Charni Road

Between 1822 and 1838, cattle from the congested Fort area used to graze freely at the Camp Maidan (now called Azad Maidan), an open ground opposite the Victoria Terminus. In 1838, the British rulers introduced a 'grazing fee' that several cattle-owners could not afford. Therefore, Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy spent 20,000 Indian Rupees (Rs.) from his own purse for purchasing some grass-lands near the seafront at Thakurdwar and saw that the starving cattle grazed without a fee in that area. In time the area became to be known as "Charni" meaning grazing. When a railway station on the Bombay, Baroda & Central India (BB&CI) railway was constructed there it was called Charni Road.