Thane - The Lake City

The city of Thane is situated on the western banks of Thane creek with Parsik hills on the east and Yeoor hills on the west. The city was then know as Shreesthanak. It was more popularly known as the Capital of the Shilahar dynasty. The history of Thane city can be broadly categorized into 5 eras.

‘Aparant’ is the ancient name of the geographical area hosting Thane city. During the Indian expedition of the Greek Emperor Alexander, a number of philosophers, historians and geographists visited India. Among them a Greek historian ‘Tolemi’ has mentioned about the city of Thane in his writings. A famous sailor named Marcopolo had also visited Thane in 1290 ‘A.D. and noted it to be one of the best cities in the world. A place called | ‘Ghodbunder was famous for horse trading thus deriving its name from the word ghoda i.e. horse and bunder meaning port.

During this period a fabric called ‘Tansi’ was exported from Thane. During the period from 13 A.D. to 17 A.D., the Muslims, Portuguese, Marathas, & the British dynasties ruled Thane. From 810A.D. to 1260A.D. the Shilahar Dynasty ruled over Thane. The Emperors of Shilahar dynasty were disciples of Lord Shiva and the Kopineshwar Temple has been built during their reign. During this period, At this time the Shilahars also divided the city into different sections and named them as ‘padas’. it is seen that these padas exist even today by names of Naupada, Patlipada, Agripada etc.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Glady Alwares Road, Thane

Glady Alvares Road or Glady Alvares Road is a stretch of 2.05 KM long road with 3 main crossroads of vasant vihar, lok puram, khewra circle. It starts from Gandhi Nagar and ends at Happy Valley Junction. Its recently widened covering jawhar nagar, vasant vihar, lok puram, hiranandani meadows, eden woods, valley towers, happy valley. It can be said that its one of the posh roads developed recently. Also many accidents have taken place and do happen in this stretch. More than 35 crore rupees is being spent in widening the road to 8 lanes.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Nagla Bunder, Ghodbunder Road, Thane West

Nagla Bunder is situated near Bhainder Pada.

Nagla Bunder is the choke point of Thane Creek where it is the thinnest making it strategic port which was made by Portuguese 400 years ago. But now that fort is in ruins. There was a huge hill as a view point towards sea which is destroyed by rock mining and made almost flat. It is about to destroy the fort too. Excessive sand mining and sewage dump in Nagla is making the waters dirty

Sand Extractions in Reti Bunder are done and also the rocks are mined and transported. Once there was huge hill which is reduced down to a small stone see below. It was used to be a hill which gave excellent view of the creek but now its almost reduced to a small stone (below). These mountains are exploited and mined for rocks. There are many machines excavating the site. Many such mountains are exploded and mined for rocks. There is a small our lady of hope church (once a fort).

Our Lady Of Hope Church, Nagla Bunder, Thane West

Our Lady of Church is situated near Ghodbunder Road, atop a small hill. A small road cuts from Bhainder Pada which leads to Nagla Bunder. There are many rock and sand machines there. There was a 400 year old Nagla Bunder fort here.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Kavya Hills and Unnathi Greens, Thane West

Kavya Hills front and Unnathi Greens at back, Ghodbunder Road, Thane West. The mountain peak behind is the second highest peak of Sanjay Gandhi National Park with a height of 440 meters. I call it the 440 Peak.

Sanghavi Hills, Thane West

Some Facts about Thane City

Ptolemy, who, in his writings ( 135 - 150 AD) refers to a place called Chersonesus, which, according to researches, is the area around Thane creek.

Thane Fort in 1787, dated 1078 AD, is apparently a land grant from Arikesara Devaraja, sovereign of the city of Tagara, wherein he address the inhabitants of a city called Sri Sthanaka.

Portuguese came to Thane about 1530 and ruled for over 200 years till 1739. Thane was then known as Cacabe de Tana.

The Thane Municipal Council was formed in 1863 when the city had a population of 9000 souls.

The first train ran in India between Bombay and Thane, a stretch of 34 km. on April 16 1853

First Railroad Tunnel In India - Parsik Tunnel

First Railway Bridge: Dapoorie Viaduct on the Mumbai-Thane route

Kopineshwar Temple was built in 1760

Thane Central Jail is oldest fort of Thane built in 1730 by Portuguese