| Santa Cruz | |
| — suburb — | |
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| Coordinates | |
| Country | India |
| State | Maharashtra |
| District(s) | Mumbai Suburban |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) |
Santacruz or Santa Cruz (Marathi: सांताक्रुझ) is a section of the municipality of Mumbai. The Santacruz railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, the Domestic Terminal of the Mumbai Airport and one campus of the University of Mumbai are all located in Santacruz.
Santacruz and its neighbouring suburb Khar fall under the H East and H West wards of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The locality had a population of 675,951 persons in 1991, over an area of 12.98 square kilometers, giving it a population density of 36,668 persons per square kilometer.
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The term Santa Cruz comes from the Portuguese words meaning "Holy Cross". The name was that given to a church that existed on a site on the western side of the railway station, at the site presently occupied by the Sacred Heart Boys High School/Sacred Heart Church on Swami Vivekanand Road, and which had been devastated by the Marathas during their conquest of the region from Portugal. This former parish church gave its name to the locality. According to lore, during the Portuguese reign a wooden cross in front of the church blossomed to give leaves and was thus called the "Holy-Cross" or the "Santa-Cruz". The church was constructed in the early 1930s. The parish has around 14,000 parishioners with Fr. Abel as the present parish priest.
Santa Cruz is bordered by Vile Parle in north, Khar in south, Juhu in west and Kurla in east. It is broadly divided in two areas: Santa Cruz (East) and Santa Cruz (West) by the Mumbai Suburban Railway line. The Milan subway and Khar subway connect the two areas, passing under the rail line.
MMRDA has build a Skywalk for pedestrians stretching from Podar School Complex (West Santa Cruz) to Western Express Highway (East Santa Cruz).
Santa Cruz(East) consists of Prabhat Colony, Kalina and Vakola. It also consists of land belonging Airport Authority of India, which consists of the Mumbai Airport and Air India Colony (which comes in Kalina).
The main roads passing through Santa Cruz(E) are the Western Express Highway, Nehru Road and the Kalina-Kurla Link Road. The PIN code of this area is 400055.
Vakola starts from the Western Express Highway which connects Mumbai's Town and suburbs, up to the Military Camp. It is a densely populated region with considerable number of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics and Jains. Dawri Nagar, Vakola Bridge, Shivaji Nagar, Vakola Pipeline, Vakola Village and Vakola Masjid areas form most of Vakola. As in most of the country, these communities, though tending to cluster together, live in relative harmony with each other. Again though, as is wont to happen across urban India, the area of Vakola was among the worst affected during the Bombay Riots of 1993.
Vakola is home to one of the now small, indigenous communities of Mumbai, the East Indians. Earlier known as, Vankola, for three centuries, the village formed part of the Kalina Parish which was founded in 1606. It was in 1914 that through the initiative of Fr. C. A. Abreo at Kalina Church, that a chapel was contemplated to be built at Vankola. Mr. John Rodrigues popularly known as Jamboo donated the land, and the Chapel was finally completed and dedicated to St. Anthony and blessed on 1 January 1921. Practically all the villagers then had relatives (brothers, sisters, in-laws) either at Kalliana (now Kalina) or at Vile Parle. The Church was remodeled in 1977 to suit the changed liturgical norms. Today St. Anthony's Chirch is one of the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Mumbai in terms of Catholic population, which is estimated to include around 23,000 persons.
To the south of the Vankola village were a few fields and marshy lands reaching right up to the Mithi River at Bandra East that contained a lot of wild life, birds of all kinds and small animals. Vankola village being on a small rise, the land sloped downwards towards the marshes. All social activity of the people was centered at Kalina Village which was connected to Vakola by a small road skirting the Rye Hills which now houses the Military Camp. This small road is still in use and is used a short cut to Kalina.
A large development of Vakola is the Anand Nagar area, built as transit accommodation for Post-Partition refugees, but subsequently leased and sold to various families.
