It was not a part of Bombay. Bombay’s limits were upto Sion only and Ghatkopar came under district Thane. Like all small community centres, Ghatkopar also had just one principal road connecting it to Bombay on the Southside and Thane in the north i.e; Agra road. It was surrounded by creeks and hills. There are two popularly known theories for the name Ghatkopar :
It derived its name from the fact
that it was the ‘CORNER’ - Khopara in Marathi of Western Ghats - Ghat-khopra. It derived its name from the fact that there were many Ghats , Small Hills, small river near the Eastern Express Highway where a lot of Salt Pans were there near Ghatkopar, so when people use to direct the Way to reach these places they use to call it " GHAT - KE - UPPER " i.e " Above that Hill". It was inhabited mainly by two types of people. Those who came from proper Bombay in need of good and healthy climatic conditions of the sanatoriums and those rich Bhatias, Parsees, and very few Gujrati Traders who owned large plots of land and bungalows here. Population was sparse and everyone knew each other . It was a close knit family. The streets were named after some of the renowned residents of the area like Navrojee lane named after Navrojee Sheth - a Parsee, Cama lane comes from Lady Cama Bai, Khot lane from people who ploughed and looked after farming activities of the place, Hingwala lane from a family that dealt in Asafoetida business. The streets were without electric lights, and were lit with petromax lights which was lit by a man coming in every evening to light them up in every street. Roads were metal roads raised in the middle so that the rain water could slope down into the gutters and did not accumulate on the roads. Roads were sprinkled with water by the vans of municipality twice in the mornings and evenings. Youngsters in their daily activities used to take early morning walks and evening strolls upto and into the hills and going upto Powai, Chandivali and Mulund eating berries on the way, which grew in the hills. Youth of freedom fighting years undertook picketing and joining in Rashtriya Seva Sangh activities. Ghatkopar’s face has changed, as the years went by, but instead of ageing it is getting younger and more vivacious . Now Ghatkopar is a bustling, bursting, throbbing, a very very vibrant city with all kinds of eateries, shopping centers with jewellery shops, cloth shops & greatest number of computer classes. It has Jolly Gymkhana for promoting sports facilities plus its well known Navratri festival. We, with you, shall keep sharing our different angles of views and perspectives through this page.
