Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

Mumbai's great railway terminus, fusing Victorian Gothic Revival with Indian motifs under a soaring central dome.

It is the headquarters of India's Central Railway and one of the busiest stations in the country, with 18 platforms: seven for suburban trains and eleven for long-distance trains. Its name was changed in 1996 to honour Shivaji, the 17th-century founder of the Maratha Empire, and in 2017 the title Maharaj, meaning great king, was added. People still use all of the names VT, CST and CSMT.

A palace for trains

The station replaced the old Bori Bunder station, which had been the terminus of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from 1853 to 1888. Bombay was becoming a major port city and needed something bigger. The design is often compared with St Pancras station in London, but it is closer to another design with many towers and a big ribbed dome. It took ten years to build, the longest for any building of its time in Mumbai.

Decoration and engineering

The main structure combines Indian sandstone and limestone, with fine Italian marble for key decorations. The gates are flanked by a lion for Britain and a tiger for India. Allegorical statues stand for Commerce, Agriculture, Engineering and Science. Students of the Sir J. J. School of Art, guided by John Lockwood Kipling, carved much of the decoration. The dome rests on dovetailed ribs built without temporary support, a clever feat for its day.

The missing statue and a modern glow

A marble statue of Queen Victoria once stood under the clock on the front. In the 1950s British statues were removed from public places, and Victoria's statue vanished. The figure on top of the dome, often mistaken for the queen, is actually a symbol of Progress. Since 2022 the building has been lit with colourful LED lights in the evening, changing for national holidays and festivals.

On the globe

The model shows the railway station with its stone facade and central dome.