Sandhurst Road railway station explained

Sandhurst Road
Type: Mumbai Suburban Railway station
Style:Indian Railways
Line:Central Line, Harbour Line
Structure:At Grade and Elevated
Platform:4 (2 Ground Central Line + 2 Elevated Harbour Line)
Levels:Ground + Elevated
Tracks:6
Opened:1921
Status:Active
Electrified:Yes
Code:SNRD
Owned:Ministry of Railways, Indian Railways
Zone:Central Railways
Map Type:Mumbai
Map Dot Label:Sandhurst Road
Map State:collapsed

Sandhurst Road (station code: SNRD) is a railway station serving Dongri area of South Mumbai, India, on the Central and Harbour Lines of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.[1] It is the third stop from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

Named after Lord Sandhurst, the Governor of Bombay between 1895 and 1900, the station was built in 1910 using funds from the Bombay City Improvement Trust, which he helped raise.

In January 2017, Lokmat reported that Central Railways planned to demolish the station in order to construct the fifth and sixth railways lines between CST and Kurla. CR plans to construct a new Sandhurst Road station on P D'Mello Road.[2]

History

Before the Sandhrust Rd station came up, there was a station named Mazagaon railway station located north, under the base of the Hancock bridge. It was listed as one of the nine important station within the city, by The Gazetteer of Bombay City in 1909.[3] It served both the local population, and the Portuguese and British suburb on either side. According to old maps, dating as late as at least 1914, and as early as at least 1909, the station was located just north or at the base of today's Hancock Bridge in Mazagaon.[4] It was demolished sometime between 1915 and 1920, to pave way for the upcoming Sandhurst Road station, that was to be constructed to connect to the Harbour Line during its extension, since both the main and the Harbour line had to be served by the single two-tired station.[5]

According to the book Halt Station India by author Rajendra Aklekar, that was published in 2014, the site of the former station there was the stone edge of the old station's platform hidden under the debris. Along with it, there were the remains of a stone arch, probably of a wall.

The Sandhurst Road railway station (upper level servicing the Harbour Line) was built in 1921. The supporting pillars of the edifice bear the inscription "GIPR 1921 Lutha Iron Works, Glasgow". The fabricated metal was imported from the United Kingdom.[6] It is India's first two-tier station with a 1728feet long steel viaduct weighing 2788tonnes that carries the Harbour line.[7]

Notes and References

  1. News: Soon you'll know exactly when your train arrives at Sandhurst Road stn. Binoo. Nair. 16 December 2011. Mumbai Mirror.
  2. Web site: Historic Sandhurst road station to be demolished. Free Press Journal. 17 February 2017.
  3. Book: Bombay (India : State) . The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island . 1978 . Gazetteer Department, Government of Maharashtra . en. Date is doubtful. Looks much older.
  4. Web site: Bombay (Mumbai), India 1914 . 2023-07-23 . WardMaps LLC . en.
  5. Book: Aklekar . Rajendra B. . Halt Station India : The Dramatic Tale of the Nation's First Rail Lines . Rupa Publications . 2014 . 978-81-291-3497-4 . 74 . English.
  6. News: 21 April 2006 . Star Track . 2 . Times of India . Mumbai.
  7. Book: Aklekar . Rajendra B . Halt station India : the dramatic tale of the nation's first rail lines . . 2014 . 9788129134974 . 135 . 23 April 2019.