The 129-year-old Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM) railway station building in Mumbai will no longer house the headquarters of Central Railway. The iconic building will instead be home to a railway museum.
According to Indian Express, there will be no change in train schedules however, and they will continue to ply the platforms of what is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The 400 employees of the three departments of the Central Railway headquarters will move to the nearby P D’Mello Road. Central Railway has already sent out feelers to owners of large spaces (approximately 8,000 sq m) that could house the offices that will be shifted out of CSTM.
It was on Railways Minister Piyush Goyal’s suggestion that the idea to turn CSTM into a “world-class rail museum” came about. And since this requires expertise, Central Railways General Manager Devendra Sharma has written to request Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani that the Railway Board’s Heritage Directorate take charge of touching base with specialists in this area. According to sources, the ministry is considering roping in private players.
The Victoria Terminus building - which is what CSTM was earlier called - was designed by British architect Frederick William Stevens. Commissioned in 1888, it resembles London’s St Pancras railway station. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004.
(Source: Indian Express)
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