WR wants its gardens at Mumbai Central back and restore their lost glory

“We want to restore and revive these gardens back to how it was. We want to open its beautified version around Baisakhi festival, in mid-April. We are talking to the metro authorities to clear the debris that has been dumped inside the garden premises,” said a WR official.

Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) wants back two of its gardens, developed in the 1930s, from the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) so that they can be restored and beautified. These gardens, once lush and a welcoming sight for passengers entering the Mumbai Central railway terminus, were handed over to MMRCL to carry out work on the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 and to set up underground metro station there.

WR wants its gardens at Mumbai Central back and restore their lost glory

Designed by British architect Claude Batley and built by Shapoorji Pallonji in 1930, the gardens were developed when the station and terminus came into existence. WR officials said they have asked MMRC authorities to clear the garden that is in a poor shape.

“We want to restore and revive these gardens back to how it was. We want to open its beautified version around Baisakhi festival, in mid-April. We are talking to the metro authorities to clear the debris that has been dumped inside the garden premises,” said a WR official on condition of anonymity.

Currently, the main entry point to the Mumbai Central railway terminus has been barricaded and covered by debris and metal scraps. While one garden is dug up, with soil and muck covering it, the garden on the other side of the passageway is worse off.

It is surrounded by cement concrete blocks, eroded soil, trees — some of which are withered — and a dug-up garden. Tempos, trucks and goods-carrying vehicles are haphazardly parked there as the loading area for long distance trains is nearby.

Officials from MMRCL said the two gardens were temporarily acquired for Metro-3 work. “The garden and other portion were taken up for entry/exit points of Mumbai Central metro station, for constructing the ventilation shaft for the tunnel and some other temporary station related works,” said an official.

The gardens were constructed in a record time of 21 months and was completed in 1930. A black and green-coloured historic ‘Little Red Horse’ locomotive is stationed there to improve the aesthetics of the garden.

The locomotive was built by English firm Kerr Stuart and Co. in 1928 and it operated on the Devgarh-Baria Railway Narrow Gauge line. This line was merged into Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) in August 1949, and later became part of the Western Railway.

The engine served for 61 years, before being transferred to the Pratapnagar workshop for shunting duties in 1990. It was placed at the garden in front of the Mumbai Central station in 1991 to commemorate its platinum jubilee.