Monday, February 23, 2009

Masjid Bunder

View-Masjid Bunder Market

Masjid (sometimes called Masjid Bunder) is a second down railway station towards north on the Central line of the Mumbai Suburban Railways. It was named after a synagogue, the 200-years old The Gate of Mercy Synagogue popularly known as Juni Masjid by locals.
The volume of passengers on this station is very high due to different wholesale markets around this station. These markets are referred as bazaars.
Stockists from Reay road iron market (lokhand bazaar) make trades of millions of rupees in the market near this station. The south end towards CST gives access to Yousuf Mehar Ali Road, Jama Masjid, Kalbadevi, Mahatma Phule(Crawford Market), Mandvi and surrounding area.

View-Crawford Market, Masjid
Masjid is prominent since it is close to the docks from where ships taking Indian pilgrims to the annual hajji(pilgrimage to Mecca) set sail.

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

The picture of the existing station
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was formerly known as Victoria Terminus (Bombay VT) or Boribunder. It was renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Mumbai CST) in1996 in memory of the famous Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji. It is a historic railway station in Mumbai. It is the first up station in Mumbai. It is also the headquarters of the Central Railways. It is one of the busiest railway stations in India.
Victoria Terminus 1903

The station was designed by Frederick William Stevens, a consulting architect, in 1887-1888. The masterpiece watercolour sketch was made by draughtsman Axel Haig. The design of the station has some resemblance to St. Pancras station in London. It took ten years to complete. It was named "Victoria Terminus" in honour of the Queen and Empress Victoria of England. It was opened on the date of her Golden Jubilee in 1887. This famous architectural landmark in Gothic style was built as the headquarters of the great Indian Peninsular Railway. Since then the station came to be known as Bombay VT. It was also known as Boribunder due to majority of the population around the station was dominated by the Muslim Bohri Community.
The station was nominated on 2 July 2004 as World Heritage Site by the World HeritageCommittee of UNESCO.
The station stands as an example of 19th century railway architectural marvels for its advanced structural and technical solutions.
For comprehensive information of all the up-country trains, a very good website is available named as India Rail Info (External link).

On 26 November 2008, the two terrorists from Pakistan entered the passenger waiting hall of the CST, opened fire with AK-47 rifles and threw grenades at the people. More than 50 people were killed in the attack.

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