The Western Railway (WR) wants back two of its gardens, developed in the 1930s, from the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to be restored and beautified. Once lush and a welcoming sight for passengers entering the Mumbai Central railway terminus, these gardens were handed over to MMRCL to carry out work on the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 and set up an underground Metro station there.
Designed by British architect Claude Batley and built by Shapoorji Pallonji in 1930, the gardens were developed when the station and terminus existed. WR officials said they had asked MMRC authorities to clear the garden that is in poor shape.
“We want to restore and revive these gardens back to how it was. We are talking to the Metro authorities to clear the debris dumped inside the garden premises,” said a WR official. 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.
The gardens were constructed in a record time of 21 months and were completed in 1930. A black and green-coloured historic ‘Little Red Horse’ locomotive is stationed there to improve the garden’s aesthetics.
