ProUI

The Royapuram Railway Station, once "Madras Central", is today a shadow of its glorious past. With the Southern Railways planning to raze this heritage site to make way for developmental projects on the 72-acre station premises, we take a look at how it has survived over the past 157 years. Compiled by: Susanna Myrtle Lazarus

NEW DELHI: Travel for devotees to the famous Vaishno Devi shrine will become more comfortable with trains expected to go right up to Katra, the shrine's base camp, from August.Railways is going to open the 25-km Udhampur-Katra rail link in August as work on the difficult route is almost complete.The national transporter is also working with the state government to integrate permit slips for Vaishno Devi Darshan with the train ticket."We are in talks with the Jammu & Kashmir government. The passenger can get permit slips while booking the train ticket," said V K Gupta, General Manager, Northern Railways.The next step is an evaluation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for approval to run trains up to Katra as safety clearance from the watchdog is mandatory before new route becomes operational, an official said.Most of the work, except the laying of ballast-less track on a 3.1-km-long tunnel, the most difficult on the route, is almost complete now, Gupta said.After the commissioning of the new route, pilgrims will be able to reach the base camp of Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra without having to break their journey at Jammu.An estimated 10 million devotees pay obeisance at the Vaishno Devi shrine annually.The Udhampur-Katra rail route — to be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 960 crore — passes through hostile terrain, making it an extremely challenging railways project.The route consists of seven tunnels and 30 small and big bridges, including a 185-feet high tunnel. A total of seven tunnels span over 10 km of the 25-km stretch.While no decision has been taken yet on the number of trains which will go to Katra, but once the line is operational, any train coming to Uddhampur can be extended to Katra depending on popular demand.Katra station is ready with three platforms, and two more platforms will come up later.

For R. Parthasarathy, an employee at Brahmatheertam in Royapuram, where he cooks 13 different dishes for families of the dead every day, the return journey after work has been the same for nearly 40 years. “The Royapuram station is the one place in the city that has not changed at all. Sometimes, I fall asleep there, lulled by the breeze, and miss the train,” he says.With its high ceiling, Corinthian pillars and a new coat of crimson paint, the 157-year-old railway station is an integral part of Parthasarathy’s life.“People have an inherent dislike for anything that is old. Instead of demolishing the station, they should look into the drinking water taps that have been dry since the past 20 years,” he says.Every day, nearly 12 trains halt at the station, the oldest in south India. But except the morning peak-hour ones, most of the trains are usually late, say passengers. Most of them travel to Tiruvallur, Tiruvottiyur, Vyasarpadi and Thirunindravur, among other places.On one side of the unused tracks is a huge track-laying engine. “It came here five months ago. Whenever tracks need to be repaired or cleaned, the engine is sent from here. Earlier, the work was done manually, and people would come to watch how over 30 men lifted the heavy tracks and replaced the fittings,” says A. Rajagopalan (73), who frequently travels to Walltax road from Perambur.

“The premises are still unsafe for women, which is probably why many prefer to go to Central station in the late hours. But it takes just five minutes to get to Parry’s in a train from here,” he says.

Officials here recall, how, not more than 30 years ago, there were at least 100 RPF officials employed at the station which had more than 20 departments.

“Now there are just two rooms — one for the station master and the other for the commercial department. There are barely 10 policemen here,” says an official.

Ball-bearings, batteries, broken racks and valves are stocked in spaces between pillars, and everything is covered with bird droppings. The walls and floors of the platforms are a colourful mix of union election posters, party symbols and slogans. Dogs roam about freely on the platforms.

At another end, garbage accumulated in the area is set on fire, and some passengers walk to the opposite side to avoid the smoke. There are no announcements made, and passengers keep waiting for hours for a train. “The last train arrives at midnight and the first, at 1.40 a.m., going to Arakkonam. With a break of just one-and-a-half hours, this should be a rather busy station. It can be made much more commuter-friendly with more lights, security, announcements, foot overbridges and regular maintenance,” says J. Yusuf, another passenger.

Opposite the station are red buildings which residents fondly remember as Anglo-Indian structures. “One of them was the ‘forms’ department that stocked all kinds of stationery and typewriters. It used to be very noisy with the constant tap of keys on typewriters. That was the time when this was the ‘central station,’ but over time, most departments were shifted to either Chennai Central or Locoworks,” says an old-time worker.

More than passengers, the station officials, who did not wish to be identified, are passionate about restoring the building. “There are hardly 20 of us here and most of us will retire in the next two years. We have spent almost a lifetime under this roof, and it has been sturdy enough. There is no reason it should go now,” says an official.

The station may not be neglected altogether, for it seems officials have realised the value of the extensive space it provides.

