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Andheri (Marathi: अंधेरी) is a suburb of Mumbai city. It is also a railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway, Western line. It is the fifth
suburb among the Western suburbs. Like many other suburbs and areas
of Mumbai, Andheri too is divided into an East and a West section,
separated by the railway line.
History
The oldest settlements in and around Andheri were those of the
East Indians, the natives whose villages
survive in Amboli, Marol (See St.
John the Baptist Church), Chakala, Gundowli, Sahar, Saki Naka, etc. Andheri name was derive from
"UDAYANAGRI", mountain near mahakali cave was known as
Udayanagari.
Another concentration of the native East Indians was located on
the former islet of Versova,
also known as Vasave.
In the early 1900s, as urbanization spread from Bombay
northwards, Marathi, Gujarati and other settlers began to colonize
the area.
The English actively encouraged this in order to take off
population pressure from the congested city and to increase revenue
inflows; however, as a result, the native East Indians came to be
swamped, marginalized and their lands were usually expropriated
without compensation, even as their access to the sea for fishing
was cut, thus destroying their two means of livelihood: agriculture
& fishing.
In the 1950s the English built the Versova Causeway (the Versova
Road) between Andheri on Sashti Island and the islet of Versova.
The area on both sides of this causeway were rapidly filled in to
develop areas now known as Dhake Colony, D.N. Nagar, Four Bungalows, Seven
Bungalows, etc.
One of the earliest colonies is the Dhake Colony on Versova
Road, West Andheri. The five buildings of Dhake Colony were built
around 1950, and they served as a landmark until recently. The area
is now known as D.N. Nagar.
Another of these early settlements is Bhardawadi. This lane
forms a vital link with S.V. Road for the residents of Versova
Road. It has been inhabited for the last ninety years. In the past,
there were bungalows on
this road; these gave way to apartment buildings, although there are still
a few old bungalows, which is rare in Mumbai. This lane bustles
with the sound of traffic which passes through it to reach S.V.
Road.
The popular Ganesha
temple, Siddhivinayak temple, created in
1926, also contributed to the settlement of Andheri.
Starting from 1935 up to early 1980s Andheri East boasted of
many Film Studios, namely Prakash Studio, Nataraj Studio, Modern
Studio, M&T Studio and Mohan Studio. All these studios were
situated from Telli Gully signal junction up to Chakala Junction on
Andheri-Kurla Road. All the big names of Bollywood of that era had
their offices in it. Prakash Studio made way for Vishal Housing
complex. Modern studio had to close down in mid 1960 as the Western
Express Highway was constructed right through it. M&T studio
was gutted in a fire in early 1960. In its place came German
Remedies(pharmaceutical company). Mohan Studio too had to make way
for Mota Nagar and Padam Nagar. Small hotels run by Sindhis who
migrated from Pakistan and Udipi Restaurants run by entrepreneurs
from Mudradi Village in Udipi (Karnataka) catered to these Studios
day and night.
Before 1945, Andheri was administered by a Collector as the
"Suburban District"; in that year, the former Suburban District was
absorbed by Mumbai city as Greater Bombay.
However, the Suburban District was once again revived in about 2000
as the Mumbai Suburban District.
Current
Bombay Cambridge School, Off Sahar Road, Chakala, Andheri
(East)
Andheri today has a population exceeding four million, and as
per record is by far the most populous suburb of Mumbai.
Contemporary West Andheri is largely a residential area, whereas
East Andheri is has a mixture of commercial and residential areas,
including MIDC-SEEPZ (Santacruz
Electronic and Export Promotion Zone), Saki Naka (an industrial area), etc.
The Chhatrapati
Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai's International Airport
is in Andheri East. Many Call Centers and BPOs are located in
Chakala area of Andheri.
The World Bank has
many plans for the development of the largely industrial Andheri
East. After the Mumbai
Metro between Versova (Andheri West) and Ghatkopar(West)
becomes operational in about 2011, travel time will be reduced from
the present 1 hour 45 minutes to about 20 minutes. Work on the
metro has begun and is in full throttle now. Many of the pillars
are up on some sections of the corridor.
Andheri East also has pockets of attractive residential areas,
with quiet, tree-lined streets, easy connectivity to the Western Express Highway, and
without the congestion and perpetual traffic jams that afflict most
residential areas in suburban Mumbai.
Important
places
- In Andheri East, there are ancient caves, named after the
Goddess Maha Kali called Mahakali Caves. They are now in ruins
but recently (through the efforts of a lot of well-meaning
journalists, citizens and NGOs) they have caught the attention of
the government and the BMC, which is working to restore them.
