Mumbai Greens: Set next to Sion Fort, Nehru Udyan steadfastly holds on to the old and new

Half a kilometre away from the Sion railway station in Mumbai, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Udyan welcomes you into a bit of heritage and history. Sion Fort, a Union government-protected monument, overlooks this expansive stair-cased garden.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has leased out nearly eight acres in central Mumbai, barring the area where the fort stands, to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) till 2023. The civic body developed a vast garden there with an open-air study centre and a children’s play area.

The Sion Hillock Fort was built by the English East India Company during 1669-77 by Gerard Aungier, the then Governor of Bombay. Sion was the boundary between the British-held Bombay and the Portuguese-held Salesette Island (Suburban Mumbai). The Sion Fort was where the city ended at that time and functioned as a watchtower. The garden and the fort now serve as the boundary of Mumbai’s island city and suburbs.

Today, the battered walls of the ten-acre Sion Fort, spread across 10 acres, surround the garden. Despite being protected by the central government, the walls are covered in graffiti and declarations of love scratched by couples on the stone.

The garden itself is built on a steep incline and an open gymnasium has recently been added to the medieval-looking green space, steadfastly holding the old and new together. The modern concrete stairs were added during the recent renovation and they gradually transition into the medieval rock stairs of the hillock.

The garden is open every day between 4 pm to 6.30 pm. Popular among locals for evening walks, the Sion Fort and the garden experience a significant swell in footfall during the weekends.

While morning walkers are a ubiquitous feature in nearly every garden in the city, here one also gets to see youngsters practising cartwheels, hip-hop moves and or even rap music. With at least two schools and a college in the immediate vicinity, several students visit the space regularly to study or even to just bunk classes.