According to sources, there is a survey on to lay a new track, and there are also proposals to open a maintenance shed for engines.

For R. Parthasarathy, an employee at Brahmatheertam in Royapuram, where he cooks 13 different dishes for families of the dead every day, the return journey after work has been the same for nearly 40 years. “The Royapuram station is the one place in the city that has not changed at all. Sometimes, I fall asleep there, lulled by the breeze, and miss the train,” he says.With its high ceiling, Corinthian pillars and a new coat of crimson paint, the 157-year-old railway station is an integral part of Parthasarathy’s life.“People have an inherent dislike for anything that is old. Instead of demolishing the station, they should look into the drinking water taps that have been dry since the past 20 years,” he says.Every day, nearly 12 trains halt at the station, the oldest in south India. But except the morning peak-hour ones, most of the trains are usually late, say passengers. Most of them travel to Tiruvallur, Tiruvottiyur, Vyasarpadi and Thirunindravur, among other places.On one side of the unused tracks is a huge track-laying engine. “It came here five months ago. Whenever tracks need to be repaired or cleaned, the engine is sent from here. Earlier, the work was done manually, and people would come to watch how over 30 men lifted the heavy tracks and replaced the fittings,” says A. Rajagopalan (73), who frequently travels to Walltax road from Perambur.

“The premises are still unsafe for women, which is probably why many prefer to go to Central station in the late hours. But it takes just five minutes to get to Parry’s in a train from here,” he says.

Officials here recall, how, not more than 30 years ago, there were at least 100 RPF officials employed at the station which had more than 20 departments.

“Now there are just two rooms — one for the station master and the other for the commercial department. There are barely 10 policemen here,” says an official.

Ball-bearings, batteries, broken racks and valves are stocked in spaces between pillars, and everything is covered with bird droppings. The walls and floors of the platforms are a colourful mix of union election posters, party symbols and slogans. Dogs roam about freely on the platforms.

At another end, garbage accumulated in the area is set on fire, and some passengers walk to the opposite side to avoid the smoke. There are no announcements made, and passengers keep waiting for hours for a train. “The last train arrives at midnight and the first, at 1.40 a.m., going to Arakkonam. With a break of just one-and-a-half hours, this should be a rather busy station. It can be made much more commuter-friendly with more lights, security, announcements, foot overbridges and regular maintenance,” says J. Yusuf, another passenger.

Opposite the station are red buildings which residents fondly remember as Anglo-Indian structures. “One of them was the ‘forms’ department that stocked all kinds of stationery and typewriters. It used to be very noisy with the constant tap of keys on typewriters. That was the time when this was the ‘central station,’ but over time, most departments were shifted to either Chennai Central or Locoworks,” says an old-time worker.

More than passengers, the station officials, who did not wish to be identified, are passionate about restoring the building. “There are hardly 20 of us here and most of us will retire in the next two years. We have spent almost a lifetime under this roof, and it has been sturdy enough. There is no reason it should go now,” says an official.

The station may not be neglected altogether, for it seems officials have realised the value of the extensive space it provides.

According to sources, there is a survey on to lay a new track, and there are also proposals to open a maintenance shed for engines.

