Mumbai Dope

Mumbai single-handedly handles about 25% of the domestic and 38% of the international air passenger traffic in the country.

Mumbai's suburban rail systems carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year. Incidentally, the world's population is 6 billion.

Mumbai's literacy rate is 85.6% (female: 82.7%, male: 90%) compared with India's overall literacy of 65.4%.

Mumbai's per capita income is Rs 48,954. This is almost three times the national average!

At the end of financial year 2002-03, Mumbai paid Rs 28,000 crore in taxes, 35% of India's collection of Rs 82,000 crore!

Mumbai city and its suburbs get, on an average, 2160 mm (85 inches) of rainfall every year.

As of June 2003, there are an incredible 982 villages in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The original Walkeshwar Temple was destroyed by the Portuguese, but was rebuilt by Rama Kamath in 1715.

Bombay University was founded in 1857 at the Town Hall, and was shifted to the new complex near Oval Maidan in 1874.

The Elphinstone College was originally built for the Government Central Press at a cost of Rs 7.5 lakh.

The city's first church - the St Thomas Cathedral - was built at Horniman Circle in 1718.

The first post office in Bombay was opened in 1832 at the residence of the junior magistrate of police at Byculla.

The Stearns & Kittredge company was given permission in 1874 to start Bombay's first tram service with a fleet of 900 horses.

The East India Company appointed Sir George Oxenden the first governor of Bombay in 1668.

Until 1864, the city's highest ranking police officer was called Police Chief. Post 1864, the title was changed to Police Commissioner.

Mumbai's first Indian police commissioner was J S Bharucha who took over from A E Caffin on August 15, 1947.

Sir Frank Souter was Mumbai's first Police Commissioner. He remained in office for a record 24 years between 1664 and 1688.

Mumbai's first policemen employed by the British were called the Bhandari Militia. They were set up in 1669.

Mumbai's police out-post was set up in 1661.

The famous architect George Wittet designed several landmark buildings in Mumbai, including the Prince of Wales Museum and the Gateway of India.

The General Post Office, completed in 1909, has its impressive dome modelled after the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur.

The last British troops to leave India, the First Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry, passed through the Gateway of India in a ceremony on February 28, 1948.

The Gateway of India, with a maximum height of 83 feet, was completed in 1924 with a cost of Rs 21 lakh.

The Flora Fountain was built in 1864 by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India from a donation by Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh.

The Hanging Gardens at Malabar Hill was built over three reservoirs which can store up to 300 lakh gallons of water.

Bombay's population in 1891 was 8.21 lakh. By 1901, it had reduced to 7.76 lakh due to a massive plague epidemic.

The first English newspaper in Bombay was printed by Rustomji Keshaspathi in 1777.

Bombay's first regional language newspaper was Mumbai Samachar, published in Gujarati in 1822 by Fardoonjee Marzban.

Sir Henry Bartle Frere became the first Governor of Bombay under the rule of the Queen in 1862.

The first trams in Bombay started in 1874, between Parel and Colaba, and were drawn by teams of six to eight horses.

The first inter-city railway was built between Bombay and Surat, and was completed in 1864.
The Great Indian Peninsular Railway laid the first rail tracks in India between Thane and Bombay.

It took 60 years to merge the seven islands of Bombay into one landmass between 1784 and 1845.

Bombay's highest population growth rate was between 1661 and 1675 when it rose six times from 10,000 to 60,000.

The 2nd governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier, was behind its development into a major centre of commerce.

The name Bombay was derived from Bom Bahia (The Good Bay), a name given by Portuguese sailor Francis Almeida, in 1508.

When a person travel towards Mumbai,one can see milestone stating Mumbai 35 Kms, but where is Mumbai Zero Kms, it is at Flora Fountain

The railway tracks of the Churchgate Station originally extended beyond Azad Maidan in the direction of Afghan Church, which was later changed to a tar road.

Former English cricket captain Douglas Jardine of Bodyline fame was born in Malabar Hill, Mumbai, in 1900.

India’s first cricket club, Orient, was founded in Bombay in 1848.

Mumbai orginally was a cluster of seven separate islands, and the southernmost island was called Old Woman’s Island.

Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling who wrote Kim and The Jungle Book was born in Mumbai.

There are 14 platforms inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, earlier called Victoria Terminus.

Mumbai’s first ever meteorological observatory was built in Colaba in 1826.

The wooden pole in the centre of the Banganga Tank in Mumbai signifies the centre of the earth. Legend has it that Lord Ram created the tank by piercing the earth with his arrow.

The Lumiere brothers introduced Motion Pictures to India with six soundless short films at Bombay’s Watson’s Hotel in 1896.

There is an original portrait of former US President Abraham Lincoln at the Prince of Wales Museum.
Lord Elphinstone performed the opening ceremony after railway tracks were laid between Bombay and Thane in 1853.

The railway line from Mumbai to Pune through Bhor Ghat was built by a woman named Alice Tredwell in 1863.

The Quit India Movement was launched by Gandhiji in Mumbai in 1942 from Gowalia Tank. It is now called August Kranti Maidan.

The Taj Mahal Hotel was built in 1903 on the ‘pleasure basin’ of the Yacht Club.

The first bus in Mumbai ran from Afghan Church to Crawford Market on July 15, 1926.

Mahatma Gandhi began his political career in Mumbai in 1915 after returning from South Africa.

The Portuguese, in 1508, named this island city Bom Bahia (the Good Bay). This was later modified to Bombay.

Mumbai industrialist Jamshetji Tata was the first Indian to own a car.

Motorised taxis first appeared first on Mumbai roads in 1911.