Abandoned octroi post turns into TMC school

From next week, the desolate octroi post on the Gaimukh Ghodbunder Road in the city will be abuzz with children as the civic body has decided to run a school from the renovated building.

The school up to Class 7 will have four classrooms, a computer library and a kitchen to cook mid-day meal and will accommodate 150 students. Earlier, it was operating from a rented property in Gaimukh Retibunder.

The octroi posts in the city were closed after duty was abolished two years ago.

Considering that the deserted buildings had turned into a den for drug-addicts, the TMC decided to use the space for parking, but the project never took off due to inaccessibility of these posts from the city. Out of total 20 octroi posts in Thane, eight have enough space for development, a civic official said.

“The number of civic school The octroi post on Gaimukh Ghodbunder Road was spruced up for a civic school which will have classes till class 7.

buildings is fewer than the number of schools. At times, two schools are held in the same building. The building which housed the Gaimukh Retibunder school was a rented property. The number of classrooms in this building was fewer while there were no toilets,” said an education department official, requesting anonymity.

The idea that the octroi post

could be converted into a school was coined by Art of Living which will adopt 10 civic schools.

“We liked the idea and the TMC commissioner gave personnel attention to details while converting the octroi building into a school. We converted the four rooms into four classrooms, one into a computer lab and library, and the last room into a kitchen,” the officer said.