BANIHAL: Undeterred by challenges it faced while executing two big-ticket infra projects here, Hindustan Construction CompanyBSE 8.34 % will bid for such upcoming works in this region like the 13-km Arpinchala-Dharam underground railway project.The Mumbai-based firm has recently executed the 11-km long Pir Panjal railway tunnel, the third longest in the world, and also the Uri-II hydro power project in Jammu and Kashmir.The company is set to bid for the 13-km long Arpinchala- Dharam project as well, the official said."The Banihal-Qazigund railway tunnel, the longest in the country, was awarded to us in 2005. The track is now ready for the Railways. The amount of challenges we had to face was mind-boggling."However, that does not deter us from bidding for more projects and we are, in fact, working on the same route that will connect between Dharam-Sumbar. We will bid for more projects on the same track in the coming days," said tunnel's project manager Sharanappa Yalal.Sources said that government has already come out with a tender inviting developers to bid for the Arpinchala to Dharam project and HCC is making preparations to bid for it.HCC had bagged the Pir Panjal tunnel project from IRCON, a construction subsidiary of the Railways, in 2005. Though the initial cost of the project was Rs 400 crore, it went up to Rs 800 crore as the scope of the project widened.The tunnel, which connects the Bichelri valley of Banhial in Jammu with Qazigund in Kashmir, will reduce the distance between the two places to 18 km from 35 km by road."It will also help the economy of the two places. The tunnel will facilitate transportation during winter. During the most part of the year, the inclement weather forces closure of the road tunnel and the highway," Yalal said."However, it was not easy to execute the project. Initially, we had brought two road headers from Germany for boring the tunnel. But, as we started working, we found the geologically young and unstable mountain range is not fit for traditional way of tunneling. We then brought the New Austrian Tunneling method for the first time in India," he said.The official said the Uri-II 240 MW hydro power project is also ready for commissioning though it has been taken out of the PM's inauguration agenda during his two-day proposed visit here as NHPC said it had developed some technical snag."We have done the civil construction part of the project and the project hand over is likely to happen soon. It is up to NHPC to decide on the date of commissioning of the project," he said.NHPC is building the Rs 1,724 crore project at Baramulla on the river of Jhelum. Talking about the Pir Panjal project, Yayal said: "The company faced weather problems as well. During November to June period of the year, the area remains almost inaccessible due to snow, which envelopes the arterial road causing huge problems for transporting required materials. Getting manpower, even those who are unskilled, was difficult." The tunnel is a part of the 345-km long Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link, aimed at connecting Jammu to Baramulla on the northwestern part of the valley. Trains now ply from Baramulla to Quazigund and Jammu to Udhampur on this stretch. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the tunnel, thereby connecting Qazigund to Banihal. Around 90-km long stretch, between Udhampur to Banihal is to be completed to get the stretch connected by the Railways. Meanwhile, sources said Railways is likely to tie up with state transport authority to help passengers reach out to the unlinked passage by bus at no extra cost. Passengers would be able to book tickets up to Baramulla. An announcement in this regard is likely during the tunnel's inauguration by the Prime Minister. HCC has executed a majority of India's landmark infrastructure projects. Its landmark works include the Bandra Worli Sea Link, Mumbai - India's first and longest open sea cable-stayed bridge; the Kolkata Metro, Farakka Barrage and India's largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam - Tamil Nadu.

Pilgrims from Krishna district, who were rescued after being stranded in the rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, reached Vijaywada on Sunday from New Delhi.As many as 153 people, who belonged to various places in the district, arrived in a special train Sunday morning.The railway administration attached four bogies to the New Delhi-Visakhapatnam Link Express for residents of Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry, and two coaches to Puri-Tirupati Express for those belonging to Ongole and Nellore, to facilitate their journey home, said Additional Divisional Railway Manager S Subba Rao.Pilgrims were provided free food at the railway station.

The Royapuram Railway Station, once "Madras Central", is today a shadow of its glorious past. With the Southern Railways planning to raze this heritage site to make way for developmental projects on the 72-acre station premises, we take a look at how it has survived over the past 157 years. Compiled by: Susanna Myrtle Lazarus

Amid public anger over the delay in evacuating the stranded people from calamity-hit areas of Uttarkhand, many states had arranged for charted flights from Dehradun on Saturday to airlift residents back to their home.However, the Karnataka government arranged for just a train journey from Delhi to Bangalore, providing second-class sleeper tickets. As most people who have rescued were strained and urgently required rest and treatment for their ailments, many states have decided to arrange for their journey home by air.As a result, though 110 pilgrims from Karnataka have reached Delhi, 68 left for Bangalore by train on Saturday; the remaining will leave on Sunday.Around 1,500 people from Karnataka are believed to be still stranded in different parts of Uttarakhand and needed urgent help.On the other hand, after hearing of the pilgrims’ plight, the Gujarat government swung into action, arranging a Boeng 737-700 from Dehradun and flew 134 passengers to Ahmedabad free of cost. This was the first chartered aircraft to operate from Dehradun carrying stranded tourists and pilgrims, aviation sources said here. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the state, also instructed the officials of his state to arrange for flights to Ahmedabad for people form his state in Dehradun.While the Punjab government also arranged for chopper services to airlift pilgrims from Dehradun to Chandigarh, the government of Tamil Nadu is providing air tickets to all its pilgrims to return home via Chennai. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are also planning similar arrangements to evacuate their people from their states expeditiously.  Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met his Uttarakhand counterpart Vijay Bahuguna in Dehradun on Saturday and assured all help for relief and rescue operations. Hooda left his official helicopter at the disposal of the Uttarakhand government for relief operations.Interestingly, most states that have arranged for the stranded people to be sent home via flight have done so after getting complaints from the pilgrims’ kin that their return was being delayed due to poor coordination among rescue teams.Despite the standard operating procedure in place to evacuate and send back stranded people to their homes, many rescued persons complained of poor coordination among and ill-preparedness of different agencies.

