MALAPPURAM: The Tirur railway station, the oldest railway station in the state will soon have a new name as the Passenger Amenities Committee (PAC) has put forward the proposal request to Indian Railway Board. Considered a major railway station serving the town of Tirur in the Malappuram district, it will be named after Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan -- the father of the Malayalam language, according to PAC.
PAC chairperson P K Krishnadas said, “It has been a long-time request of the people in the district and also other prominent persons in Kerala’s cultural scene, to name the railway station after Ezhuthachan. The proposal has been put forward before the railway board and we are expecting a positive outcome. Since Tirur is the birthplace of Ezhuthachan, who was a 16th-century Malayalam devotional poet, translator and linguist, his name would be apt for the most historically prominent railway station in Kerala, he further added.
Malabar Development Council and Confederation of All India Rail Users Association (CAIRUA) president C E Chakkunni said, “We welcome the proposal to change the name of the Tirur railway station. However, suggesting a big name for a railway station would indeed generate a lot of confusion, especially among the senior citizens.”
“Instead, adding Tirur to the newly proposed name would help in avoiding the confusion, but it will again make the name bigger. Hence, the authorities must take a wise decision before implementing changes,” he added.
The first railway line in Kerala was commissioned on March 12, 1861, from Beypore to Tirur. Stations at Tanur, Parappanangadi, and Vallikkunnu also form parts of the oldest railway line in the state. The line was extended from Tirur to Kuttippuram via Thirunavaya in the same year. It was further extended from Kuttippuram to Pattambi in 1862, and then from Pattambi to Podanur in the same year. The historical Wagon Tragedy of 1921 happened in a wagon from Tirur to Podanur.