Charni Road (Marathi pronunciation: ͡ʃəɾniː ɾoːɖ is a neighbourhood in the southern part of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

. It is served by

Charni Road railway station Charni Road (formerly Churney Road, station code: CYR) is a railway station on the Western Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It serves the suburb of Charni Road. The main significance of Charni Road station is that it is near the Girgaum C ...

History

It is believed that when the British Government raised a grazing tax on people bringing their cattle to graze on the grass at the

Azad Maidan Azad Maidan (formerly known as ''Bombay Gymkhana Maidan'') is a triangular-shaped maidan (sports ground) in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located on of land near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station. It is a regular venue for inter-schoo ...

, Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy purchased the grasslands near Thakurdwar out of his own funds and opened those grounds to the locals to graze their cattle for free. As the Marathi word for grazing is "charne", the area came to be known as Charni ... and thence, the road beside it, as the Charni Road. According to another source, the word is a corruption of "Chendni", a locality in the Thane-Koliwada area. Many people originally from Chendni migrated to south Mumbai to the area which is known today as Charni Road. In 1884, Sir Adamji Peerbhoy (1845–1913), a well-known philanthropist from Mumbai, India, built several properties (a Bohra ''kabrastan'' (cemetery/burial ground), Masjid, Sanatorium and Amanbai Charitable Hospital later known as Saifee Hospital on Charni Road opposite the railway station. He wanted to provide a safe haven for the travellers, poor, or needy to rest, use the masjid for prayers, or the hospital if they needed it. After Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy's death, his grandson Akbar, against the wishes of the family, converted the properties into a trust. The family resisted the change, but Akbar had a lot of influence. He was the son of Abdul Hussein Peerbhoy (who was the second out of seven children of Sir

Adamjee Peerbhoy Sir Adamji Peerbhoy (13 August 1845 — 11 August 1913) was an Indian business magnate, philanthropist and member of the Dawoodi Bohra community based at Bombay in British India. Adamji Peerbhoy was born in 1846 in Dhoraji, Princely State of Gon ...

, who had engineered and build the

Matheran Hill Railway The Matheran Hill Railway (MHR) is a narrow-gauge heritage railway in Maharashtra, India, which is administered by the Central Railway. It covers a distance of , cutting a swathe through forest and connecting Neral to Matheran in the Western ...

. The property was out of the hands of the Peerbhoy family and into the hands of the trustees. The trustees were later on changed by the Syedna (leader of the

Dawoodi Bohra The Dawoodi Bohras are a religious denomination within the Ismā'īlī branch of Shia Islam. Their largest numbers reside in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and the Middle East, with a growing presence across Europe, North America, South ...

s) and the new trustees handed over the property to the Syedna. The property was built for the benefit of the poor and the needy. The property still exists on Charni Road and is still under the name of Sir Adamji Peerbhoy.

Charni Road station

Charni Road station is present on the Western Railway line of Mumbai. Charni Road is the third railway station followed by Churchgate and Marine Lines

External links

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Neighbourhoods in Mumbai The city of Mumbai consists of two distinct regions: Mumbai City district and Mumbai Suburban district, which form two separate revenue districts of Maharashtra. The city district region is also commonly referred to as the ''Island City'' or S ...