Chennai Egmore railway station

The site of the railway station hosted a fortified redoubt in the early 18th century, and later housed a sanatorium, and an orphanage in the mid 18th century. By the late 19th century, part of the land was owned by Pulney Andy (1831–1909), one of the first Indians to earn a medical degree in the United Kingdom. The South Indian Railway (SIR) was established in 1874 through the amalgamation of three railway companies that existed in the Madras Presidency. Egmore became the company's terminus in Madras by the 1880s. An increase in traffic led to plans for the construction of a full-fledged terminus in the early 1900s. The terminal building was designed by British architects Henry Irwin and E. C. Bird. It measured by , and was constructed by T. Samynada Pillai. The construction of the station began in September 1905 and was completed in 1908 at a cost of . The station was opened to the public on 11 June 1908, and initially relied on diesel generators for electricity. The station underwent developments in 1930, and became part of the first electrified suburban line established in 1931. A signal cabin at the station was opened in 1935, after the suburban line between Madras Beach and was electrified. After the nationalisation of the railways in 1951, the station became part of the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways, and emerged as a major terminal for trains to the south of the state. The suburban trains continued to operate on meter gauge until 2004 when a new suburban terminal was added to the station. In 2013, ballast-less tracks were laid along the terminus. In the early 2020s, it was one of the stations selected for upgradation under the Amrit Bharat scheme of the Indian Railways, and underwent major renovation as a part of the scheme. ==Design==

The station lies on a plot of land on Gandhi-Irwin road in Egmore. The building had stained glass windows and was earlier equipped with wooden stairways to move across platforms. == Network and services ==

The station is classified as a NSG–1 category station and comes under the purview of the Chennai railway division of the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways. It is located on the Chennai Egmore–Thanjavur main line. It also forms part of the South Line of the Chennai suburban rail network that extends from Chennai Beach towards Tambaram. , the station handles about 120 Mail/Express trains and 442 Suburban/Multiple Units daily. While the station serves as a major terminus for trains operating towards the central and southern Tamil Nadu, a few services operate from the station to other destinations in India, by connecting with the Gudur–Chennai section of the Howrah–Chennai main line via Chennai Beach station. Beginning in the early 2010s, Indian Railways terminated few of the services at Tambaram railway station to reduce congestion at the station. ==Facilities==

There are 11 platforms in the station. In 2019–20, platforms five to nine were extended. The station has a train care centre attached to it, which houses the trains terminating at the station. There are 16 air-conditioned dormitories, 14 retiring rooms, and three waiting halls for passengers. The station has an Integrated Security Surveillance System implemented in 2012, which consists of a set of CCTV cameras installed around the station. The station has been divided into two zones for cleaning and maintenance–the first six platforms fall under zone I and the remaining platforms fall under zone II. == Connectivity ==

There is a bus shelter at the southern entrance at the Gandhi-Irwin road and a bus terminus near the northern entrance on the Poonamallee High road. Bus services are operated by the state-run Metropolitan Transport Corporation. There is a multi-storey parking lot attached to the station. Pre-paid taxi and autorickshaw services are also available from the station. The Egmore metro station on the Green Line of the Chennai Metro serves the station. ==See also==