- The Vanchasiddhi temple of Lord Ganesh has the second highest
number of devotees everyday after the Siddhivinayak temple in
Dadar. This is in Andheri east near the station
- SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronic
and Export Promotion Zone) is a very important SEZ (Special
Economic Zone) in Mumbai. SEEPZ is located in MIDC (Maharashtra
Industrial Development Corporation). MIDC also hosts various small
and medium scale industries.
- Picnic Spot is a major tourist attraction among Andheri Locals.
It is the next stop towards Goregaon from Vijay Nagar Society. This place
is frequented by joggers from Vijay Nagar, Marol and other
societies in this area, and hence of significant importance to the
residents of this area. The Aarey road, with its greenery is the
last green spot in Mumbai and very vulnerable to builder lobby and
politicians wanting to chop off and build high rises. Residents of
Andheri and Mumbai as a whole are keeping their fingers crossed
against the area falling prey to the greed of notorious builders
and politicians. Resident Saravanan Iyer has single handedly
thwarted many of these attempts.
- Vijaynagar-Chandrashekhar Society is an important cultural
spot. It is a society built in the '60s primarily for middle class
families and hosts Paranjape Vidyalaya, branch of Great PTV
association.
- The Maphkan Nagar Municipal School hosts LACC (AGNI) meetings
every Saturday at 9.30 A.M. which is a forum where woes of
residents of Marol Maroshi Road Area is heard by BMC officials. It
is co-ordinated by volunteers of AGNI. The volunteers are Mr. James
John, Mrs. Rosario, Mr. Sujit Menon.
- Bhawani Nagar, on Marol Maroshi Road, is another residential
landmark in Andheri (East). This colony contains 18 clusters of
buildings, called plots. The earliest plot in this colony was
developed in 1977 by Deepak Builders.
- The Marol Maroshi Bus Depot is a major bus terminus.
- Andheri's East and West areas house some of the biggest and
well know mall's and software companies in the whole of Mumbai. The
biggest mall of Andheri, Infinity mall, is housed on of India's
biggest FM stations (Big FM
92.7 MHz) and India's largest gaming portal Zapak, both of
which are Reliance undertakings.
- Gilbert Hill
is a 200 foot (61 m) monolith column of black basalt rock in
Andheri, in Mumbai, India. The rock has a sheer vertical face and
was created when molten lava was squeezed out of the Earth's clefts
during the Mesozoic Era about 65 million years ago. During that
era, molten lava had spread around most of the Indian states of
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, covering an area of 50,000
square kilometres (19,305 sq mi). The volcanic eruptions were also
responsible for the destruction of plant and animal life during
that era. According to experts, this rare geological phenomenon was
the remnants of a ridge and had clusters of vertical columns in
nearby Jogeshwari which were quarried off two decades ago. These
vertical columns are similar to the Devils Tower National Monument
in Wyoming, and the Devils Postpile National Monument in eastern
California, USA. Atop the rock column, two Hindu temples, the
Gaodevi and Durgamata temples, set in a small garden, are accessed
by a steep staircase carved into the rock. The hill offers a
panoramic view of the city of Mumbai. To get there via road, turn
left at Kasimali Sakur Chowk on Swami Vivekanand Road, just before
Andheri railway station and ask for directions to the temple atop
Gilbert Hill which is just a minute's drive away.
- Marol Fire Brigade is the only fire brigade in Andheri (East).
This is situated at the main junction of Marol Naka.
- The Andheri Sports Complex (Shahaji
Raje Krida Sankul), Veera Desai Road, Andheri West, is a
sports facility which has also played host to a number of Bollywood and other
entertainment functions. This sports facility has a swimming pool,
a hockey stadium, and several other indoor sports facilities.
- The Andheri-Kurla Road connects Andheri to the central suburbs
of Kurla and Ghatkopar also. This road boasts of a lot of finance,
tech offices. SakiNaka is one of the most important junctions on
this road. The Versova - Ghatkopar Metro line is being constructed
along this road.
- Andheri is an important industrial hub and has several
commercial centers like:-
- Champion real estate:- BIGAdda, a reliance undertaking blog
company (Mr. Amitabh Bachhan writes here) also situates in Andheri
east
Andheri East – CEPZ, MIDC Andheri, Saki Naka, SEEPZ. Andheri
West – Shah Industrial Estate, Laxmi Industrial Estate.
