Western Railway (WR) has announced the removal of steel members which support the vertical glass facade of Churchgate Station. This comes as the authorities are reportedly going to undertake some structural repairs before the building is painted.
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Chief Public Relations Officer at Western Railway, Sumit Thakur said, “A scrap contractor has been appointed to remove the steel members on which the cladding and glass facade were fixed. We decided to do away with glass facade as the steel is prone to corrosion due to its proximity to the sea. Structural repairs of the building will be undertaken before painting.”
The contractor appointed by WR will remove a total of 165 tonnes of steel members at a cost of Rs 35 lakhs on an as-is-where-is basis, the agency said.
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It’s worth noting that one of the aluminium cladding at the station fell off in 2019 which led to the death of a 63-year old man. Following this incident, WR announced a structural audit of all four sides of the station building while also subsequently removing the claddings.
It is said that five panels at the station came loose as heavy winds gusted through the region after Cyclone Vayu last year. Despite going through a makeover of sorts in 2012 at a cost of Rs 5 crores, the Churchgate Station only saw cosmetic changes, leading to some sharp criticism on the reasoning behind the spending.
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