Vakola is a predominantly middle class neighbourhood, although the property prices have been on a very steep upward trend in the last couple of years. Vakola has two schools run by the Archdiocese of Mumbai, St Anthony's Boys' School and St. Charles Girls' School, The Patuck School and College Complex founded under the Patuck Polytechnic Trust, by the Late Mr. Rustomji Hormusji Patuck, a Parsi businessman turned technical educationist, The New Model High School, The Municipal School at Vakola Bridge that includes several upper and lower primary schools in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu mediums, The Nariyalwadi Municipal school that has upper and primary schools in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil mediums.
Vakola hosts the corporate headquarters of Asian Paints Limited. Also, Vakola has a significant number of large commercial banks, including Canara Bank, State Bank of India, The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank, CitizenCredit Co-operative Bank, ICICI Bank and a yet to open (May 2010) NKGSB Co-Operative Bank . One of the biggest Hyatt hotels in the world, the Grand Hyatt is located at Vakola, on the erstwhile premises of the Standard Batteries factory.
The road stretched from the Western Express Highway to the Military Camp is called Nehru Road. A tributary of the Mithi River, called as the Vakola Nallah flows through Vakola. This river overflowed during The Mumbai floods of 2005 on July 26, 2005 and caused massive damage to slums and housing societies along its banks. Some buildings were under ten feet of water.
The neighbourhood of Vakola is the setting for the 2011 novel by Booker Prize winning Indian author, Aravind Adiga Last Man in Tower. [1]
Kalina (originally Kalliana)
History- A mile and half to the south east of Vile Parle, stands a proud forested hillock called The Rye. A century ago, if one stood on this hillock, one could get a beautiful and breathtaking wondrous panoramic view all round, to the west The Arabian Sea, the creeks and marshy lagoon, the lowlands and the coconut groves of Juhu, to the South one viewed right up to Mahim, the Sion Hill and Fort and the Mithi River flowing to the sea at Bandra to the North the hillocks of Chakala and Bamanwada, the small hamlet of Sahar and the Marol hills and forests and to the east lay the village of Kurla, a cannon shot away from Sion Fort (that the British Bombarded regularly whenever they had a disagreement with the Catholic clergy) and the Western Ghats.
Through the seasons, spring, summer, monsoon, autumn and winter, sunrise and sunset, the changing landscape would be a heart breaking experience of beauty and wonder, the East Indian homeland presented. Just at the foot of the hillock on the west was the village of Vankola, and on the other side i.e. the eastern side of the hillock lies the village of Kole-Kalyan now known as Kalina (from the original name Kalliana). The names Vankola and Kole-Kalyan mean the homes of Jackals, Foxes and Wolves which at one time roamed these areas in large numbers freely. The people of these villages gathered their fire woods, berries and Fruits from the Rye Hill in the old days, when all was peace, serenity and life sedentary.
It was the British who saw the importance of this hill and promptly put up a military base with training facilities for soldiers and rest houses for the Officers and fully equipped medical facilities. Today the hill and its military base still stand and well maintained, untouched by slums and horrible housing societies, buildings and projects. The surrounding have changed, the sights made invisible by structures put up by insensitive planner and builders and all beauty lost.
The village of Kallina had doubled and tripled in size by ungainly buildings and slums, huts and shanties illegally built on the east, hugging the Rye Hill and spilling on to the railway line now a narrow road, all that is left of it. The village is practically strangulated and over run by insensitive outsiders with alien cultures, mainly because none of the ruling powers, also outsiders in out homeland failed to maintain the East Indian Gauthans as heritage properties.
The Ganesh Temple is the oldest religious body in Kalina and provides yeoman service to residents of Kalina. Thousands of devotees make a pilgrimage here, thus making it an important event in the Kalina calendar.