NEW DELHI: The much awaited decision on Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) taking up two extension projects - one each in Noida and Faridabad - was deferred by the company's board last week after Delhi government representatives present in the meeting sought more time to submit the official response to the proposals.Sources said after Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has made her views public against Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) taking up fresh projects outside the national capital, the city government seems to be in no mood to favour the corporation for executing two extension plans -- Noida City Centre to Sector-62 and YMCA Chowk in Faridabad to Ballabhgarh."This is nothing else than a tactics to buy time by the Delhi government. Their representatives had agreed to all the proposals when a sub-committee held meeting on the same issues. Now it surprises why they now propose to submit fresh views," said a senior Union urban development ministry official.He added that only after the go ahead from all sub-committee members the proposals were included in the agenda. "Extension of those two lines and one in Ghaziabad is very crucial for providing better connectivity to Delhi. The purpose to arrest or reduce stress on city's infrastructure will be defeated if we delay such decisions," the official claimed.To tame the chief minister even the Planning Commission had said that it wants DMRC to take up projects in the NCR.Earlier Dikshit had sent a letter to defence minister A K Antony registering her unhappiness after Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments had made announcements on expansion of Metro network in their states. She had written that the announcements were made without the approval of the group of ministers (GoM) and without consulting her government, which has a 50% share in the DMRC.The 6.7-km City Centre-Sector 62 link is proposed be completely elevated. In the case Faridabad, Haryana has pushed for extension of the Metro track by 3.2 km from YMCA Chowk to Ballabhgarh for better connectivity.

BANIHAL: Undeterred by challenges it faced while executing two big-ticket infra projects here, Hindustan Construction CompanyBSE 8.34 % will bid for such upcoming works in this region like the 13-km Arpinchala-Dharam underground railway project.The Mumbai-based firm has recently executed the 11-km long Pir Panjal railway tunnel, the third longest in the world, and also the Uri-II hydro power project in Jammu and Kashmir.The company is set to bid for the 13-km long Arpinchala- Dharam project as well, the official said."The Banihal-Qazigund railway tunnel, the longest in the country, was awarded to us in 2005. The track is now ready for the Railways. The amount of challenges we had to face was mind-boggling."However, that does not deter us from bidding for more projects and we are, in fact, working on the same route that will connect between Dharam-Sumbar. We will bid for more projects on the same track in the coming days," said tunnel's project manager Sharanappa Yalal.Sources said that government has already come out with a tender inviting developers to bid for the Arpinchala to Dharam project and HCC is making preparations to bid for it.HCC had bagged the Pir Panjal tunnel project from IRCON, a construction subsidiary of the Railways, in 2005. Though the initial cost of the project was Rs 400 crore, it went up to Rs 800 crore as the scope of the project widened.The tunnel, which connects the Bichelri valley of Banhial in Jammu with Qazigund in Kashmir, will reduce the distance between the two places to 18 km from 35 km by road."It will also help the economy of the two places. The tunnel will facilitate transportation during winter. During the most part of the year, the inclement weather forces closure of the road tunnel and the highway," Yalal said."However, it was not easy to execute the project. Initially, we had brought two road headers from Germany for boring the tunnel. But, as we started working, we found the geologically young and unstable mountain range is not fit for traditional way of tunneling. We then brought the New Austrian Tunneling method for the first time in India," he said.The official said the Uri-II 240 MW hydro power project is also ready for commissioning though it has been taken out of the PM's inauguration agenda during his two-day proposed visit here as NHPC said it had developed some technical snag."We have done the civil construction part of the project and the project hand over is likely to happen soon. It is up to NHPC to decide on the date of commissioning of the project," he said.NHPC is building the Rs 1,724 crore project at Baramulla on the river of Jhelum. Talking about the Pir Panjal project, Yayal said: "The company faced weather problems as well. During November to June period of the year, the area remains almost inaccessible due to snow, which envelopes the arterial road causing huge problems for transporting required materials. Getting manpower, even those who are unskilled, was difficult." The tunnel is a part of the 345-km long Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link, aimed at connecting Jammu to Baramulla on the northwestern part of the valley. Trains now ply from Baramulla to Quazigund and Jammu to Udhampur on this stretch. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the tunnel, thereby connecting Qazigund to Banihal. Around 90-km long stretch, between Udhampur to Banihal is to be completed to get the stretch connected by the Railways. Meanwhile, sources said Railways is likely to tie up with state transport authority to help passengers reach out to the unlinked passage by bus at no extra cost. Passengers would be able to book tickets up to Baramulla. An announcement in this regard is likely during the tunnel's inauguration by the Prime Minister. HCC has executed a majority of India's landmark infrastructure projects. Its landmark works include the Bandra Worli Sea Link, Mumbai - India's first and longest open sea cable-stayed bridge; the Kolkata Metro, Farakka Barrage and India's largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam - Tamil Nadu.