Royapuram station to survive Railway's bid to wipe it off from heritage list

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Southern Railways plan to tear down more than the century-old Royapuram Railway station is unlikely to fructify, as the State Heritage Conservation Committee is likely to turn down its request to delist it from the list of heritage buildings.

CMDA sources told Express that a decision to this effect is likely to be taken during the third week of August when the Heritage Conservation Committee will hold a meeting. “We don’t want to set a precedent. This proposal is unlikely to be cleared,” a CMDA source said.

Built in 1856 during the colonial era by the then Madras Railway Company, Royapuram was the first station that initiated railway services in South India. The list prepared by CMDA has described it as Grade-1 heritage structure.

Southern Railways plans to raze the station to build a passenger terminal besides two rail lines to connect stations in south Tamil Nadu with the rest of the country.

CMDA sources said the meeting would also discuss the first draft list of 79 heritage sites. After going through the omissions and corrections, the list is likely to be forwarded to the state government for notification.

The heritage conservation committee has identified 500 sites and till now details have been collected about 79 sites only.

The station, known for its architectural grandeur, was the second to be built in India and it remained the main railway terminus in Chennai till 1907. However, due to lack of maintenance, the station is in a dilapidated condition and if government soon does not notify the structure, it would be consigned to pages of history books.