The Village is divided into sections like, Bhatt Pakady, Matharpakady, Corderio Wadi, Desachi Pakadi and Ranwar Pakadi, and the other village of Kolavree across the south east. The Parish Church of Our Lady of Egypt sits besides the large fresh water lake, which was used by the villages for washing clothes. Sweet drinking water was obtained from numerous wells in the villages. The main occupation of the people was agriculture. With British setting up their military Base on the hill , many of the local people got employment. The Church of Our Lady Of Egypt was built in 1606 and the Parish consisted of the following villages under its jurisdiction: - Kole-kalyan, Aldeia, Sur, Sar, Naugar, Vancolem and Cuddy as of 1761 (Humbert I : 223 -238). According to Fr. Paulo da Trindade, the Church and the Parish was founded when Fr. Antonio da Portiuncula was Custos (1606–1609) and Fr. Manoel de S. Mathias, a great missionary baptized more than a thousan souls.
The Church of Our Lady of Egypt is one of the very few churches that escaped ruthless destruction and pillage at the hands of the Marathas during the invasion and occupation of 1739, after which Secular Priests started functioning at the Church of Kallina. The Saint Mary's School had its origin as far back as 1876 and was known as The Little Portuguese School when Fr. Custodio Fernandes was the Vicar. The school came into prominence around the year 1912 when Fr. C.A. Abreo was the assistant; there was much progress in singing, drill and needle work by the girls. The number of students increased from 130 to 180 and a temporary structure was built in 1914 to accommodate the growing number. The only problem was that the villagers were not willing to pay any fees and hence the Diocese of Daman and the Bombay Catholic Welfare Organization had to render financial help. By now most well off families sent their children to school in Bandra, the girls at St. Joeseph Comvent and the boys at St. Stanislaus and St. Andrews. The children had no transport facilities in those days and would walk the distance daily. Fr. Roque served for seven years and during his tenure the school improved with a result that the Local Board increased its grant. Under Fr. V.M. Saldana , the Vicar in 1936, His Grace the Archbishop of Bombay took special interest and seeing that there was an urgent need for a good building made substantial gift of Rs. 7000/- and with the efforts of the Vicar and his assistant they managed to get a subscription of Rs. 1100/- from the public. The Foundation stone was laid be Mr. Katrak, the manager of the Kurla Estate. The new building had four large well ventilated rooms and could accommodate 200 pupils. The strength of the school in 1937 was now 247 pupils, the principal now was Fr. P. Pereira who deserves credit for his able management of the school. Today the school is not only a High School but also a Junior College. In the late 1960 the Church enlarges and renovated due to an increase in the Catholic population. On either side of the main Altar were added large wings to accommodate about 200 people. The main structure is still intact, except the Porch that was redesigned and made larger. A new graveyard was added to the north of the church as the old one became insufficient, as the people from Vankola parish have also to be buried here. The Lake and Land around it is also lost to the exclusive use of the East Indians and a huge slum has come up to the east beyond the compound of the church.
The Government acquired the lands of the villages, to the north of Kallina village, which were vegetable fields. The Acquisition was done in the early 1950s and they paid a pittance as compensation to the villagers at 4 annas per square yard. It was a forced `take it or get nothing' situation.
Today in these lands stands the sprawling complex of the Air-India employees colony. In April 1930, The Kole-Kalyan Death Benefit Fund was inaugurated, presided over by Mr. Avelino Miranda at its first meeting who outlined the aims of the Benefit Fund as to render monetary assistance to the poor and needy of the two villages at the time of Funerals. The Callina Catholic Association was established in 1923 and by 1930 it was a registered recognized association in the suburbs. It won fame and popularity in both Cricket and Hockey. There were the holders of the Bernard Gomes Cricket Trophy played at Juhu for two years consecutively. It also won the Bombay East Indian Association Cricket Championships twice ina row. They were also outright winners of the cricket Trophy presented by the Scholars XI Vile Parle, where no less than twenty teams participated. They also introduced the first Badminton Club in the village and organized tournaments where ladies also took part. Among the distinguished players in the doubles were Miss Louisa Rodrigues and Miss Tiny Cordeiro, both who later entered the convent and became nuns in 1935. The Club attained high standards in the 15 years tenure of the President Mr. B. S. Carvalho, who was a veteran cricketer and well known throughout the suburbs and Salsette.
