Dadar
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Image:Dadarmumbai.JPG Dadar (दादर in Devanāgarī) is a place in Mumbai, and has a railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway on both the Western Railway line (Dadar) and the Central Railway line (Dadar T.T.). Dadar has the only railway station common to both the Central line and the Western line; this makes it a transit point and the most crowded railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway.
Dadar is divided into East and West by the railway line. Dadar East is popularly called Dadar T.T. because it housed the Dadar Tram Terminus which was closed with the closure of the tram network. It is also called Dadar Central as it lies along the Central Line. Dadar West is (not so commonly) referred to as Dadar B.B. as it lies along the western line, earlier a part of the Bombay & Baroda Railroad. Dadar West market is a very popular shopping destination for residents of central Mumbai.
Dadar is home to the famous Shivaji Park, a huge playground which has been home to some of the best cricket players in the world, including Sachin Tendulkar. Dadar is also home to the famous Agrawal Classes, amongst the best and one of the oldest coaching classes in the city, providing coaching to students for the 12th grade board examinations. Don't forget close-rivals of Agrawal Classes in 12th grade coaching, Desai classes is also in Dadar.
Dadar is home to the Plaza movie theatre which was damaged during the 1993 bomb-blasts/riots. It has now re-opened and remains one of the few theatres in Mumbai that show Marathi movies albeit almost as a Matinee show.
History
The Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion scheme of 1899-1900 was the first planned suburban scheme in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The City Improvement Trust formulated this plan in order to relieve congestion in the centre of the town, following the plague epidemics of the 1890s. According to the survey plan, 60,000 people were to be housed at Dadar-Matunga and an equal number in Sion-Matunga. 85,000 people were to be accommodated in the developments in Sewri-Wadala.
The plans regulated constructions with emphasis on proper sanitation. No building was to be more than three storeys high, and the buildings were to have open spaces between them. The land-use was planned to be a mix of residential, commercial and institutional constructions. Parks and gardens were planned, and the streets were well laid out.
440 acres (1.8 km²) of land was procured and leased to the Government for selling. For the first time housing cooperatives were formed to take advantage of newly developed land. The Parsi and Hindu colonies in Dadar and the Tamil colony in Matunga were developed in this way.
Dadar was 6 miles away from Crawford Market by the newly constructed Mohammedali Road. The tramways were extended to this new suburb. The GIP constructed a bridge, now the Tilak Bridge, connecting the two suburban railways. In February 1925, the GIP (Great Indian Peninsular) Railways opened their suburban line, and started the work of electrifying the railways.
Among the institutions moved to Dadar according to the CIT plan were the VJTI and King George's School.
Hand-in-hand with the development of the northern suburbs in the 1930s there was a lot of activity in the Dadar-Matunga area. The Hindu Colony, north of Tilak Bridge, expanded up to Ambedkar Marg (then Kingsway) and around the Khodadad Circle. These developments were completed by 1935. In 1937 Ramnarain Ruia College was founded and in 1939 the Ramniranjan Podar College(both run by SP Mandali), thus completing a transition of Dadar from a residential suburb into a variegated enclave.
By 1937 Shivaji Park and the surrounding areas were developed. This public space was to become an important stage in the political drama which led up to India's independence, and later political history of Bombay unfolded in the same park.
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