Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, formerly Victoria Terminus, Bombay station code: CSTM (mainline)[4]/ST (suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

The terminus was designed by a British born architectural engineer Frederick William Stevens from an initial design by Axel Haig, in an exuberant Italian Gothic style. Its construction began in 1878, in a location south of the old Bori Bunder railway station,[5] and was completed in 1887, the year marking 50 years of Queen Victoria’s rule.

In March 1996 the station name was changed from Victoria Terminus to “Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus” (with station code CST) after Shivaji, the 17th-century warrior king who employed guerrilla tactics to contest the Mughal Empire and found a new state in the western Marathi-speaking regions of the Deccan Plateau.[6][7][8]

Shivaji’s name is often preceded by “Chhatrapati”, a title with literal meaning, “a king dignified by the emblem of a parasol; a great king.”[9] In 2017, the station was again renamed “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus” (with code CSMT), where the title Maharaj has literal meaning, “Great king; emperor.”[10] Both former initials “VT” and the current, “CST”, are also commonly used.[11]

The terminus is the headquarters of India’s Central Railway. It is one of the busiest railway stations in India,[12] serving as a terminal for both long-distance and suburban trains.

History

Victoria Terminus

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$20,000) as the payment for his services.[1] Stevens earned the commission to construct the station after a masterpiece watercolour sketch by draughtsman Axel Haig.[1] 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[1][13] 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.[14] 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,[13] the longest for any building of that era in Bombay.