Mumbai

Gardens And Lakes

[ Hanging Gardens | Hiranandani Gardens | Powai Lake | Vihar Lake | Tulsi Lake | Thane Creek | Ulhas river | Banganga Tank ]

Hanging Gardens of Mumbai
The Hanging Gardens, Mumbai, in Mumbai, India, also known as Ferozeshah Mehta Gardens, are terraced gardens perched at the top of Malabar Hill, on its western side, just opposite the Kamala Nehru Park. They provide lovely sunset views over the Arabian Sea. The park was laid out in the early 1880s over Bombay's main reservoir, some say to cover the water from the potentially contaminating activity of the nearby Towers of Silence.

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Hiranandani Gardens
Hiranandani Gardens is a township located southwest of Powai, Mumbai. The township is approachable by Adi Sakaracharya Marg (ADS Marg), a part of Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR).

Apart from many apartment buildings, it contains -

• ICSE, Hiranandani Foundation School.
• HAIKO Supermarket.
• Galleria Shopping Mall.
• Club House with swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna, Jacuzzi and Billiards, tennis and squash courts.
• The Loft, Mumbai's largest footwear stores.
• Culture Shop, a Lifestyle store.
• Rodas, an Ecotel Hotel with multi-cuisine restaurants.
• Hakone entertainment centers - Go-Karting, Bowling Alley, Rock-Climbing, Bumper cars, Video Games, gardens, parks and forests with a jogging track.
• Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, a 110 -bed multi specialty hospital
• Raheja Vihar

Hiranandani Gardens has beautiful buildings and quite a few Bollywood movies are shot on the streets. The buildings are designed by [Hafeez] contractor a renowned architect.

• Mumbai Suburban Railway
• Suburban rail network.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway system, part of the public transportation system of Mumbai, carries more than 6.1 million commuters on a daily basis. It has the highest passenger density of any urban railway system in the world. The system carries more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways.

The Mumbai Suburban Railway, as well as Indian Railways, are an ofshoot of the first railway to be built by the British in India in April 1853. This was also the oldest railway system in Asia. The first train ran between Mumbai and Thane, a distance of 34 km. The Bombay Railway History Group has been striving to document railway heritage along this line.

Given the geographical spread of the population and location of business areas, the rail network is the principal mode of mass transport in Mumbai.

Kanjurmarg is a suburb of Mumbai. It is also the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Central Railway line. It is a small suburb on the shores of the Thane creek. Kanjurmarg station is the access point for IIT Bombay and Hiranandani Gardens. The station was built in 1968 after the local Kanjur village.

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Powai Lake
Powai Lake is a huge artificial lake in Bombay (Mumbai), India. The adjoining area is known as Powai. This is where Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) are located. Currently the problem of silting is troubling this once serene lake and work is going on to cure it of its hyacinth population.

The Powai area has grown tremendously in the past decade and it is presently a residential, commercial and retail hub for the eastern suburbs of Bombay. It is also the location for the Hiranandani Gardens township. The nearest Mumbai Suburban Railway station to reach Powai is Kanjurmarg. A local weekly newspaper PLANET POWAI regularly reports on the latest news and development of this lake.

The area is also famous for being the hub of the construction, engineering and manufacturing conglomerate Larsen & Toubro group of companies.

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Vihar Lake
Vihar Lake is Mumbai's largest lake. It is situated in the Borivali National Park in northern Mumbai. Vihar Lake is sandwiched between Tulsi Lake and Powai Lake is the other two lakes in the vicinity. The Powai-Kanheri hill ranges serve as the catchment area for rainwater, which feeds the lake. As one of Mumbai's water sources, it meets part of the city's water requirement, especially to the South Mumbai region. Its overflow level is measured at 80.42 metres.

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Tulsi Lake
Tulsi Lake is the second largest lake in the Indian city of Mumbai. It is situated in the Borivali National Park in northern Mumbai. It is the northern-most lake in Mumbai. The Powai-Kanheri hill ranges serve as the catchment area for rainwater, which feeds the lake. It meets part of the city's water requirement, especially to the South Mumbai region. Its overflow level is measured at 139.17 metres. Vihar Lake and Powai Lake are the other two lakes in the vicinity.

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Thane Creek
Thane Creek is part of the estuary of the Ulhas river in western India opening into Bombay Harbour. It comprises the area stretching from Mumbra Retibunder to the Mankhurd-Vashi Bridge. It has been recognised as an Important Bird Area by the Bombay Natural History Society, as it is home to flamingoes and several other migratory and wading birds. The stretch of the Ulhas River that turns north towards Vasai Creek is also mistakenly referred to as Thane Creek. Thane Creek was an important harbour in olden times, with the ports of Kopri and Kalyan served by it, though they have long been silted up.

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Ulhas River
The Ulhas River is a river of western India. It originates near Karjat in the Western Ghats Range, and flows westward through Raigad and Thane districts of Maharashtra north to Ulhasnagar (to which it gives its name) and on to Kalyan, where it turns west to Thane. At Thane the river splits into two branches which flow west and south, respectively, around Salsette Island, on which lies the metropolis of Mumbai. Both branches are estuarine, and lie on seismic fault lines. The main branch turns northwestward to Ghodbunder, where it opens into the estuary of Vasai Creek. Thane Creek flows south to empty into Bombay Harbour. The estuary of the Ulhas is the site of the historical ports of Kalyan, Kopri (Chersonesus/Coprostaneum) and Shurparaka (now Sopara). It also flows close to the suburbs of Badlapur.

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Banganga Tank
Banganga is a place in the Malabar Hill area of Mumbai City. It is believed that in mythical times the great Lord Rama, an incarnation of God Vishnu, shot an arrow in the ground to provide for fresh water for drinking. The place where the arrow hit the ground there issued out a stream of fresh and sweet water gushed forth from a tributary of the Ganga, over a thousand miles away. Hence the place is known as Banganga.

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