Ahluwalia Contracts to restore CSMT

MUMBAI: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) – a UNESCO world heritage site – is all set for a grand makeover. On Wednesday, officials from Central Railway (CR) confirmed that Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Ltd won the bid for the ‘Mumbai CSMT Railway Station Project.’ Others in the fray were: Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Afcons Infrastructure and Nagarjuna Construction.

Ahluwalia Contracts was the lowest of the four bidders. The redevelopment is pegged at ₹1813 crore. The company is also executing other prominent projects, such as AIIMS Jammu, the redevelopment of LTMG Sion hospital, construction of Mandale Depot and the domestic passenger terminal in Dehradun.

Their past projects include the IIT Delhi, AIIMS West Bengal, CBI and the Income Tax buildings in BKC, and National Intelligence Grid in Bengaluru.

CSMT is being redeveloped to decongest the southern heritage node of the terminus, augmenting its facilities and for a better multimodal integration, apart from conserving and restoring the iconic structure to its past glory. CR is planning to convert CSMT into a large mass transit hub called rail-o-polis.

Taking a leaf out of major railway stations in Europe, the grand scheme is to make this a nodal point of conjunction for various modes of public transit. There will be residential and commercial offices with a built-up area of 2.54 lakh sq mts.

The suburban rail line at CSMT is likely to be connected by subways and FOBs to connect it with Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 and Wadala-CSMT Metro-11 as well.

Additionally, there will be a spacious roof plaza with passenger amenities at one place, along with retail stores, cafeterias and recreational facilities. CSMT is one of the busiest railway stations in India, handling approximately 1.6 million passengers each day.

This project will be implemented by Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA).