Now you can go for Mumbai’s newest heritage tour to the iconic BMC headquarters in South Mumbai.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) 128 years old headquarters is now open for public viewing. as part of the Heritage Walk initiative inaugurated by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. This initiative is a joint venture of the civic body and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), and involves guided tours through the building, with story-telling sessions about its historic and architectural significance.
The BMC headquarters were completed in 1893, if you are in south Mumbai, walking through the Fort neighbourhood, there is no way you can miss the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarter, an example of Gothic architecture dating back to the late 19th century.
Designed by Frederick William Stevens, the building has a remarkable 235 feet tall front tower. Since it is an administrative building, it has been out of bounds for heritage enthusiasts who may have wanted to explore its architecture. But now here is an opportunity to go on a guided tour through this magnificent building.
Tourists can book the tour on bookmyshow.com, an e-commerce website, that MTDC has tied up with for the initiative. every subsequent week will have eight batches (this might can change as per current covid situation.) depending on the off take. Each tour will cost ₹300 per person.
Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, in collaboration with the BMC, has introduced a heritage walk through the premises. Curated by Mumbai-based Khaki Tours, the walk traverses more than 100 years of history and the details of the grand architecture. “The tour is a marriage between history and civic governance,” said Bharat Gothoskar, founder of Khaki Tours. The walk through the building gives people a chance to see up close the offices where the decisions about the city’s welfare are taken. throughout the tour they will narrate 20 to 25 different stories.
Khaki Tours has been conducting heritage walks, tours and experiences in Mumbai since 2015, in more than 40 city neighbourhood's with a belief that history lies in our backyard, and not just in textbooks.
The tours have been named Urbs Prima which means primary city in Latin. There is a statue of an angel with an outstretched arm atop the main entrance of the BMC building. Explaining the significance of the statue, Gothoskar said, “She represents colonial Bombay, and has a phrase carved in stone that reads Urbs Prima in India. This line is in Latin, and was coined in 1860s. It means Primary City in India. hence named the tour Urbs Prima.”
The patrons will gather at the selfie-point outside the headquarters, opposite the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT station), and commence the tour. A historian will take tourists through the main staircase of the building, the heritage dome, courtyard, inner courtyard, the corporation hall, the mayor’s chamber, commissioner’s office, and the standing committee hall. The tour will conclude at the museum, where photos and videos of the building are on display.
UrbsPrima – the tour of the building – take you through the stories of the city’s growth, the rich history of the corporation and the grand architecture of the building itself.
Highlights of the tour
The Father of the Corporation
Mayors without an office
The unique fountain of ducks
18 headgears of Mumbai
The gilded dome
A hidden source of water
Lions from Italy
A floating staircase
In the 1860s, the island of Bombay (now known as “the city of Mumbai”) underwent a metamorphosis from being a fortified town to becoming a center for administrative control and commercial prosperity. The following decades witnessed the surfacing of magnificent structures which acted as institutions of trade, communication, civilization, education, finance and much more for the city. These towering structures became the harbingers of hope, befitting the zeal and aspirations of the city. One such body established at the time was the Bombay Municipal Corporation (now known as the “Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation”) for the purpose of local civic administration.
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