Road named after first post-Independence Sheriff now home to key bureaucrats and industrialists

The road is now home to plush bungalows housing the Reserve Bank of India governor, the Mumbai municipal commissioner and chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust. Several big corporate names in the country can be found along the leafy stretch, too, including Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.

“My grandfather was a pioneering industrialist and started a sugar factory in the state,” says Dilip. That company is now Tilaknagar Industries, whose website says: “the erstwhile The Maharashtra Sugar Mills Limited was promoted in 1933 by the illustrious industrialist and visionary Mahadev L Dahanukar.” The company now produces industrial alcohol.

According to company website, the mother factory was named Tilaknagar owing to Dahanukar’s inspiration from Lokmanya Tilak, his “friend, philosopher and guide”.

Tilaknagar Industries manufactured sugar for decades, one of the first private sector manufacturers in the field. The company operated Maharashtra’s first private sugar factory for nearly five decades.

“He (M L Dahanukar) was closely linked to the Indian National Congress. The party held its annual meeting in Pune, at his house,” Dilip said. “While he was the first Sheriff of Mumbai, one of his sons, S L Dahanukar, also became a Sheriff and was an MLA and treasurer of the district Congress committee,” he added.

The liquor business is now run by his cousin’s son. M L Dahanukar had three sons. Dilip manages the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, named after his wife, a well-known artist.

M L Dahanukar also contributed to the establishment of educational institutions one of them being the M L Dahanukar College of Commerce. He contributed towards the construction of the building of the college leading to the institution being named after him, according to the family.

“There are four heritage bungalows along this road. The road has managed to retain its sanctity,” said Dilip adding that the first skyscraper in the city, built in the 1960s, Usha Kiran, also happens to stand on the road.