Parel and Lalbaug

One may wonder why  non-glamorous areas such as Parel and Lalbaug are finding a place  in this series on Mumbai.  Few may know, however, that Parel was a truly up market place once upon a time. So much that the then Governor of the  Bombay Presidency chose to reside there. The road leading to the Governor’s House, was, therefore, named as “Government Gate Road.”  The whole locality was lush green, right up to the Zoo at Byculla.

Dockyard Road on the East provided proximity to the docks. Great Indian Peninsula (GIP) Railway on the West provided access to the hinterland.  Steam engine operated textile mills sprang up in the area.  The locality was ideal to get cotton from Khandesh and Malwa and coal from Jharia and Central Provinces, like Nagpur. Nearby Cotton Green was a lush green place for huge markets dealing in cotton bales. Mill workers were housed in chawls. Hindamata and Bharatmata cinema theatres came up in the locality, to cater to the entertainment needs of the workers.

Energy needs of the textile mills, railways, factories like Imperial Tobacco, Nimco Tiles  and the up market clusters around the Governor’s House prompted Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Co. Ltd to bring electricity from the region’s first hydro-electric power station at Khopoli, straight to Mumbai, by setting up a Receiving Station at Parel.

Dadasaheb Phalke and Ranjit Movietone churned out movies for the masses. V. Shantaram shifted his operations from Pune to Mumbai and set up his Raj Kamal Studios at Parel. Even today, an ultra modern housing complex, set up in the studio compound, bears testimony to the nostalgic memories of the memorable films made there, through a life size statue of a girl, bending backwards and  blowing a “tutari”, a trademark opening scene of all Shantaram’s  memorable movies.

Since there is neither a garden nor a red structure in the area, one may wonder where did Lal Baug get its name.  I suppose the wholesale market for red chillies may have inspired the name.

If one wishes to see the grandeur of old architecture and green foliages within their  compounds, one has to only look at the KEM Hospital, Wadia Hospitals and their hostels.  The hospitals sprang up there, probably to serve the elite like the Governor and his staff as well as the large population of mill workers. Sheth Gordhandas Sundardas, who made his fortune at Cotton Green, donated funds to set up the G S Medical College.

The main road carried a tramway. Originally for horse driven trams. Later electric trams plied there. To make way for increasing traffic, the tramway was dismantled. It will now soon have a mono rail traversing through it. This is the first mono rail of the country.