Several years ago, while on a personal visit to the United Kingdom, one couldn’t help but feel overawed by the massive scale on which the British respected their heritage — local, rail, road, and everything in between
This brings us back to Mumbai. We call this railway network our lifeline. It’s used by millions and yet, when it comes to respecting its rich legacy, there’s little or none of it on display. Last Saturday (November 28) was when, back in 1864, that the first Bombay Baroda and Central India (BB&CI) train on the western coastal lines of Bombay (Mumbai) chugged into Grant Road station from Ahmedabad (Gujarat). In those days, the first terminus on the western line was Grant Road station. It’s a huge milestone, one of the numerous that tend to get lost in a city that seems to have forgotten this arm of its historic growth. While both the Central and Western Railway terminuses house heritage galleries, what the city needs is a massive showcase of its rich railway heritage.
We’re sure that curious visitors are keen to see how the first steam engine that chugged out of long-gone Boribunder station looked like. Imagine being transported in a virtual time machine to relive that first train ride?
The possibilities of it becoming a huge tourist attraction are huge. We are sitting on these salute-worthy dates and milestones that have defined the way India travels. If we don’t protect these chronicles of our past, Mumbai and India are bound to lose out on another missed opportunity, once again.
The writer is Features Editor of mid-day
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