Chennai Central, officially Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station, and formerly known as Madras Central (station code: MAS), is the main railway terminus in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is the busiest railway station in South India and one of the most important hubs in the country. It is connected to Moore Market Complex railway station, Chennai Central metro station, Chennai Park railway station, and Chennai Park Town railway station. It is about from the Chennai Egmore railway station. The terminus connects the city to northern India, including Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi, and all the different parts of India.
The century-old building of the railway station, designed by architect George Harding, is one of the most prominent landmarks in Chennai. The station is also a main hub for the Chennai Suburban Railway system. It lies adjacent to the current headquarters of the Southern Railway and the Ripon Building. During the British Raj, the station served as the gateway to South India, and the station is still used as a landmark for the city and the state.
The station was renamed twice: first to reflect the name change of the city from Madras to Chennai in 1998, it was renamed from Madras Central to Chennai Central, and then to honor the AIADMK founder and the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. G. Ramachandran, it was renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station on 5 April 2019.
About 550,000 passengers use the terminus every day, making it the busiest railway station in South India. Along with Chennai Egmore and Coimbatore Junction, the Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central is among the most profitable stations of the Southern Railway. As per a report published in 2007 by the Indian Railways, Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central and Secunderabad Junction were awarded 183 points out of a maximum of 300 for cleanliness, the highest in the country.
History
Marking the initial days of the railways in the Indian subcontinent, the Madras Railway Company began to network South India in 1856. The first station was built at Royapuram, which remained the main station at that time. Expansion of the Madras Railways network, particularly the completion of the Madras–Vyasarpadi line, called for a second station in Madras, resulting in Madras Central coming into being.
Madras Central was built in 1873 at Park Town around the slopes of Periamet, then known as Narimedu or Hog's Hill, as a second terminus to decongest the Royapuram harbor station, which was being used for port movements. The station was built on the open grounds that had once been called John Pereira's Gardens, belonging to Joao Pereira de Faria (John Pereira), a Portuguese merchant in the port town of Negapatam (present-day Nagapattinam) who settled in Madras in 1660. The garden had a house used by Pereira for rest and recreation. Having fallen into disuse, the garden had become a gaming den, with cockfighting being the favourite sport at that time, until when the Trinity Chapel was built nearby in 1831 and the Railways moved into the area in the 1870s.
In 1907, Madras Central was made the Madras Railway Company's main station. The station gained prominence after the beach line was extended further south in the same year, and Royapuram was no longer a terminus for Madras. All trains were then terminated at Madras Central instead. The Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company was formed in 1908 and took over the Central station from the Madras Railway Company. The station's position was further strengthened after the construction of the headquarters of the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway (erstwhile Madras Railway and now known as the Southern Railway) adjacent to it in 1922.
Madras Central was part of South Indian Railway Company during the British rule. The company was established in 1890 and was initially headquartered in Trichinopoly. Egmore railway station was made its northern terminus in 1908. It was then shifted to Madurai and later to Madras Central. With the opening of the Egmore railway station, plans were first made of linking Madras Central and Egmore, which was later dropped. The company operated a suburban electric train service for Madras city from May 1931 onwards in the Madras Beach–Tambaram section. In 1959, additional changes were made to the station. Electrification of the lines at the station began in 1979, when the section up to Gummidipoondi was electrified on 13 April 1979. The lines up to Tiruvallur were electrified on 29 November 1979 while the tracks along Platforms 1 to 7 were electrified on 29 December 1979.