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Chennai Egmore (formerly known as Madras Egmore) is a railway station in Egmore, Chennai (Madras), South India. The station acts as the arrival and departure point for trains connecting Chennai and southern, central Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This is one of the two main railway terminals in the city along with Chennai Central (Madras Central), which serves the north and west bound trains from the city. However, some trains to the north-east and eastern parts of the country also start from/pass through here, though the number is much fewer than the ones from Chennai Central. The Chennai Beach—Tambaram suburban railway line also passes through the station. The building of the railway station with decorative domes is one of the prominent landmarks of Chennai. This station is known in Tamil as Ezhumbur (எழும்பூர்). Over 75% of the trains starting from Chennai Egmore station pass through Viluppuram at different times to south Tamil Nadu The Chennai Egmore station has a platform which allows vehicles to be driven up almost to the side of the train—to allow for easy loading/unloading of baggage and passengers. The station was apparently constructed from 1906 on land purchased from Pulney Andy, The building is built in the Gothic style of architecture with imposing domes and corridors. It is one of the prominent landmarks of the city of Chennai. The recently opened northern entrance to this railway station is on the arterial Poonamalee High road in Chennai city. ==History== History says that the station was actually a fort, called the Egmore Redoubt, similar to Leith Castle, which is a part of Santhome. It is said that the station came up in a place that once used to store ammunition for the British. The station building was constructed on a 2.5-acre land, for which 1.8 acres was acquired from Dr. Paul Andy who, in his letter to the 'Collector of Madras,' initially refused to sell his property owing to the difficulty with which he had purchased and developed the property. However, the South Indian Railway (SIR) Company, which was then operating train services to the south, persuaded him to sell the land, for which Andy claimed 100,000 as compensation. After acquiring the land, the SIR invited Henry Irwin, CIE (chief engineer), who did much of latter day Indo-Saracenic in Madras, and E. C. Bird, company architect, to design a building to suit the traffic need. After several alterations in the plan, the construction work began in September 1905 and was completed in 1908. It was constructed by contractor T. Samynada Pillai of Bangalore at a cost of 1.7 million. The station was officially opened on 11 June 1908. There was initially a demand that the station be named after Clive, which was, however, strongly opposed by the public as they wanted to name it Egmore. When the station was opened there was no electricity connection and a generator was used.〔 The station became the major meter-gauge terminal for Chennai after the formation of Southern Railway in 1951. Irwin and Bird worked on the design of the building, which was sympathetically added to in the 1930s and 1980s.〔 In the 1990s it was converted into a major broad gauge terminal, a role in which it became operational in 1998. Earlier cars used to come inside the platform itself,which was found only in this station.〔http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/chugging-on-a-hundred-years-hence/article1443993.ece〕 In its report, the SIR commented on the construction of a new building for Egmore:〔 SIR also claimed during the inauguration of the new building that it had given Madras a building to be proud of, 'whose covered platform area is greater than that of Charing Cross Station in London.'〔 The signal cabin at the station was opened in 1935, when the suburban line between Madras Beach and Tambaram was electrified. The signalling of the station is controlled from Siemens all-electric power frame of 1935. The station became a major metre-gauge terminal after the formation of the Southern Railway in 1951 and served as the gateway to the southern Tamil Nadu, chiefly due to its acting as a connecting point for passengers from the south to the Chennai Central for boarding north-, west- and east-bound trains. A new suburban station building was opened in November 2004 when the Tambaram-Beach broad gauge section became fully operational. With increasing passenger traffic, the entrance on the Gandhi-Irwin Road eventually became insufficient.〔 In 2004, construction of a second entry to the station on the Poonamalle High Road side began at a cost of 115.3 million. In June 2006, the second entrance was opened.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chennai Egmore railway station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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