113-year-old heritage tracks come alive as garden for kids….Rajendra Aklekar
Take that, detractors of the city’s heritage custodians. A 113-year-old metre gauge rail track, originally used for maintenance of the Tansa pipeline, has been put to recreational use and has been converted into a public garden with a toy train.
Developed in phases over the last few years, the garden in Chittaranjan Nagar, Ghatkopar, now stands as a model for other parks along the track, thanks to the efforts of local elected representatives and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) hydraulic department.
City historians said when the British laid down the pipelines in the mid-1850s, they also laid a network of metre gauge rail tracks and made provision for a small rail vehicle that could run parallel to the pipeline network for its regular maintenance and upkeep.
“The 200m-stretch of track at Ghatkopar has now been enclosed in a garden, which is quite popular with the locals. Efforts to set up the garden began in 2003, which opened in 2005. Initially, the BMC wanted to set up quarters for its staff there, but residents and local representatives fought for the plot and took it for the garden,” said a local activist.
Today, the garden is a children’s park, boasting of several playthings and a toy train, which runs occasionally.
“It may be used only occasionally, but this garden is an example of Mumbai’s heritage being put to good use,” said Jivan Gala, who has been living in the area for long.
Railway enthusiasts said heritage railways are a hit abroad and the Ghatkopar garden is modelled on those.
City historian Deepak Rao, who has researched a book, Mumbai’s Water, and published it for the BMC, said there were dedicated horsemen who used to ride along the pipes for their regular maintenance.
But those days of upkeep are long gone. While the engine and the wagons used to the run at a very slow speed and used to carry all the necessary tools and the staff required then, today, the rail lines are either buried or pulled out and sold as scrap and the rail vehicles and old locomotives languish at the BMC’s pumping stations.