Byculla heritage station restoration work to be speeded up

Byculla railway station

Mumbai's Byculla station, which is one of the five listed heritage railway stations in the city is all set to get a facelift in the next eight months. On Friday, a team of architects, engineers, and top railway officials visited the Byculla station and took stock of the project in order to speed up the work.

Shaina NC takes stock of the Byculla station restoration project

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had inaugurated the project on July 20 this year after which work the restoration work had begun. Shaina NC, Trustee of I Love Mumbai said, "It started when I Love Mumbai adopted Byculla Station under the 'Hamara Station, Hamari Shaan project' in October 2016. Artists painted huge landscapes and animals, birds, flowers etc to depict the Jijamata Udyan which is very close to Byculla station, while volunteers helped to clean the surroundings and paint the station grills, walls and made it look better."

Shaina further added, "On July 20, 2019, after the Bhoomi Poojan, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced the starting of the work while Heritage Conservation Architect Abha Narain Lambah explained the scope of work that needed to be done in order to restore the ancient heritage architecture."

The restoration work was initiated by Nana Chudasama and Shaina NCs NGO 'I Love Mumbai'

The project received full support from the then General Manager D K Sharma, Divisional Railway Manager S K Jain and the entire team of Central Railway. On Friday, architect Abha Lambah and his team along with Shaina NC and S Maniyar of Bajaj Trusts group inspected the ongoing work along with Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Narendra Panwar in an endeavour to speed up the work initiated by Nana Chudasama and Shaina NCs NGO 'I Love Mumbai' under the Mumbai Beautification project. The project also has the wholehearted support from Niraj and Minal Bajaj of the Bajaj Group.

Giving details of the project, the restoration document states that the Byculla station is around 125 years old. It had been built as a wooden structure earlier, but as a present form, its construction only started in 1887 and was completed by 1891. This makes the current building among the oldest railway stations in India.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates