Railway to close down Vadakannikapuram railway station at MGR’s birthplace

Vadavannur: The grand old railway station at Palakkad's Vadakannikapuram, the birthplace of legendary actor MGR, will soon be closed down forever. The 126-year-old railway station is on the list of railway stations under the Palakkad division that will be closed down by the Indian Railways due to a shortage of passengers. Meanwhile, the authorities have removed the iconic yellow board on which the place's name is written from the deserted station. The trains that ran service in the Palakkad – Pollachi line during the railway’s meter gauge era, from 1898 to December 10 2008, had a stop at Vadakkanikapuram. The old generation of rail passengers recalls that former Rajyasabha MP P Balachandra Menon used to travel regularly from this railway station. However, when the broad gauge was introduced, the railways cancelled the six-passenger trains from the metre gauge phase in 2015.

After changing the tracks to broad gauge, only the Thiruchenthur train had stopped here; however, that too was stopped later. Vadakannikapuram railway station is just 5 kilometres from Puthnagaram railway station and 3 kilometres from Kollangod station. So, there isn’t any chance that stops would be allowed for trains at Vadakannikapuram. With this railway station closing down, Vadakannikapuram, which has a fabulous history of over a century, would hide behind the curtain of time.

Magora at Vadavannur, an MGR memorial
MGR's mom, Sathyabhama, was from Vadavannur, and a cultural space named Magora exists here as a memorial to him. Interestingly, it was the region's first rice mill – Bhama Rice Mill - too. Magora is an acronym of MGR's full name, Maradhur Gopala Menon Ramachandran. The memorial is an initiative by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTAC) Palakkad Chapter. It features paintings, photos, music, movies and many other story telling elements using which the artiste's life is presented to the visitors.