KOZHIKODE: Come to Chaliyum near Beypore to see a rare sight. Coal remnants dating back to 1856 are lying here as reminders of the first railway station in Malabar, the Beypore railway station or Chaliyum terminus. The coal, then used as fuel in trains, were dumped adjacent to a huge well here, now situated on the premises of the timber sales depot owned by the forest department.
“On digging, we can unearth heaps of coal here. Even after 159 years, the remnants are scattered on the ground,” says M.C. Raveendran, deputy range officer. British rulers set up a railway station at Chaliyum to transport teak woods from Nilambur forests and cargo through the Beypore port.
The railway station was established in 1856 and daily two train services operated between Chaliyum and Coimbatore. The well and the scattered coal are the vestiges of the colonial past.
“Not long ago, women in the neighbourhood used to come here to collect coal and sell it to blacksmiths. As blacksmiths also stopped using coal, the women stopped coming,” recalls V. Bijeesh, the depot watcher.
The well was used to provide water to the entire station then. The station was dismantled after it functioned for 32 years till the railway station was set up in Kozhikode in 1888.
The Southern Railway later re-opened a branch line from Beypore to Kadalundi to land coal and other materials brought by sea at Beypore instead of at Feroke.
