CSMT RAILWAY STATION MUMBAI ||CST||

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) (station code: CSMT (mainline)/ST (suburban)), also known by its former name Victoria Terminus (station code: BBVT/VT), is a historic terminal train station and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

The terminus was designed by British born architectural engineer Frederick William Stevens, in an exuberant Italian Gothic style. Its construction began in 1878, in a location south of the old Bori Bunder railway station, and was completed in 1887, the year marking 50 years of Queen Victoria's rule, the building being named, Victoria Terminus.

The station's name was changed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (station code CST) in March 1996 to honour Shivaji, the 17th-century founder of the Maratha Empire, whose name is often preceded by Chhatrapati, a royal title. In 2017, the station was again renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (code CSTM), where Maharaj is also a royal title. However, both the former initials "VT" and the current, "CST", are commonly used.

The terminus is the headquarters of India's Central Railway. It is one of the busiest railway stations in India, serving as a terminal for both long-distance- and suburban trains.

HISTORY

This famous landmark which has become a symbol of the city, was built as the headquarters of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.

The railway station was built to replace the Bori Bunder railway station, in the Bori Bunder area of Bombay, a prominent port and warehouse area known for its imports and exports. Since Bombay became a major port city at the time, a bigger station was built to meet its demands, and was named Victoria Terminus, after the then reigning Empress of India, Queen Victoria. The station was designed by Frederick William Stevens, a British born engineer architect, attached to the Bombay office of the Indian colonial Public Works Department. Work began in 1878. He received ₹1,614,000 (US$23,000) as the payment for his services. Stevens earned the commission to construct the station after a masterpiece watercolour sketch by draughtsman Axel Haig. The design has been compared to George Gilbert Scott’s 1873 St Pancras railway station in London, also in an exuberant Italian Gothic style, but it is far closer to Scott’s second prize winning entry for Berlin's parliament building, exhibited in London in 1875, which featured numerous towers and turrets, and a large central ribbed dome. The style of the station is also similar to other public buildings of the 1870s in Bombay, such as the Elphinstone College but especially the buildings of Bombay University, also designed by G G Scott.

The station took ten years to complete, the longest for any building of that era in Bombay.

During its construction, a marble statue of Queen Victoria was installed in the main façade of the building, in a canopy under the clock. In the 1950s, authorities had begun to remove statues of the British figures from government buildings and public spaces based on a directive from the Government of India. Most of the statues, including that of Queen Victoria, were sent to Victoria Gardens (later renamed Rani Baug) where they were left lying on the grass in the open until at least the 1980s. A Right to Information report was filed, but had no records of the missing statue being exported out of India. Historians now believe that the statue was smuggled out, sold by politicians, or destroyed. The symbol of Progress, another statue, featured on the top of the dome, is often mistaken for that of Queen Victoria.