Construction Of Marine Drive In Bombay, 1923 Photo
A rare 1923 photograph captures the construction of Bombay’s (Mumbai) iconic Marine Drive and promenade. The image offers two panoramic views of the ambitious reclamation project in progress.
The work formed part of the Bombay Reclamation Scheme, also known as the Back Bay Reclamation Scheme, undertaken on the city’s western seafront. The image shows railway locomotives—one loaded with rocks—alongside a gantry crane on rails, used to place massive stones on the seaside. Concrete mixers and other heavy machinery can also be seen, underscoring the scale of the engineering effort.
In 1920, the government floated a huge loan to finance this monumental scheme. Marine Drive was originally envisioned as a sweeping boulevard stretching across the entire new western foreshore. However, only a fraction of the plan was realized, with much of it left unfinished for decades.
Interestingly, before becoming known as Marine Drive, the stretch was called the Kennedy Sea Face around 1915, after John Pitt Kennedy, the British engineer who first designed it. Although the project began in the early 1920s, Marine Drive was not fully completed until much later, well into the 1940s. Click on the photo to enlarge.
Read more The reclamation of Mumbai – from the sea, and its people.
Did you know – “Ocean Way”, as Marine Drive was first designated to be called, was the last gift of the British to Bombay.
From the collection – Raja Ravi Varma’s “Birth of Shakuntala” Oleograph 1894., Panoramic View of Cochin Harbour & Port Office, 1948., British India Era Social Life In Madras & Poona, Old 1910 Print., Old Book 1895 – The English in India (1700-1805).
