<Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> As the train proceeded across the arid plain of the Carnatic, it brought to view the counless number...who thronged the route...The train dashed by the masses of colours, here clustered by a bridge, there collected under the deep shade of a tope, crowded round a station house, or fringing the edges of a cutting, cheering loudly as the train flew by them . Now and then too, a hearty laugh broke forth when in passing some pasture ground, the lazy cattle, startled by the rushing shriek of the train, flew frantically away, sometimes followed by the scared herdsman himself, who, thinking that the fiery - fiend whom he saw approaching might crush him also, took to his heels with all his speed . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> As the train proceeded across the arid plain of the Carnatic, it brought to view the counless number...who thronged the route...The train dashed by the masses of colours, here clustered by a bridge, there collected under the deep shade of a tope, crowded round a station house, or fringing the edges of a cutting, cheering loudly as the train flew by them . Now and then too, a hearty laugh broke forth when in passing some pasture ground, the lazy cattle, startled by the rushing shriek of the train, flew frantically away, sometimes followed by the scared herdsman himself, who, thinking that the fiery - fiend whom he saw approaching might crush him also, took to his heels with all his speed . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <P> According to the journal, Captain Barnett Fort described the rooms in the Royapuram station as being "very elegant and most superbly furnished with handsome punkahs & c ." Governor Lord Harris, in his speech, congratulated the Madras Railway company, its manager Major Jenkins and all who had worked on the railway and said that the cost of £ 5,500 a mile was well worth the investment and looked forward to equally expeditious completion of the additional 450 miles of track to the west coast, a little south of Calicut . </P> <P> Since then, Royapuram was the only railway station in the city for about 17 years till Madras Central Station became functional in 1873 . From 1873, trains towards the northern regions of the country were operated from Chennai Central and those towards the southern regions of the state were operated from Royapuram station . </P>

Which is the first railway station of india