Chembur
Chembur
Chembur | |
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suburb |
Chembur (Marathi:चेंबूर) is a suburb of Mumbai, India, as well as a railway station on the Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It is a major transportation hub.
History
Originally a picnic spot on the north-eastern outskirts of Mumbai, Chembur is now considered 'the queen of the eastern suburbs' (Bandra remains 'queen of the suburbs'). The first building in Chembur is the 'Raote House' in Chembur's Gaothan near 10th road, developed in 1928. The name Chembur is a derivative of Chimbori (the Marathi word for crabs). Chembur was a causeway and a popular crabbing area earlier. The "Gram Daivat" or the village god of Chembur is "Ghatoba". "Ghatoba" Temple is situated on the road towards Ghatkopar. The name Ghatkopar probably came from "Ghatoba cha Kopra"(in Marathi) which means corner of "Ghatoba".
Geography
Major arteries originate at Chembur and lead to Navi Mumbai (New Bombay), Ghatkopar, Sion, Kurla and Mulund-Thane. The Central Railway’s Harbour Line, services Chembur.
Chembur is 8.4 km long North-South and approximately 3 km broad East-West. (3.5 km at the broadest point). It lies between 19.072257°N & 18.996721° latitudes and 72.881096° and 72.910123° longitudes.
Occupying an area of 23.5 km², the bounds of Chembur extend from Tilak Nagar in the north (short of the Somaiyya Vidya Vihar campus) to the seafront in the south, past the Tata Thermal Power project. And from the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers plant in the West (short of the IMAX Adlabs entertainment multiplex) to the Shah & Anchor Engineering College (short of the Deonar bus depot). At the centroid of this roughly rectangular 23.5 km² area is a small industrial building called Sita Estate, roughly 500 m south of the Ashish movie theatre.
Demographics
The northern half of Chembur is residential and the southern half is industrial.
Old bungalows and villas in the northern half are making way for high-rise apartments. Like most suburbs of Mumbai today, Chembur has a cosmopolitan population.
Many of the founders of India's film industry, celebrities like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Shobhana Samarth and her daughters Nutan and Tanuja, Geeta Bali, Ashok Kumar, Om Prakash, Kishore Sahu, Surinder Kapoor resided in Chembur. Some of the present day Bollywood celebrities like Anil Kapoor and his brothers Boney (Achal Kapoor) and Sanjay Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Shankar Mahadevan, Ayesha Takia, Shreya Ghoshal, Malaika Arora and her sister Amrita Arora, Vidya Balan, and Birju Maharaj grew up in Chembur, where some of them still reside.
(Burmah) Shell Colony, Sahakar Nagar, Subhash Nagar and Tilak Nagar are old housing board tenement colonies in Chembur. Anushakti Nagar at Deonar -- the staff quarters of Bhabha Atomic Research Center, lies just outside the eastern boundary of Chembur. The Chembur Catholic Colony is one of the oldest establishments in the area located next to the Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School and Church.
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, a public sector company occupies a large portion of this suburb and it's residential campus is a rare green location in Mumbai.
Landmarks
- Bhabha Atomic Research Center, India's first nuclear research facility
- R K Studios
- Dukes factory (now Pepsi factory)
- VESIT - Vivekanand Education Society's schools and institutes
- Union Park
- Diamond Garden
- Chembur Church - Our Lady Of Perpetual Succour High School
- Shell Colony
- Thakkar Bappa Colony - famous market for manufacturing and distributing handmade Shoes all over India
- Acharya College
- Maitri Park
- Ambedkar Udyan (also Ambedkar Garden)
- Sandu Garden
- HPCL
- BPCL
- Tata Power Corporation
- RCF
- Corporate Park
- Swastik Park
- TISS
- Shivaji Chowk (also Shivaji Circle)
- Chedda Nagar
- Pestom Sagar - Shoppers Stop, Mc Donalds, Rajdhani, Creame Center
Theatres
- Amar
- Natraj
- Vijay
- Sahakar
- Ashish
- Basanth
Famous People
- Vithal Narayan Purao an eminent freedom fighter who played an important role in development of Chembur.
- Abey Kuruvilla the famous Cricketer who played for India was born and brought up here.
- Shankar Mahadevan (Of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) - Music Director/Playback Singer.
- Anil Kapoor - Bollywood Actor
- Shilpa Shetty the Bollywood actress who recently won Big Brother UK and skyrocketed to popularity, born and brought up in Chembur.
- Vidya Balan - Bollywood Actress who starred in Parineeta,Munnabhai MBBS,Lage Raho Munnabhai, Eklavya
- Ashok Kumar - Bollywood Actor
- The Kapoor Family - Raj Kapoor,Shammi Kapoor,Rishi Kapoor,Randhir Kapoor,Rajiv Kapoor
- Ayesha Takia - Bollywood Actress
- Rohan Narayan - Chartered Accountant
Links for Help
- Emergency Numbers
- BEST public buses route search
Railway station
Chembur is an important railway station on The Mumbai Subarban Railway's Harbour line. It is the 13th Station from Mumbai CST and 18 kilometers by train.
External links
Trivia
Gas Chamber of Mumbai: Because of the large number of refineries, fertilizer plants and a TATA Electric thermal power plant in the area; Chembur's air quality was very poor in the early 80's and right after the Bhopal gas tragedy, Chembur was nicknamed the 'gas Chembur' of Mumbai. Pollution levels in Chembur are relatively lower now but still high on an absolute scale according to the WHO.