Archive for March, 2007

Powai

Posted by Santosh Mishra on March 22nd, 2007

 Powai
Coordinates: 19.12° N 72.91° E
Map of PowaiPowai is a northern suburb of Mumbai, that shares its name with a lake in the same locality. It is reachable from the western suburbs by the Saki Vihar Road, the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road or the Aarey Colony Road. Also, Adi Shankaracharya Road connects Powai to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Road and the Eastern Express Highway, which are the gateways to eastern suburbs. The nearest Mumbai Suburban Railway station is Kanjurmarg on the Central line.
Powai, historically, has been the home to five temples. A small locality called Panchakutir (meaning five abodes) is still present in Powai. One of these temples is devoted to Goddess Padmavati. It is believed that the word Powai came from the temple. Its etimology is drawn from Padma Aai, which means mother Padma, in the local language Marathi.
Besides the Powai Lake, Powai is host to some imporatant landmarks of Mumbai, such as:
* the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay),
* the Hiranandani Gardens township,
* the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), and
* the various Government colonies of Income Tax Dept,Customs, Coast guard etc.
The Powai area has grown tremendously in the past decade and it is presently a residential, commercial and retail hub for the eastern suburbs of Bombay. A local weekly newspaper Planet Powai regularly reports on the latest news and development of this area.
The area is also famous for being the hub of the construction, engineering and manufacturing conglomerate Larsen & Toubro group of companies.

Powai Lake

Posted by Santosh Mishra on March 22nd, 2007

Powai Lake
Powai Lake is a large artificial lake, situated in a northern suburb of (Mumbai). The suburb called Powai, shares its name with the lake. This is where Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and National Institute of Industrial Engineering(NITIE) is located. Currently the problem of silting is troubling this once serene lake and work is going on to cure it of its hyacinth population.
The nearest Mumbai Suburban Railway station to reach the Powai Lake is Kanjurmarg. The contemporary saga of this Lake and emerging suburb of Mumbai is reported and chroniciled by a community newspaper called PLANET POWAI.
History
Powai as a location is basically famous because of the Powai lake and it is believed that the present location of Powai Lake was the original Powai Valley — a central village, with several clusters of huts each having its own well. Powai village was also served by a rivulet resulting from the rain waters of the lowest slopes of the Western Ghats, now seen as the hillock on the South end of the Lake, with streams from the Eastern & North eastern slopes of hills.
The authorities during the British regime intended to augment the water supply to Bombay City by creating a lake from this rivulet and in 1891 this was achieved by constructing two stone dams across two hillocks each dam was and still is about 10metres high. The spread of the water body thus achieved was about 370 acres or 2.10 Sq Kilometres and the depth varied from about 10 ft (off periphery) to 40 ft at its deepest. The lake is about 17 miles from central Bombay.
Powai Lake was built by the British at an initial cost of Rs 6.5 lakh in 1890. It was named after Framaji Kavasji Powai Estate, which was given to one Dr Scott in 1799 on payment of yearly rent of Rs 3,200. After Dr Scott’s death in 1816, Powai was taken back by the government in 1826 and leased once again to Framaji Kavasji, a Parsi merchant. At the time, Powai lake supplied two million gallons of water to Bombay. However, after Tansa Lake became a more viable option, in 1892, Powai was turned over to the picnickers.
However, after all this effort by the authorities it was found that the waters of Powai were polluted and unfit for drinking various studies were conducted which repeatedly confirmed these findings till finally the project was abandoned. Then Powai Lake was leased out to the Western lndia Fishing Association a quasi government organisation who used it for both fish culture and Angling but later the Bombay Presidency Angling Association was formed and approved by the then Bombay Govt.

Where is Kanjur Marg?

Posted by Santosh Mishra on March 22nd, 2007

Kanjurmarg is the name of a railway station on the Mumbai suburban railway on the Central Railway line. It is a small suburb on the shores of the Thane creek. Kanjurmarg station is the access point for IIT Bombay, Hiranandani Gardens, and other locations in Powai. The station was built in 1968 and named after the local Kanjur village.

Kanjur Marg is located in the north eastern suburbs of Mumbai city. Mumbai is called the financial capital of India. Mostly consisting of slum areas, the region is attracting intensive developement projects due to heavy shortage of space in Mumbai City.

You can see Kanjur Marg on Google maps.

Mumbai TYBCOM Timetable

Posted by Santosh Mishra on March 12th, 2007

The timetable for Mumbai Universiy T.Y.B.Com Examinations are out. They will start from the 26th of March 2007. Go ahead and check out the T.Y.B.Com timetable at Sheela’s Blog.