Residential
areas
- Andheri East – Sher-e-Punjab Society, Pump House, Chakala,
Poonam Nagar, JB Nagar, Marol, Bamandwada, MIDC
- Andheri West – Amboli, Manish Nagar, Dhake Colony, Lokhandwala
Complex, Yari Road, DN Nagar, Versova
Andheri
hospitals
East:
- Mukund Hospital
- Holy Spirit hospital
- Medicare
- Jeevan Vikas Hospital
- Sanjeevani Hospital
- E.S.I.C. Model hospital
West
- Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital
- BSCS Hospital near Station
- Cooper Hospital
- Criticare
- Haji A R Kalsekar Hospital
Andheri
colleges
- Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology (RGIT)
- Tolani College
- Shri Chinai College
- MVLU
- Oriental College of Commerce
- Bhavans College [1]
- Sardar Patel College of
Engineering
- Cosmopolitan Education Society's S.C.D.Barfiwala College of
Science.
- Shri Chaganlal Valia College of Commerce and Arts.
- MOD-TECH College of Engineering
- Seed InfoTech Institute
- Rajrani Malhotra Junior College, Lokhandwala Complex
- S P Jain
Institute of Management and Research
- SAE
Institute of Technology
- Tolani College of Commerce,
- Shri Chinai College of Commerce and Economics.
- Valia College of Commerce and Arts
- Claras College of Commerce
- Smt. Kamla Mehta College Of Commerce
- Versova Welfare Junior College Of Science
- Anjuman-I-Islam Tibbiani Unani Medical College
Schools in
Andheri
- Bombay Cambridge School,
Andheri East
- Sri Satya Sai Vidya mandir - Dharmakshetra - Andheri
(East)
- Paranjpe Vidyalaya - Andheri (East)
- St.Dominic Savio High School - Andheri (East)
- Vidya Vikas Mandal Vidyalaya - Andheri (West)
- Swami Muktananda High School - Andheri (West)
- St. Louis Convent High School - Andheri West
- Abdullah Qureshi High School - Andheri (West)
- Shriram Welfare Society's High School(SRWS) - Andheri
(West)
- St. Lawrence High School - Andheri East
- Dnyansagar Vidyala High School, Ganesh Nagar- Andheri
(West)
- Bhavans A.H.Wadia High School - Andheri (West)
- St. Blaises High School -
Andheri (West)
- Marble Arch School - Andheri (West)
- Bombay Cambridge High School - Andheri (West)
- Hansraj Morarji Public
School- Andheri (West)
- Rajhans
Vidyalaya CBSE - Andheri (West) [2]
- Rajhans
Balvatika - Andheri (West)
- Versova Welfare School - Andheri (West)
- Saint Dominic Savio High School - Andheri (East)
- Prime Academy [3]
- Canossa High School - Andheri (East)
- Holy Family High
School (Mumbai, India)Andheri(East)
- Divine Child High School - Andheri (East)
- Children Welfare Centre High School [CWC] - Andheri (West)
- Our Lady Of Health High School - Andheri East
- Saint Xaviers High School - Andheri (East)
- S C D Barfiwala High School - Andheri (West)
- Gyan Kendra School - Andheri (West)
- City International School - Andheri (West)
- Jankidevi Public School IGCSE, IB - Andheri (West)[4]
- Ashok Academy CBSE School - Andheri (West)
- Raigad Military School CBSE - Andheri (West) [5]
- IIT Mumbai CBSE School - Andheri (East) IIT Campus
School [6]
- Dawood Baugh Andheri Municipal School - Andheri (West)
- Lady Ratanbai & Sir Mathuradas Vissanji Academy, Andheri
(East)
- St. Anthony's High School - Andheri (East)
- Seth Madhavdas Amarshi High School ICSE - Andheri (West)
- Marol Education Academy's High School, Andheri (East)MEA high School
- St. John the Evangelist High School (Andheri East)
- St. Lawrence High School (Andheri East)
- IIT
Campus School CBSE (Andheri East) [7]
- M.K. Urdu High School & Junior College - Andheri
(East)
- Anjum-Noorul-Islam Urdu High School - Andheri (East)
- Marol Municipal School - Andheri (East)
- Nagardas Dharsi Bhuta High School - Andheri (East)
- Our Lady Of Good Health High School - Andheri (East)
- Shri Kalgidhar Mission High school - Andheri (East)
- Gurunanak Mission High School - Andheri (East)
- Ryan Global IB school [8]
- Canossa Convent High School
- Divine Child High School (Girls only),
- Holy Family High School,
- Paranjape Vidyalaya
- Arya Vidya Mandir School.
- Bombay Cambridge High School.
- Gopal Sharma Memorial High School.
- Kamla Devi Jain High School
- St Anthony's High School- Andheri (West)
- Anjuman-I-Islam High School- Andheri (West)
External
links
See also
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