Station For 10

Today,it’s one of the busiest stations on the suburban railway route of Western Railway,catering to more than 2 lakh commuters daily and mopping up revenue of Rs 9 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a day.

It’s almost inconceivable that over a century ago,Malad station came into existence through the efforts of,and for,exactly 10 commuters. The foundation stone of the station,inside the office of the Station Master,is witness to that.

Ten residents of Kandivali,Malad and Goregaon wrote a letter agreeing to pay the cost of construction if authorities consented to open a ‘Box’ station at Malad. The group was ready to pay establishment costs for a year and assured they would purchase advance season tickets for the period. In 1892,Malad station came into existence.

The origin of the name Malad is more difficult to trace. In Hindi and Marathi,‘mala’ means garland or row,or a wheatish earth. In the 1920s and 1930s several public and private buildings in the city had facades made of the attractive buff Malad stone from the quarries of the area. In fact,some stone from the Malad quarries was used in iconic buildings including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The Malad estate,comprising seven villages of Malad,Dahisar,Maganta,Tulsi,Ara,Eksar,Kanheri and a part of Paradi were granted to Ardesir Dadi in 1806 in exchange for a plot of ground in the Fort area known as Harjivan Lala’s garden.

In 1868,Ahmadbhai Habibhai bought the villages of Malad,Kanheri,Ara and Tulsi from the Dadi trustees.

Now one of the most crowded stations,Malad was a quiet hamlet stop a century ago. Most commuters were East Indians staying near seashores of Marve,Aksa,Manori,Gorai,Madh and Erangal.

Later,Malad came to be known for the Bombay Talkies,set up in the mid 1930s and then one of the finest and technically sound movie studios in the suburbs.

Between 1939 and 1943,the moneyed among the suburban residents began to purchase plots and build bungalows at Madh and Marve,starting Mumbai’s weekend getaway home trend. Malad remains famous for its picnic spots including Madh Island,Aksa beach and Erangal. About three decades ago,the Malvani area began to become popular among the homeless,leading to a huge urban sprawl of unplanned shanty towns and semi-pucca structures. As Mumbai grew,the hills of Malvani began to be consumed by residential towers,with the suburb now boasting one of Mumbai’s most popular malls as well as large commercial spaces occupied by BPOs.

The Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme was proposed at a cost of Rs 10.44 crore. A new foot overbridge between two existing FOBs is among various plans. Work has also begun to renovate the foot overbridge at the Borivali end,which is more than 100 years old.