British architects worked with Indian craftsmen to include Indian architectural tradition and idioms, thus forging a style unique to Mumbai.
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, formerly known as Victoria Terminus, is an outstanding example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture in India, blended with themes deriving from Indian traditional architecture. British architects worked with Indian craftsmen to include Indian architectural tradition and idioms, thus forging a style unique to Mumbai.
This is how the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) describes the Mumbai CST building that was included in the global heritage list in 2004.
The site is today surrounded by hawkers from all sides with no protection or any buffer zone. Hawkers have occupied all spaces around the main entry and exit of the station, on the cobble-stone flooring, and also the open space outside the star ticket chamber and the new railway museum.
To put up their wares for display, hawkers have also hammered nails into the walls of this iconic building made of yellow basalt stone. Railway officials say that though the building is iconic, it is used daily by huge numbers of people and that monitoring such crowds is difficult.
“It’s the city’s biggest terminus and more than 10 lakh people use it. Such small things are bound to happen. The CR cares for the building and we are spending around Rs7 crore in the first phase and about Rs9 crore in the second phase for its conservation and upkeep. We are maintaining the monument stone-by-stone,” a senior official said.
Daily commuters say it is getting difficult to enter and exit the building. A stampede-like situation arises during peak hours. “All top railway officials sit here. Can’t they see what is happening under their noses?” Priti Jain, a second-year student of St Xavier’s College, said.
Hawkers allege that they pay ‘protection money’ to the authorities and that they are temporarily evicted only when top officials are supposed to inspect. “We will look into complaints about hawkers and take immediate action,” PC Sinha, security commissioner of the Railway Protection Force, Mumbai, said.
Central Railway spokesperson SC Mudgerikar said, “We have launched several drives against hawkers within railway premises.
The area outside CST is under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and we will seek its support to launch a joint drive.”
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