VICTORIA TERMINUS RAILWAY STATION – MUMBAI

Victoria Terminus Station is one of only two Mumbai sites to make it to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage
Sites (the other is the Elephanta Caves) Officially renamed ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus, it was nominated
for the list in 2004 and is one of Mumbai’s most beautiful and iconic buildings.
Built as the headquarters of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, now the Central Railway, the building
was designed by F.W. Stevens and built over 10 years starting in 1878 and cost `16.4 lakh. Its Victorian
Gothic Revival architecture is similar to London’s St Pancras station but beautifully showcases how
Indian craftsmen worked with British designers to forge a style unique to Bombay.
The main structure is built from Indian sandstone and limestone, while Italian marble is used for the key
decorative elements. The wood carvings, tiles, ornamental iron and brass railings, grilles and balustrades
for the grand staircases were all said to be created by the students of the Bombay School of Art. Italian,
Mughal and Hindu architecture is evident in the palace-style layout, vaulted arches in the ticket office,
rooftop gargoyles (which drain rainwater out of their mouths during the monsoon), turrets, minarets,
arched windows and verandahs.
The facade features, among monkeys and peacocks, 10 directors of the GIP, while the entrance gates
is flanked by figures of a lion (representing Britain) and a tiger (representing India). The building is
crowned by a magnificent dome – reportedly the first unframed octagonal ribbed dome adapted to a
Gothic building- on which is a 16.6-feet female figure holding a flaming torch in her right hand and a
wheel in her left, symbolising progress.
Named to honour Queen Victoria and opened to the public on New Year’s Day in 1882, the station
intended only to house the main station and the GIP offices. But a number of buildings were added
later. A new station to handle main-line traffic was erected in 1929.
Victoria Terminus was also where the first train was flagged on in Bombay. At 3.30pm on 16 April1853,
the artillery at Fort George boomed a royal salute. 14 carriages drawn by three engines, Sultan, Sindh
and Sahib, left at 3.55 and travelled 34 kms to reach an hour later in Thane where the 400 travellers were
served refreshments.
Today the station has 14 platforms and is used by over 3 million commuters daily.