The Hindu              24.06.2013

Despite CMDA assurance, Royapuram station runs high risk of demolition

slow progressLast year, a study was conducted to transform Royapuram
into the city’s third terminal and decongest Egmore and Central
stations.Not much progress has been made since —Photo: B. Jothi
Ramalingam

The highest decision-making authority of the Chennai
Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) will meet on Wednesday to
decide whether permission could be granted to Southern Railway for
demolition/modification of Royapuram station, which is a heritage
structure.

Though a CMDA official said on Saturday it
was unlikely that its heritage conservation committee was going to
permit partial or complete demolition of the railway station, the risk
of the structure being pulled down runs high.

Owing
to the exemption given to ‘operational structures,’ from the purview of
the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act and the Chennai City
Municipal Corporation Act, the railways can demolish the heritage
building ‘in the interest of public service.’

The
station figures among 19 structures classified as Grade-I heritage
buildings in the draft list prepared by the CMDA earlier this month, but
since the State government is yet to notify the list, Southern Railway
is not legally bound to protect the station and is free to pull it down.

According
to the special rules for the conservation of heritage buildings under
the Second Master Plan, Grade-I buildings have national or historical
importance, embodying excellence in architectural style, design,
technology and material usage. They may be associated with a great
historical event, personality, movement or institution. No interventions
would be permitted either on the exterior or interior unless it is
necessary in the interest of strengthening, and prolonging, the life of
the building.

CMDA is empowered to give development
permission for the changes on the advice of the heritage conservation
committee, appointed by the State government.

The
CMDA meeting on Wednesday is likely to answer the concerns of citizens
on the conservation of nationally-significant heritage structures in the
city. The member-secretary of CMDA is now the only ray of hope in
saving the Royapuram station.

According to
development regulations for Chennai metropolitan area, the member
secretary of CMDA ‘shall act in consultation with the heritage
conservation committee to be appointed by the government, provided that
in exceptional cases for reasons to be recorded in writing, the member
secretary may overrule the recommendation of the heritage conservation
committee, provided the powers to overrule the recommendation shall not
be delegated by the member secretary to any other officer.’

The
CMDA member secretary will give an opportunity of hearing to Southern
Railway and to the public before taking a final decision.

The
Royapuram station, whose construction began in 1853, was designed by
William Adelpi Tracey like a regency mansion in the quasi-classical
style of the Renaissance period.