Mumbai’s Veera Desai Road: Waterlogged during monsoon, stretch was once called Venice

The street was named after a stone quarry called Veera Desai and Company that functioned in the 1950s. (Source: Express Photo/Santosh Parab)

OVER SEVEN decades ago, this kaccha lane was uneven, constructed only to ease movement for factory workers. As the day wore on, the lane would gather dust from the nearby stone quarry. Today, Veera Desai Road and the lanes running off from it have become one of the better residential areas of suburban Andheri, bustling with restaurants, media production houses and tiny offices. Named after a stone quarry called Veera Desai and Company that functioned in the 1950s, the road owes its nomenclature to two families who owned the quarry, the Veera brothers Shyamji Dahyabhai and Vallabhji Dahyabhai, and Govindji Vasanji Desai.

The road was taken up for improvement by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation much later and named Veera Desai Road. In 1975, the first BEST bus route on this road, Number 254, was started. “When I first opened shop here in 2005, people around would tell me they used to call this road Venice. They didn’t do so fondly, but in outrage. This area would flood in every heavy rainfall,” says Manav Sehgal, who owns GN United, an electronics store.

He remembers the area to be lush once, but that greenery has depleted over the years. When the August 29 and September 19 heavy downpour hit Mumbai, memories of the area once known as Venice rushed back as waters reached waist-high on the entire arterial road. Veera Desai Road is also famous for the Andhericha Raja Ganpati Mandal, where devotees believe their wishes comes true. The immersion of this Ganpati statue is the most celebrated immersion in the western suburbs with thousands pouring on to the streets to catch a glimpse.

Historian Deepak Rao says Veera Desai has no historic buildings or architecture from the British era. “It was only known to be an industrial belt. Just like Charkop, which was a military centre during the Second World War, to manufacture arms and ammunition.” Before 1970s, people would only reach Andheri to visit Versova, famous for its fishing village and koliwada community. “People would take tanga (horse-drawn carriage) to go to Versova. The area in between was open land with industries,” Rao said.

He adds that Andheri, including areas of Veera Desai, became part of Greater Bombay on October 1, 1945. Veera Desai has no rich history like several streets in South Mumbai, but residents remember witnessing its swift growth. “As a child when I used to visit my uncle’s flat 20 years ago in income tax quarters near Gilbert hill, Veera Desai area had mostly slum like dwellings,” says Pallavi Kakkar (29), a producer. She remembers seeing Mogaveera bank open its branch on Veera Desai Road for mostly slum dwellers to open their accounts. “It was the first in the area,” she claims.

Shaivali Vashani shifted to this area 11 years ago after marriage. “In the last five years, the nightlife has rapidly grown, so have office rentals and diagnostic centres,” she says. Andheri Sports Complex, with its events and Bollywood shows, brought the area on Mumbai’s map for the media industry. Now, the Veera Desai Road and its offshoots have several production houses including Yashraj Studio.