Railway Board Building

The beautiful red-and-cream multi-storeyed building known as the Railway Board Building is one of the heritage buildings on the Mall Road. According to a plaque outside, this was constructed in 1896-7, the work being carried out by a Bombay-based construction company. The building replaced some earlier houses, which were demolished to make way for this building which was meant to house various government public works departments as well as the railway board.

The building has been renovated and restored in the recent past, following a fire that destroyed part of it. Even today it houses several government departments and is therefore out of bounds for the general public. It’s a beautiful edifice even on the outside, though, so you don’t really need to enter it to admire it.

This distinct building was constructed in 18 96-97 at a cost of about Rs. 7.31,00,00 in the unique colonial style Cast iron and steel structure fabricated by the Bombay-based Richardson and crude as firm. Besides this building, the famous Raffles hotel in Singapore is the only such building in South Asia. It houses various central government offices, including regional passport, office, income, tax and CBI. The 25 m tall building has four floors and three basements. It is originally designed to house the office of public works department secretariat.

This building is home to several Goverment offices on various flooors and located at Bawa Market, Shimla.
Surroundings are beautiful and its on a walking distance from the Mall

One of the buildings that struck me as unique on my visit to Shimla was the Railway Board Building close to the Shimla Railway station.
The building looked quite new, and imagine my surprise on enquiry that it had been constructed inn1896-97 by the British.
For safety considerations, from fire & other natural calamities, the basic structure of the building is of iron and steel.
It is an imposing building on the way to The Mall from the Shimla Railway station, and is a heritage building, comprising several Government offices.

The Railway Board Building, on the way to The Mall, is an unusual structure of cast iron and steel. To ensure safety and fire resistant structure, the building was one of the important buildings of the British Empire. The building built in 1896, held offices of the PWD’s Secretary, Railway Board and a Department of Commerce in the form of Accountant-General. The building was initially designated as the 'Public Works Department Secretariat Offices'. At present, many of the central Government offices reside inside the building. The building received its current name, when it housed Railway Board in 1923. The fire resistant structure was found intact without any major loss during a blaze in the top floor in 2001. The historic building was constructed by a Bombay based enterprise, Richardson and Cruddas that has four levels above the road level and three below. The 3 below levels are exposed from the other side of the building.

Railway Board Building in Shimla was built in the year 1896-1897 by a Bombay based firm, Richardson and Cruddas. The construction cost that was done on Railway Board Building at that time was about Rs. 4,08,476 which was a very big sum 105 years back.  Earlier this site served as the residences known as ‘Herbert House and Low Ville’. Then it was rented by the government to run Public Works Department and then the Railway Board and Commerce Department. Finally all these were demolished and this beautiful Railway Board Building was constructed here.

The building has four storeys from the road, provided with very beautiful, artistic iron stairs. Climbing up the floors through these stairs gives a royal touch of ‘Raj Mahal’. In British era the buildings were constructed keeping security feature in priority. Railway Board Building is thus a cast iron and steel structure, in order to make the building fire resistant.

Very gaint building and a charming beauty
Y. &scenery of the hills in the front