The picturesque Victoria Terminus building of the Central Railway – once named after British Queen Victoria and now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus – is today celebrating its 130th anniversary. Designed by F.W. Stevens, a consulting architect, the construction of Great Indian Peninsula Railway Offices building started in May 1878 and was completed on 20th May 1888.
On Queen’s Jubilee Day in 1887, the building was named as Victoria Terminus and renamed – in 1996 — as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, before being again renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in July 2017. In 2004, UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site for its architectural splendor and, from December 2012, this heritage building was opened for public viewing on working days.
A postal stamp was released during the ‘Centenary’ celebrations of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Building and, in 2013, when the building celebrated its ‘quascicentennial’ (125 years) anniversary, a special postal cover was released on the occasion.
Built at a cost of Rs 16.14 lakhs in 1888, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus is designed in a Gothic style adapted to suit the Indian context and is a C-shaped building planned symmetrically about the east-west axis, Sunil Udasi, Chief Public Relations Officer, Central Railway, said while describing the crowning point of the whole building as the central main dome carrying up as a ‘finial’ at its apex, a colossal 16’-6’’ high figure of lady pointing a flaming torch upwards in her right hand, and a spoked wheel low in the left hand, symbolizing `Progress’. This dome has been reported to be the ‘first’ octagonal ribbed masonry dome that was adapted to an Italian Gothic style building.
The Central Railway station was constructed with 6 platforms at a cost of Rs 10.4 lakh and, in 1929, the first remodelling took place to have 13 platforms. Further modifications were done to the yard in 1994 to add two more platforms, before increasing it further to total 18 platforms today with a spacious east side entry as well. April 2018 witnessed a +heritage gully+ being inaugurated adjacent to platform no.18, wherein Sir. Leslie Wilson, the GIP Heritage Electric Loco, and other heritage items are displayed.
Meanwhile, the Central Railway recently inaugurated a seven-storied, 190-patient Resthouse at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Railway Hospital, Byculla here to mitigate the sufferings of Cancer patients and relatives in all zones of the Railways. Besides separate dormitories for Males & Females with cots, mattresses, pillows, chairs, RO drinking water, refrigerators and other furniture, a well-equipped Community Kitchen is providing nutritious and healthy meals and snacks three times a day to occupants at very subsidized and cheap rates, according to D. K. Sharma, General Manager, Central Railway.
The Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial Hospital at Byculla has 366 beds and is home to the only Medical Oncologist in Indian Railways while having a Memorandum of Understanding with the world-renowned Tata Memorial Hospital for cancer care of all Railway patients with around 650 referrals per month.
