By the waterfront

Along its fractured length are architectural gems like the Docks Clock Tower (or Ghadial Godi), the Sewree Fort, wholesale markets and little fishing villages which have survived since the time Mumbai was handed over by the Portuguese as the dowry of Princess Catherine of Braganza in 1661.

Much of the eastern shore is still used in the same way as it was three centuries ago. It remains a dusty attic, out of the Mumbaikar’s collective memory, anchored in the southern end by the Edwardian precinct of Ballard Estate and a northern end, lost somewhere in the swampy salt pans of Sewree-Wadala.

What’s unique about these 1,830 acres is that they are all owned by a single entity, who is also the largest landlord of the city the Mumbai Port Trust (MPT). The MPT estates which stretch from Colaba to Wadala have been divided into 15 units for management. The nautical theme, so pronounced in the neighbourhood of Indira Dock, gradually dwindles as one moves North along the wide MPT road.

Sewree Fort lies hidden amid congeries of drab buildings. It’s a monument certified by the Archaeological Survey of India, a marvel that has been criminally neglected. From its ramparts, one can see oil refineries in the shimmering distance and carcasses of broken down barges, awaiting their fate in the solitude of the salt pans below. It is deathly quiet here. The mind boggles at these acres of derelict land lying vacant, so close to the heart of the city. Somewhere in between this nautical graveyard and the bustling large docks of the South are the forgotten wharfs or bunders. And they too used to be busy places once, these quaysides. Their names tell all about the cargo they specialised in: Hay Bunder, Coal Bunder, Brick Bunder, Powder Works, Lakdi Bunder…

Hay Bunder is used for barge traffic and self-propelled sailing vessels which approach the bunder at the rise of the tide to unload their cargo and thereby lighten the draft. The common traffic handled by this wharf is palm dates from the Arabian Gulf, packaged cargo and spices. Kerosene Wharf, east of Timber Pond, was used in the past for exporting tinned kerosene to foreign lands. Now however, it lies derelict and quite forgotten.

The picturesque sandy strips where children now play, were the favourite landing places for smugglers. In the mid 19th century, it wasn’t the city’s insanitary conditions which worried the government. It was the losing battle they were fighting against nautical thugs. The bunder gang went down in history for having depleted the government’s coffers by nearly Rs 20 lakh! And what an exciting array of booty: tobacco, salt, lime and firewood! The group of 13 quaysides packed into this shoreline, still sports characters from the last century. The same bored Arab sailors, petty smugglers, drowsy officials that peopled them in the past. Desultory trading in fruit and medicine still goes on. It’s a fortnight’s voyage to the other side of the Arabian sea, and the bored sailors look forward to setting sail. Rather than India’s foremost port city, it feels like a little coastal fishing town here at Hay Bunder. And one can see the slums which have colonised the adjoining Lakdi Wharf but there are also the silhouettes of sailing ships and flat-bottomed barges.

It is a world inverted upon itself, but slowly the economic pressures which are squeezing the rest of the city are being felt. The MPT plans to convert these obsolete docklands into ancillary facilities to handle south bound containerised cargo. Planners and architects are recommending that the MPT release part of its vast holdings of land for the city: as roads, housing and recreational spaces. Proposals have included housing along the quaysides as has been done with obsolete docklands the world over, and recreational facilities for the congested hinterland of central Mumbai. Already midway through the cycle of use, disuse and re-use that all urban plant must inevitably go through, the bunders patiently wait it out while authorities deliberate on their uncertain future.