Royapuram railway station heritage to be preserved: HC

The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, was closing a PIL filed by S Sathia Chandran, an advocate. Sathia sought a direction to forbear the Secretary to Government, Housing and Urban Development Department, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, The Heritage Conservation Committee, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and General Manager, Southern Railways, from deleting the Royapuram station from the list of heritage buildings in Phase-I prepared by them. 

“At present it stands enlisted at Serial No.16 in the list of heritage buildings as per the notification issued. As to what would happen in future, we cannot guess. But suffice to say that there is a mandate prohibitory against the railways at present. We may suggest that if the railways want to expand the station, it is always possible even while preserving the heritage portion,” the bench said. 

The petitioner claimed the SR officials had requested the removal of the Royapuram station building from the list of heritage buildings so as to enable them to demolish it and undertake some projects. The petitioner said the building is of historic importance and that it was the oldest station in the sub-continent.