The beautification and heritage restoration work of one of the oldest railway stations in the country is almost completed. Built in the year1853, the Byculla station is the oldest railway station along the Bombay -Thane Railway line. The station is a modest building built in the Gothic style of architecture and a protected Grade IIA heritage structure under the Heritage Regulations for Greater Bombay,1995.
The restoration and up-gradation works of the station were taken up under the patronage of the NGO ‘I love Mumbai’ with Bajaj Foundation. Abha Narain Lambah Associates, Conservation Architects and Historic building consultants executed this project pro bono as a part of their social responsibility initiative.
Site works executed by the contracting team M/S Qais Constructions Pvt. Ltd. The works began and went on during the pandemic and have now been completed.
The works taken up under this project were of the holistic up-gradation and façade restoration of the historic building as accessed from the west entrance of the station.
The building overtime underwent various alterations and additions along the façade, such as blocking of archways and windows, the addition of toilet blocks, blocking of verandahs etc. The exercise of façade restoration included cleaning of the basalt stone façade, restoration of original fenestration such as doors, windows, grills and gates. Restoration of the timber truss roof, Mangalore tiles and smaller lean-to roofs along the façade was done. The addition of ramps, steps etc was also done in order to made the station accessible to all.
The restored verandahs now open into the two ticketing areas which have also been restored and upgraded. The old ticketing counter revealed a historic cast-iron grill design which was scraped, restored and the missing details were replicated. The grill is now painted as per the historic paint scrapes found on-site and stands of teak wood panelling forming a large ticketing window with a tinted glass fanlight.
The new ticketing window was also redesigned minimally hiding the stone interiors and the truss. Offices of the station masters, staff and ticketing areas along with adjoining walls have also been upgraded with new furniture and interiors. Toilets for the public as well as staff have been upgraded as a part of the project. Signage which is a very important component of design has been implanted using original signage bracket designs discovered on site during the restoration works.
The restoration works were carried out without interrupting the activity of the daily commuters of the city and now stands complete.
Few more glimpse of Byculla station after beautification
