Santacruz, Mumbai

Santacruz or Santa Cruz (Pronunciation: aːn̪t̪akɾuːz is a suburb of Mumbai. The Santacruz railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, the domestic terminal (T1) of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, and one campus of the University of Mumbai, are all located in Santacruz (East).

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 in 1991, over an area of 12.98 square kilometers, giving it a population density of 36,668 persons per square kilometer.

History

The term ''Santa Cruz'' comes from the Portuguese words meaning " Holy Cross", a reference to a 150-year-old Cross located on Chapel lane within the compound of a home for destitute women run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity trust. That name was also given to a church that existed on a site on the western side of the railway station along the current Swami Vivekanand Road, presently occupied by the Sacred Heart Boys High School and Sacred Heart Church. This original church was destroyed by the Marathas during their conquest of the Salsette Island from Portugal. When the railways began operations in October 1888, the local railway station was named after the Holy Cross, and Santacruz as a locality came into being.

The then British Government set up RAF Santa Cruz, a military airfield, in 1942. It was home to several RAF squadrons during World War II from 1942 to 1947. The Airport covered an area of about and initially had three runways. The airfield was transferred to the Indian Government for civilian use upon Independence, and came to be known as Santa Cruz airport, the city's main airport. Construction of a new passenger terminal and apron began in 1950 and was commissioned in 1958. In the 1980s, a new international terminal was built at Sahar, to cater for the increasing number of passenger movements and types of aircraft; the terminal at Santa Cruz was converted to serve domestic flights and was primarily used by Indian Airlines until the 1990s, when Jet Airways and East West Airlines appeared. The original terminal building still exists and has been given a new façade and host of interior upgrades. A second terminal complex has also been built to supplement existing facilities.

Geography

Santa Cruz is bordered by Juhu and Vile Parle to the north and Khar and Bandra to the south. 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. Recently Milan flyover has been built which has improved connectivity between Santacruz East and West. The Western express highway passes through Santacruz East. Because of its unique geography and connectivity, Santacruz is one of the prime locations in Mumbai.

Vakola

Vakola hosts the corporate headquarters of Asian Paints Limited and a significant number of large commercial banks, including Canara Bank, State Bank of India, The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank (Head Office in Vakola), CitizenCredit Co-operative Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and NKGSB Co-Operative Bank . The Grand Hyatt hotel is located at Vakola, on the erstwhile premises of the Standard Batteries factory. Vakola is also famous for its marble stretch which exists on the Nehru Road till the Western Express Highway. The Domestic Terminal 1 and International Terminal 2 of Mumbai Airport lie 10 mins and 20 mins away respectively from Vakola. The prominent upscale commercial, business and residential district of Bandra Kurla Complex lies neighboring the Vakola and Kalina region.

The road stretching 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 statewide floods of 2005 on 26 July 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 '' Last Man in Tower'', by Booker Prize–winning Indian author Aravind Adiga.

Kalina

Kalina is home to a number of schools and colleges besides the Kalina Campus of the University of Mumbai and the prestigious Bombay College of Pharmacy India.

Other notable schools in the vicinity are Mary Immaculate High School, a school run by sisters of Ajmer, the Kalina Education Society School, which was set up by the late M.L.A, Mr. Hans Bhugra and Air India Modern School.
During the statewide floods in 2005, Air India Colony was flooded with water five to six metres deep. In many buildings, the water had entered in the ground floor and first floor level houses and the people had to take shelter on the upper floors. Rescue boats of Navy were requisitioned deployed in the area. Immediately after the deluge, restoration programme was implemented and portable pumps were installed at Air India colony, helping the early discharge of flood water.

Willingdon Colony

The Bombay Catholic Cooperative Housing Society constructed in 1930 a low-cost housing estate for the Catholic community, known as Willingdon Colony. It included pre-existing bungalows that the Cooperative had built as early as 1917. The colony was spread over and managed by the Cooperative. The members of the cooperative voted in 1966 to redevelop the colony, with 673 new flats to be built. The redevelopment was planned to provide permanent accommodation for 230 members, with the excess flats to be offered for sale. An additional, separate, building on the land was to provide capacity to temporarily house a further 530 people displaced by slum redevelopments, through the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. A small number of cooperative members opposed the redevelopment, and it was delayed by litigation for nearly 50 years.

Despite heritage preservation concerns, and over the objections of the twenty remaining resident families, their final challenge was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2014, allowing redevelopment to proceed. Demolition of historic bungalows commenced soon after. Further pauses occurred throughout 2014, as stays for proceedings continued. Despite the court's rejection of the challenge to redevelopment, the same group began a new round of legal actions in 2015, with a petition to the High Court, challenging the validity of the permit issued to the developer to transplant 103 trees from the site. The petitioners were not successful in having the tree removal permit withdrawn.

Amenities and places of interest

Cultural

* Ramakrishna Mission (though strictly in Khar) has a yearly fest between October (for the Durga Puja festival) and December. It is widely attended for its mix of eclectic stalls selling cultural wares, clothes, religious and spiritual books, devotional music and eateries. The food stalls outside the hospital are famous in Mumbai for ''Chaat''
* The Yoga Institute (TYI), founded in 1918, is widely reported to be the oldest organised yoga center in the world. It was the first to offer courses to men, women and children of any caste or creed, for free. Initially located at Versova, Bombay, its permanent home was established at Santacruz in 1948. TYI's founder, Shri Yogendra (1897–1989), played a key role in developing medical hatha yoga, a step in the history of yoga that would later lead to the development of Yoga therapy.

Education

University campuses

* SNDT Women's University, with Juhu campus on the Juhu Tara Road, which houses approximately 15 institutions, mostly for Postgraduate
* The Kalina Campus of the University of Mumbai

Schools

* St. Anthony High School, Nehru Road, Vakola, Santacruz (East): for boys from preschool to Standard-X levels; named 'high school' even though it also offers primary and pre-primary education
* St. Anthony Girls' High School, St. Anthony's Road, Chembur (West)
* Billabong High International School, Santacruz West, a coeducational school from pre-primary to class 12, offering (Cambridge) curriculum
* R. N. Podar School, a -board school offering education from junior kindergarten to class 12.
*Panbai International School - IGCSE
* Flamingo Kids International Pre primary School - Santacruz East
* Panbai International College - A levels, Santacruz, Mumbai

Parks and gardens

* Juhu Garden, Juhu-Tara Road, Santacruz (West), known for its large-scale aircraft replica in the children's playground, and consequently popularly called the "Aeroplane Garden". The original version, a concrete replica of a Boeing 707-437 was donated by Air India in the 1960s, and generations of local children played in its cabin and "cockpit". Its partial collapse in 2009 was the cause of a fatality, after which public access was closed; its demolition followed in 2011. A replacement version was installed and opened to the public in 2013.

Churches, temples and other religious sites

* Sacred Heart Church, Santacruz (West)
* Our Lady of Egypt Church, Kalina

Hospitals

* Nanavati Hospital

References

{{Mumbai metropolitan area

Mumbai Suburban district
Suburbs of Mumbai