Royapuram Station to put its best foot forward

CHENNAI: The railway officials will do a spot study and inspection at the 156-year-old Royapuram railway station in north Chennai on Friday to explore the possibilities for developing it as the third terminal in the city. The move comes after Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi recently directed officials to explore the possibilities for creating such a facility.Top officers, including Vinay Kumar, Devendra Singh and Mukesh Nigam, will inspect the station and the adjoining 72 acres of railway land, according to a release.If converted, the Royapuram terminal can have up to 19 lanes and will aid in the development of north Chennai, which has been crying foul about the lack of development activities in the area.On the other hand, if Tambaram railway station is converted into the city’s third terminal to ease the Express train traffic from Southern districts, the north-bound passengers will experience difficulties in reaching Chennai Central or Egmore as both locations are almost 30 km away from Tambaram.Earlier the railway authorities had proposed to set up the city’s third terminal at Tambaram. Later, the authorities said that the trains originating from Egmore would continue to use Egmore terminal itself.In a bid to press the railway authorities to convert Royapuram station into a third terminal, a movement was floated in 2009. T K S Elangovan, who was elected from North Chennai Lok Sabha seat, had also made representations to the Railway Minister.