BMC shifts historic V milestone to its original location

Milestone being brought to its original location. Pics/Anand Mahajan

A historic milestone, which was traced to a location 12 km away from its original spot in 2017, at Colaba's Badhwar Park Railway Colony, has been restored to its age-old place. The milestone was shifted from the colony on Thursday morning by a team of senior heritage engineers from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Originally, the milestone, which had the words ‘V Miles from St Thomas's Church' inscribed on it, stood at Lower Parel. A history student had found that the milestone was in the middle of a road and was leading to accidents. Hence it was removed and kept at the compound of an old railway building.

Over the years, railway officials realised its importance and shifted it to Badhwar Park, where it stood opposite the Quarter H in a small garden. History enthusiast Vinayak Talwar stumbled upon it while he was looking for an ancient baobab tree. That is when mid-day reported about the same.

"As per original records, the actual location of the V milestone was opposite the ESIC Bhavan on NM Joshi Marg at Lower Parel. The mid-day article revealed that it was at Badhwar Park Colaba. The BMC heritage cell confirmed the development and after following due process and getting approvals from the Western Railway general manager's office, finally took custody of the milestone and restored it to its original location. We are thankful to the railway authorities for keeping the city's legacy safe and thankful to mid-day too for highlighting the issue," said Sanjay Adhav, BMC's heritage conservation engineer.

Currently, the civic body along with Mumbai's Vaastu Vidhaan Projects, a heritage conservation firm, is creating a heritage circuit to map the 16 milestones that were road markers in the British era. Rahul Chemburkar, who helms the project and is co-founder of Vaastu Vidhaan, says it is like decoding the city's history through these milestones.