Kalina starts from the Military Camp and stretches east up to the suburb of Kurla. It is a cosmopolitan area comprising a number of schools, colleges and the Kalina Campus of the University of Mumbai and the Govt College of Pharmacy.
Kalina houses major large apartment complexes belonging to two major Government owned airlines, i.e., Air-India and Indian. Sunder Nagar is another large residential area, consisting of many row houses.
Kalina is midway between two suburban stations Kurla and Santa Cruz railway stations, which are on the Central and Western Railway Lines respectively. It is also close to the Bandra-Kurla complex and only 15 minutes from the domestic terminals of the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
Kalina has been experiencing high growth over the past few years. The proposed Mumbai Police Headquarters will be in Kalina. The Santa Cruz-Chembur link road will run through Kalina as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project. Kalina is also an emerging hub for commercial real estate with big names such as Microsoft and Rolls Royce (Marine Engines) setting up shop there.
Kalina is one of the Happening places in Mumbai. It's easy to commute from Kalina to Central or Western Railway.It also has a large population of Airline employees, who live in the Air India and Indian Airlines colonies.
Our Lady of Egypt Church is the main church in Kalina. It is a Catholic church, and celebrated its 400th centenary in 2008. Originally built by the Portuguese as a chapel, it has not extended itself. St. Mary's School and Junior College are attached to the church. Mary Immaculate is a school run by sisters of Ajmer. Kalina is also home to famous temples such as the Ganesh Temple in Air India and the South Indian Temple in Sunder Nagar. The South Indian temple has become a magnet for tourists from all over Mumbai due to its award winning design.
Kalina also has highly rated schools such as Kalina Education Society school which was set up by the late M.L.A, Mr.Hans Bhugra.
Jamblipada and Kunchi Kurve Nagar are large slum settlements in the area. Kalina also has two major mosques. The old Airport Road is an arterial road passing through Kalina.
Santa Cruz (West) is strikingly more affluent than the eastern part of the suburb. It is bordered by Khar, Juhu, and Vile Parle.
It is primarily a residential area, with the market situated near the railway station. The residential colonies include such as 1st & 2nd Gauthan Lane [East Indians Village][1] (where the original inhabitants of Santacruz & Mumbai resied there) Amar Subway Society, the Reserve Bank of India Quarters, Vithaldas Nagar Colony, Sangeeta Apartments, Shree Sai Darshan CHS, Girnar CHS, Rizvi Park, Bansraj Singh Estate, Khotwadi, Bhimwada, T.P.S. 6th Residential colony Ramas Plaza and Khira Nagar, Shastri Nagar,Jeevan Sona society,Main Avenue,Convent Avenue,St. Joseph's Avenue,St. Francis Avenue & Church Avenue. In the past most of the residences used to be small bungalows, which are now being replaced by high rise buildings. Sujata building was Santacruz's first high-rise (one with lift service) built by Raheja builders right across from the police station.It also has Famous Sadhana School which Produced Great Film Musician like Anu Malik.
The main roads in Santa Cruz(W) are Swami Vivekanand Road, Juhu Road, Juhu Tara Road and Linking Road (now officially called Vithalbhai Patel Marg). PIN code for Santa Cruz (west) is 400054.
The Catholic neighborhood of Santa Cruz(West) is a very pristine and quiet area of Santa Cruz west, with dense lush gardens. It houses the St. Teresa's Girls High School and the Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana.
The Old neighborhood belonging to the Saraswat Brahmins is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Mumbai with its private gardens and pebbled walkways.
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