Opened to traffic in 1856, still functional, Royapuram railway station is the oldest surviving railway station in the entire subcontinent. The first services operated were between Royapuram and Ambur and between Royapuram and Tiruvallur. | Photo Credit: S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
Unlike the Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations which bustle with commuters and train movements round-the-clock, the red brick building of the Royapuram railway station sits forlorn and isolated with only a few commuters dropping in to take one of the few odd trains that currently stop at the station.
Soaked in history, the Royapuram station sent the first train in the southern part of the country, chugging out, on June 28, 1856. The activity and erstwhile power of the Royapuram railway station, which was once the railway terminus and the headquarters, might have faded, but the heritage building has a place in the city, and not just its architectural logs.
On the eventful day of June 28, 1856, the first passenger train carrying Governor Lord Harris and 300 European delegates was operated from the Royapuram railway terminus to Wallajah Road (now called Walajabad in Kancheepuram district). On the same day, a second train was operated from the railway terminus to ‘Triveloor’ (presently Tiruvallur). The railway terminus remained the headquarters of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway until 1922, after which it was shifted to Egmore.
The sprawling railway station, which still has several tracks snaking in and out linking the several platforms and the railway shed, celebrated its 166th anniversary. The railway station has been designated under Category 1 heritage building, among the 800 heritage structures identified by the Justice Padmanabhan Committee constituted by the State government.
B. Guganesan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, said the Royapuram railway station was a jewel in the crown of the Indian Railways with the Southern Railway committed to preserve and maintain the heritage classic structure. He said the heritage building, which was designed by William Adelpi Tracey, was renovated keeping the old structure intact at a cost of ₹35 lakh in 2005.
Om Prakash, Senior Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, who has a keen knowledge of railway heritage structures in the Southern Railway, said Royapuram was originally called Rayarpuram named after the Rayar kings who ruled Tiruchi, Tanjore and Pudukottai. Another popular version for the Rayarpuram name was the Britishers and the Anglo Indians who settled in this place and were supposed to be known as ‘Rayars’, he added.
Poongavanam, who works in a private company and boards a suburban train to Ambattur from the railway station, said though suburban train services have been increased after the completion of the third line to Chennai Beach, providing better passenger amenities of extending the foot-overbridge to the south side of the railway station, installing of closed circuit television cameras and posting of parking contractors, would help in the Royapuram railway station regaining its past glory. The demand for making this railway station the fourth railway terminus among the residents of north Chennai also remains a dream.
