Old wine in new bottle - New suburbs of an old city that aren't probably new

 In 1833, Captain W. J. Butterworth, an officer in the Madras Army, compiled a guidebook titled The Madras Road Book detailing major travel routes across the Madras Presidency. For some reason, the guidebook remained unpublished till 1839, when the first edition was brought out by The Male Orphan's Asylum which also published the annual The Asylum Press Almanack uninterruptedly for over a century. The roadbook gives a glimpse of how now-famous Madras neighbourhoods appeared two hundred years ago when they were countryside villages on the periphery of Madras city and how each road was dotted with choultries and gardens at regular intervals so that horse (or bullock) and man could rest, eat and sleep.

               

The book begins with routes from Madras to Bangalore and the first of the "roads" that it describes was the one that started from the Wallajah Gate of Fort St George and proceeded to Codumbaukum past a choultry on the Long Tank (probably at the place where Valluvar Kottam stands now) and thence to Conjeveram (Kanchipuram) through Nabob's Garden (Valasaravakkam/Alwar Thiru Nagar?), Poroor (Porur Junction), Cowoor (Kovur), Coonatoor (Kundrathur), Shora Collattoor (Sirukulathur?), Amrambaidoo (Amaramedu), Stree Permatoor (Sriperumbudur), Tremunglum (Thirumangalam), Veerapermaul Pillay's choultry (Pillai chatram), Rajah's choultry (Rajakulam) and Karapettai. From Kanchipuram, the road ran past Damal, Kaveripakkam and Wallajanagar to Vellore. 

Other routes described include one from St. Thomas Mount to Nellore via Chettoopett choultry, Inaveram, Madaveram and Sooloorpett, St. Thomas Mount to Naggery via Ramahpooram, Poroor, Iapuntungul and Cautpaukum and one from Madras to Trichinopoly via Marmalong Bridge, Vellacherry, Shollenganalloor, Shamunjairy and the Seven Pagodas. 

Arcot Road and its heyday

A couple of days back, I stumbled upon old records of the Madras Railway Company on the internet and was startled to find that the route proposed by one Captain Worster in 1849 for the first passenger railroad service in South India planned between Madras city and Wallajanagar followed nearly the same course as Captain Butterworth's "Route No. 1", i.e. from Wallajah Gate of Fort St George via Kodambakkam, Porur, Kovur, Kundrathur, Sriperumbudur, Kanchipuram and Kaveripakkam to its eventual destination. In a letter dated March 5, 1850 to James Ouchterlony, Secretary of the Madras Railway Committee, Captain G. C. Collyer of the Madras Engineers argued in favour of another route that followed the length of Poonamallee High Road and then past Chembarambakkam and Sriperumbudur to Kanchipuram. Collyer provided a detailed estimate of the number and size of the bridges, viaducts and tunnels required and costs for the same. He wrote:

"From the line being only surveyed till Poonamallee, I have made no estimate of its expense, but having sometime since made an estimate of what the rail would probably cost on Captain Worster's line, I send it to you that those interested in it might see what would,  I believe, be amply sufficient to construct the line in any other better direction and I believe the line by Poonamallee,  to the North of Chumbrumbaukum and Streepermatoor,  joining the general direction of Captain Worster's line near Conjeveram,  would be better. "

But all these came to naught. It is indeed a matter of irony that the  recommendations of these two gentlemen were soon forgotten as the initial plans for a railway from Madras city to Wallajanagar were dropped in favour of a more northerly line to a nondescript village called Menil in the records (present-day Minnal village near Arakkonam) so that the railway could be extended without much cost or effort to the much bigger town of Vellore and eventually to Bangalore, itself. Edward Davidson, in his 1868 book The Railways of India writes that the reason for this change of plan was a well-argued case in favour of a northerly line to Gudiyatham through Perambur and Avadi by Major T. T. Pears who submitted a detailed report to this effect complete in all aspects and replete with statistics. Apart from the advantage of economy, Pears also pointed out that the route through Kanchipuram and Wallajanagar traversed fertile farmland and already had a good-quality road with a flourishing trade. Hence, he felt it would be unlikely that traders would switch over to a train service along the same route and also that the land for the Menil route being much less fertile would be easier and cheaper for the government to acquire. Though Pears' suggestion of Menil was strongly opposed by John Peter Grant, Home Member to the Government of India, a majority of  committee members were in favour and the plan was eventually given the go ahead, construction commencing in March 1853. Meanwhile, one hundred and seventy years since the first rails were laid in South India, Poonamallee and Wallajanagar are yet to get any rail connectivity.