The land where Priyadarshini Park is, was once a dumpyard for construction materials. This might be as early as pre-independence. Heavy vehicles like bulldozers and cranes were abondoned here.
In the 1970’s the Maharashtra Government went on a rampage of reclaiming land from Malabar Hill through Haji Ali to develop skyscrapers. To oppose such concretization few of the prominent personalities along with active citizens formed an association (Malabar Hill Citizens’ Forum) which vehemently stopped the construction and proposed to convert this area into a public park.
This is the picture of the park in 1985 before it got handed over to the Malabar Hill Citizens’ Forum – Image courtesy: priyadarshinipark.org
Hence this is a reclaimed wasteland that we now see as a beautiful garden expands to 20 acres of lush green open space. This is also a sports complex, with four tennis courts, gymnasium and 400 mt Olympic synthetic track.
Getting here is easy through bus or taxi.
Besides this the wonderful jogging tracks and the infrastructure it provides, the sports complex conducts yoga, aerobics, tennis, golf, basketball, boxing and gymnastics classes. This was also the venue for the 25th International Kite Festival in 2013.
Image courtesy: priyadarshinipark.org
Mud tracks for walking.
Huge areas of green lawns.
This is a picture that I am very proud of taking. I give the credit to my iPhone and that time of the day when I just happened to be there.
For more information about the activities in the park, please visit http://www.priyadarshinipark.org
Mumbai Outdoors 