Churchgate to get a touch of glass

A world-class heritage site on one side and a swank 21st century corporate glass-tinted building on another.

Churchgate, one of the city’s oldest and iconic stations in the city, is getting a corporate look. The towering station building will soon be converted into a hi-tech facade with tinted glasses and aluminum sheets. Work has already begun and will be completed in a year’s time.

“The four crore-project will make the station building appear on par with any multinational office. The seven storey-station building was built in 1957 in place of the existing old station and not much has changed since then,” a senior official said.

“Churchgate has a glorious history. The original station, a small structure with thatched roof, in the 1920s used to have a level crossing across the road and the lines went further ahead to Colaba. In the 1930s, Colaba was closed with the cutting down of railway lines.

Churchgate was then remodelled as a terminus in 1933 and the existing station building, the third one on the site, built in 1957,” he added.

“With the heritage building on one side, it will be a case of stark contrast. Moreover, use of glass has to be done very intelligently and carefully after studying various aspects in this case,” Vikas Dilawari, conservation architect and member of the MMRDA’s heritage committee, said.

“The station today sees more than 30 lakh commuters every day. We are not just trying to give it a new look to upgrade its appearance and aesthetics, but also improve the public utilities there,” chief spokesperson Sharat Chandrayan said.

The plan includes reflective tinted glass to cover the station building from all sides, false ceilings with illumination for the main concourse, levelling of platforms and new roofs that will be extended over the entire platform.

For improved ventilation, there are plans to place hi-powered blowers to keep circulating the air inside the station premise. “Work on the extended roof is almost complete and should be ready by New Year,” Chandrayan said.

Apart from this, the station will also be ready to take in 15-car suburban trains from next month. Work has started on extending the platforms to welcome the world’s longest suburban train into Churchgate.