12-car work won’t hit Reay Road heritage

The railways is planning to drastically alter the layout of the heritage grade-I structure of century-old Reay Road station to accommodate 12-car trains. And, it claims this would not damage a single stone of the building as they have worked out an engineering solution so that the main structure is not harmed.
A senior official said the work on plying 12-car trains on the harbour corridor is in its final stage.

“The work involves extending and altering all station buildings and platforms to accommodate longer trains. All 200m-long platforms will have to be increased by 65m to accommodate 12-car trains,” he said.

The space crunch at Reay Road station has created problems for alteration.

“There is no space on either side to increase the platforms’ length. There would be issues of land acquisition and other problems. So we have worked out an engineering solution to demolish the existing platforms, realign the track and build an island platform with tracks on either side,” he said.

The official said that the key heritage building would not be damaged while working on the changes and only the layout of the platforms and tracks would be changed.

“The building will not be touched. Even the Panvel-bound track will remain untouched. We will demolish the platforms and build one in the middle with tracks on either side,” he added.

Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee chairman and former municipal commissioner V Ranganathan said he would consult the railways about their plan. “We will take up the mat ter with them,” he told DNA.

Conservation architect Abha Narain Lambha said the railways cannot touch the heritage structure as it fell under Grade-I category. “The railways will have to seek permission of the heritage committee for any kind of alterations to the station structure,” she said.

The need for plying 12-car trains on the harbour line has been pending for a long time. Since the formation of Navi Mumbai, the crowd on the route has increased.

Reay Road is one of the five stations on the city’s heritage list. The other four stations on the heritage list are Byculla, Bandra, CST and Churchgate.