The Stories And History Behind The Names Of These Mumbai Stations

Posted By : Ashley D'souza 

Regardless of whether you are a Mumbaikar or not, have you ever wondered why bandra was called bandra and whether why is churchgate called churchgate even though there is no church near the station? If, yes, then let me tell you that you are not alone. Just like you even I and am sure a whole lot of us have been wondering about the same thing, behind the name of our beloved railway stations in Mumbai aka Bombay

All of the Railway Stations in Mumbai have got their names from Pre Existing names of those places

DADAR - Means STEPS in Marathi , Dadar is named after a Causeway built connecting Parel with Mahim

MATUNGA – Comes from MATANGA , Which means Elephant , There used to be shelters for Elephants at the place

SION – is locally known as SHEEV , Which means boundary in Marathi , It was the City limits of British Mumbai and is the boundary of Mumbai City District as of today , Sadly even in present times , When the Portuguese took the islands of Bombay by force, they gave some part of this island to the Jesuits, who built a church there, dedicated to Mt. Zion. This area formed the boundary between the Portuguese held and British held areas, hence the Marathi name, Shiv (Boundary) while the Hindi & English names colloquialism Zion to Sion.

KURLA & CHEMBUR – Spelt as COORLA until 1890 , Kurla gets its name from the East Indian village of Kurla, whose name, in turn, originated from " KURLI ", the local name for crab, as these were found in plenty in marshes in the vicinity of the village ,Comes from local dialects which means CRABS , Which were fished by Fisherman around the Creeks nearby in Abundance

CHARNI ROAD - Has been named so because Charna means to GRAZE In 1838, the British introduced a tax on herdsmen who wanted to have their cattle graze on public grounds that most cattle owners couldn’t afford. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy purchased some land near the Thakurdwar area which he then let the herdsmen use for free grazing. The area started to be known as Charni (Charna in the local languages means to graze). So when a station was constructed here, it was named Charni Road.

PAREL – is Corruption Of Paral Which comes from a Temple of a local Diety MAHAPARALI

GOREGAON - Is named because of the British settlements near the place

BANDRA OR VANDRE - Being a habitat of Monkeys got its name from the Marathi name Vandar for Monkeys , In Marathi Bandar means a PORT , In all probability, this is a corruption of the word Bandar, which means Port in many languages – both Indian & Colonial European. The Potuguese called it BANDORA to the BANDRA by the British , The Portuguese had built a sea facing fort here, whose remenants can be seen at Land’s End at Bandstand.

MALAD - Is named so because of the MINES of Malad Stone in the area

KANDIVLI - Comes from KHAANDOLI where KHAAN means a Mine in Marathi

SANDHURST ROAD - Named after British Officers & Governors

REAY ROAD - Named after British Officer & Governors

GRANT ROAD - Named after British Officers & Governors

DAHISAR - Comes from local Dialect of Marathi which means 10 HAMLETS

VIDYAVIHAR - Vidyavihar (Abode of Education in Marathi Vidya means Knowledge and Vihar means place or location) is named after the Somaiya Vidyavihar campus, one of the largest education campuses in Mumbai and a landmark

VASAI VIRAR - Is an agglomeration of several formerly separate towns. The area covered by the city roughly corresponds to the ancient city of SOPARA

CHURCHGATE - is an area in south Mumbai. During the eighteenth and up to the mid-19th century, Bombay was a walled city. The city walls had three gates, and Church Gate, named after St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai was one of the gates. The gate was situated near the present day location of Flora Fountain. It started being known as the Church Gate. So when the Colaba station was closed and the new station was built, it was built in the Church Gate area and named ‘Churchgate’.

VILE PARLE - Five Hundred years ago in the Early 16th Century VELHE - PADHLE called by the portuguese as PARLEM and VILE , Parle by the British was washed on its western shores by the Arabian Sea , \

The Island of JEWE now called JUHU ,The name of the vilages came into being only when the catholic church was built in 1850 and Hamlets became villages , A marble tablet on the wall of Scaristy of the Church states that the original church was built in 1850 when VILE PARLE was called PADLE

BADLAPUR - This village was on the trade route between Surat & other parts of Gujarat & the Konkan and other parts of Maharashtra. It was used as a remount depot where warriors would change their plains-experienced horses with those trained for mountain climbing and vice versa. The word in the local language that means ‘to change’ is ‘Badla’, which stuck to the village, and hence it was named Badlapur.

VIRAR - The local goddess Jivdani Mata is an incarnation of another goddess, Ekvira. Ekvira = Ek (One) + Vira (Brave), which means Brave Goddess. The Vira part gave rise to the name Virar. Just like Tunga Parvat becomes “Tunga-ar”, Vira or Vira becomes “Vira-ar”.

JOGESHWARI - Named after the Goddess Yogeshwari (Goddess of knowledge and enlightenment) whose temple is present in the caves in this area, called the Jogeshwari caves.

MARINE LINES - Marine Lines: Named after the Marine Battalion Lines that were housed here, later converted into Air Force Residences.

SANTACRUZ - Where the current Sacred Heart Church is, there used to be a Holy Cross and church well before the Marathas fought a war with the Portuguese, won, and destroyed the church. The words for Holy Cross, Santa Cruz, became the de facto name of the area, and the railways made it one word, Santacruz, when naming the station servicing it.

VIKHROLI - The station was built just before India's independence in 1947 to cater to the needs of the sprawling Godrej Complex in the vicinity. In 1942, The Godrej family brought plots in vikhroli. Sir Phirojsha Godrej brought entire village in order to set up industrial township. The station was built to serve the Godrej Industries Complex which houses several Godrej factories and IT companies like Accenture, Atos, Capgemini,

KALINA KOLOVERY - Not a Railwway Station But being an inhabitation of Wolves gots its name from the Marathi Word Kola for Wolves