Title - Never trust a railway terminus that looks like a swank airport

Rs 30-cr spent on Kurla stn down the drain. Literally

The brand new Kurla Terminus, inaugurated on April 16 and touted as the Railways' Rs 30-crore gift to Mumbai, has already started to develop huge cracks. Worse, the entire structure - built on marshy land - has begun sink.

In fact, Mumbai Mirror has learnt that portions of the structure had to be demolished even before it was inaugurated. Highly placed sources in Central Railway said Vinay Mittal, chairman of the Railway Board, and Subodh Jain, general manager, Central Railway, are both aware of the problem.

A week before the formal inauguration by then railway minister P K Bansal, the CR general manager had got his staff to demolish three rooms that were sinking. While Jain was not available for comment, Mukesh Gupta, chief administrative officer, admitted that some portions of the structure were demolished before the inauguration.

Gupta said, "I took over as chief officer one-and -a-half years ago. I am told that that the land on which the terminus building has been built was marshy. We do not know how it was filled up. The building is not sinking, but the partition walls and floors are. We are also aware of the cracks and will undertake remedial measures."

Gupta added that no action has been taken against the contractor who built the terminal.

"What wrong has the contractor done? He has constructed the building as per our specifications," he said.

When Mumbai Mirror visited the terminus building on Monday, we noticed cracks in the booking office, and in the offices of the chief reservation inspector, the senior section engineer, chief booking supervisor, health inspector and senior station manager.

In the worst condition, ironically, was the cabin of the health inspector; it had huge cracks and a glass door next to it was shattered. When we asked what had caused the glass to shatter, we got two replies - one, that it had shattered becaused of the sinking slab; and two, because someone had damaged it.

The two staircases leading to the first-floor dormitory and cafeteria also had cracks on both sides. At least 15 benches, installed just two months ago, were broken. The station staff said this was because they were of inferior quality, while the railway management claimed that passengers had broken them.

Local Member of Parliament Priya Dutt said, "I am really shocked. A lot of money has been spent without checks and balances. A structural audit must be done."

The station complex also has a big flaw - there is no connectivity between the new building and four of the platforms. A footover bridge is being built now, but plans to construct a subway has been suspended because of the weak soil.

History of Kurla Terminus

The original Kurla Terminus was inaguated in the 1980s. Constructed on a marsh, it had poor connectivity. In 1996, the BMC approved a proposal to rename the station after Lokmanya Tilak. As CST and Dadar were saturated, CR decided to expand LTT. CR then built a fifth and sixth line to connect LTT with Thane.

Since the station was housed in a makeshift building, CR approved plan for a swanky new terminus building in 2006, and bagan work on it in 2007. The state also agreed to provide better connectivity by giving an arm of the Santacruz Chembur Link Road to the terminus.

The revamp took three years. The new station complex was built on 50,000-sq-metres of land with a 3,300-sq-metre concourse . It has five turbo ventilators to draw out hot air. It also has food courts and retiring rooms for passengers, and a huge mural designed by students of the J J School of Arts.