Royapuram to be Chennai’s 3rd Terminal Station soon

Royapuram to be Chennai’s 3rd Terminal Station soon

Royapuram (RPM): Union Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday announced in the Lok Sabha that the Royapuram Railway Station would be converted into the third terminal station in the city.

While this comes as a welcome relief at a time when the Central and Egmore stations are facing severe congestion, concerns are being raised whether the main building and platform 1 of the Royapuram station, which are classified as Grade 1 heritage structure by the CMDA, will be brought down or a new terminal built around the existing structure.

This is not the first time that the Railway Ministry has mooted such a plan for the station. After the then Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi’s announcement in the 2012-13 budget, Southern Railway planned to raze the building to re-build it as a terminal.

But in 2013, the CMDA turned down the request as the State Heritage Conservation Committee refused to de-list the structure from its list of heritage buildings.

However, no allotment was announced for the project in the 2013-14 Railway Budget, or the 2014-15 Budget announced by Gowda.

Welcoming the announcement, V Sriram of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) said that while the city badly needed a third railway terminal, it should not be at the cost of heritage. “The Railways can build the terminal while retaining the heritage structure. There is a lot of space in that area which can be utilised,” he suggested.

Despite being a heritage structure, the building continues to rot due to lack of maintenance with garbage strewn near the platform.

The station serves local commuters traversing the Chennai Beach-Arakkonam and Chennai Beach-Gummidipoondi routes. Long distance trains do not stop at the station.

The Royapuram station was built in the 1800s and remained the main terminus in Chennai till 1907.

Source: RailNews