah, my favourite writer.

 rajappa
11:00 AM
20 Jan 2012.

Comments

  1. Nice info with beautiful photographs. I did visit this station a day before but the renovated building looks a little bit different. The part projection and the first floor seems to have been pulled down.

    ReplyDelete

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