Iconic S Railway head office now 100-years-old

CHENNAI: The massive heritage structure in this teeming megapolis and one of the famous landmarks, the Southern Railway Headquarters building celebrated its centenary year on Sunday, December 11.

It was on this day in 1922, exactly 100 years ago, that the palatial three-storeyed building was inaugurated by The Lady Willingdon, C.I., D.B.E. the wife of Freeman Freeman- Thomas, first Marquess of Willingdon, the then Governor of Madras.

In commemoration of the centenary celebrations of the vintage building, a group of about 60 heritage and rail enthusiasts led by historian V Sriram, took a heritage walk in and around the majestic edifice on Sunday. Sriram elaborated on the history of the building which served as the headquarters of Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway (M&SMR) and later became the headquarters of Southern Railway in the year 1951 when the new zone was formed by the merger of erstwhile Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, Mysore State Railway and South Indian Railway systems.

Transcending ages, The majestic building was designed by N Grayson, an architect and employee of the erstwhile Madras and The Southern Mahratta Railway. The Foundation of the building was laid on February 8, 1915 by Lord Pentland, the then Governor of Madras. Based on the Dravidian style of classic architecture, the foundation of the Indo-Saracenic type structure consists of a reinforced concrete raft from 5 to 8 feet below the ground level set upon a stratum of pure sand, nearly 20 feet deep. The building was constructed by T Samynada Pillai, a Bangalore-based contractor at a cost of Rs 30.76 lakh. It took nearly seven-and-a-half months to lay the foundation structure consisting of 500 tonnes of steel bars embedded on 10,000 tonnes of granite concrete.

Built of stock brick with Porbundar stone, the central towers rise to a height of 125 feet 6 inches above the roadway. HH Wadia and Bros, pioneers in quarrying Porbundar stones, were instrumental in bringing them from Gujarat. The stones were transported for eight years via sea to Kerala and then by Rail to Madras.

HH Wadia and Bros camped in Madras from 1913 to 1922 along with their team of skilled masons from Porbundar under the leadership of master mason Pitambar Hira.

Each of the four corner domes of this majestic edifice houses water tanks with a total capacity of about 35,000 gallons.