Title - Royapuram railway station – One among the 800 heritage structures in India

Royapuram is one of the most featured locality of north Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Though many of them know it by name it has its history untold. The past of Royapuram is interesting while the present make it very difficult to track the trails of history. We all may know Royapuram Railway station but it will be a point of astonishment for the majority to know that it is the first railway station of south India and the third oldest railway station in India after the Victoria in Mumbai and Howrah station in Kolkata.It was established in the year 1856.

Since the original structures of Bombay and Thane stations no longer exist, Royapuram station remains the oldest railway station in the entire nation.

Though it is quite an active section of the Chennai suburban railway network between Beach station and Arokkonam, poor maintenance ruined the structure of railway station through the decades. One end of the station, which was formerly used as a military platform, became a playground with most of the area covered with overgrown scrub vegetation

In 2005, the building was refurbished at an estimated cost of Rs.3.5 million and was re-opened to the public on October 2nd 2005 by the then union minister of state for railways, Velu

It is the oldest surviving railway station structures of the Indian Railways. The Justice Padmanabhan committee, constituted by the Tamil Nadu state government, has identified the station as among the 800 heritage structures in India.