Colonial Bombay, predominantly observable and comparatively well maintained in the Fort area features typical British architecture of the era with beautiful town houses, villas, multi-storey buildings with elaborate wooden balconies and ornaments as well as unique monumental structures like the old Victoria Terminus railway station now called Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (C.S.T.), a UNESCO world heritage site.
C.S.T. railway station
In fact, one is inevitably reminded of London when walking through the boulevards of southern Mumbai.
Unfortunately the majority of these old colonial buildings are in a pitiful condition and without adequate maintenance left to decay. This is mainly due to lack of funding which is in turn again caused by the fact that the local legislation has been guaranteeing long-term tenants a incredibly low rent. Since most colonial buildings are occupied by families who’ve been living there for generations the rents for these apartments are as low as a few hundred rupees (10-20EUR/14-28USD/40-80PLN) per month (!). Hence, the maintenance cost is anything but covered by the monthly rentals and so the indifference of the property owners towards the actual condition of the houses is more than understandable.
This used to be a hotel -
in fact the city's best during the Raj
The latest trend has been to bring down the old structures, erect new high-rise residential towers at the same location and provide free flats to the tenants of the original old colonial buildings. Consequently a lot of the old structures are disappearing and replaced by skyscrapers like Imperial Heights. Unfortunately the result is the loss of a lot of the city’s character, charm, but most of all it's history to the modern, profit-oriented and – in my view – short-sighted aspirations of the so called "new India".
Memonji
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