The estate of Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Race Course has at least six imposing front gates on Keshavrao Khade Marg to reach the heritage grandstand, bookmakers’ booths, and the large open green space, considered Mumbai’s lung. One gate is reserved for its members to access all of these, plus the buildings of the green-roofed Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC). A narrow lane near the Nehru Planetarium garden leads to a back gate. Here, descendants of the racecourse’s long-time caretakers reside.
Among the 348-odd families living here, many of whom still work with the horses, is that of Manoj Singh, 40, whose family’s connection to the racecourse dates back to 1927. “My great-grandfather arrived in Mumbai from Kanpur [Uttar Pradesh] and worked here. Then my father retired as jamadar (supervisor) in 2010,” he says. For 97 years, the Singh family has been living on a small patch of the 211-acre racecourse premises, considered the most expensive real estate in India. He fears becoming homeless soon.
On July 2, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, more commonly known as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s civic body, had signed a deal with the RWITC that manages the Mahalaxmi Race Course. The RWITC had leased the land from the BMC for 99 years starting 1914, with the lease expiring in 2013. The new deal renewed the lease for 91 acres and 30 years, until 2053 (from June 1, 2023).
The remaining 120 acres, along with 175 acres more from the adjacent Mumbai Coastal Road Project, will be developed into the Mumbai Central Public Park by the BMC at the cost of ₹100 crore, says an official communication from the BMC. The Mahalaxmi Race Course is Mumbai’s largest land parcel, and sits adjacent to the Arabian Sea, with city architects pegging land value at ₹60,000 per sq. ft here.
The homes of Singh and the others are spread across both the areas under the RWITC and BMC, leaving people uncertain of their future.
The land deal also has environmentalists asking why a park must be ‘developed’ when it already exists with easy access to the public: the green space that the oval 2,400-metre racetrack loops has several morning walkers. In addition, there’s a question mark hanging over a riding club that trains people for national and international equestrian events. The main reason so many sections of Mumbai are upset is the uncertainty.
Case in point
Ghulam Sarwar Khan, 68, a former electrical inspector with BEST, has been coming to the racecourse for the past 24 years for walks. “This place has been a second home to me. With the government wanting to make changes, I am not sure how I should take it. It is already an open space, so why do we need anything more?” he says.
Singh, who runs a bookmaker company in partnership, says they have been in hyper vigilant mode for a year now. Just behind his house, he says, there are over 1,600 horse stables. “We are getting our documents together so that when the government comes, we are ready to defend our right to be here.” He has been helping others as well, with digging out old electricity bills, census survey slips, and any other proof that shows the number of years they have been living here.
“We don’t oppose the government’s project; all we need is our rehabilitation on this land. We will go to court if needed,” he adds, surveying the racecourse that has turned green in parts with the Mumbai rains. He says another option is for housing within 3 kilometres of the area.
In January 2011, Singh established the Mahalaxmi Race Course Rahivashi Sangh, set up originally just to celebrate festivals together. Now, under its aegis 142 families are fighting for their right to continue to reside here. These families live on one side of the track in the racecourse compound. In 1987, after the RWITC, which offers lower-priced membership to sons and daughters of its long-term members, allegedly tried to evict the generational settlers, they went to court for protection. The City Civil and Sessions Court, Mumbai, in October 2003, directed the RWITC not to “dispose” the settlers from their “respective structures” and proceed by “due process of law”.
On the other side of the track, across the existing park, are another 204 families, living near gate number 2, that are in a similar crisis. This colony, christened ‘Love Grove’ by its residents, formed themselves into a union, Ashwkrupa Mahalaxmi Welfare Society, in June this year. Between the gate and their homes is a community space where people gather to exchange gossip and chat about their children or the state of the world. The area resembles a little hamlet in the middle of a metropolis.
In 2006, the RWITC filed a case against the residents of Love Grove on the grounds of Section 630 (wrongful possession of property of a company) of the Companies Act, 1956. In May 2024, the verdict went in favour of the settlers, as they had evidence of living there since the 1920s.
“My father, William Macwan, used to work as a clerk at the club. I remember going with him to the racecourse regularly. The club wants us to go, but it doesn’t own the land. We won the case and now this is another sword on our head,” says Florine Macwan, 66, a resident.
Love Grove Colony in Mahalaxmi Race Course, which is in danger of being demolished under the new lease agreement. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
Most of the families in both colonies, each with homes of 600 to 1,000 square feet, have lived here for three generations. They are from various parts of India, including Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, and remote areas of Maharashtra. Most of their great-grandfathers worked as drivers, watchmen, supervisors, clerks, bookmakers, horse keepers, lawn mowers, and helpers.
In December 2023, a meeting between the club’s elected leaders and the government, led by Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, formed the base on which the new lease agreement was built. It stipulated that the “various slums in the compound of the Race Course” would be surveyed, and the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) “would check the feasibility” of their rehabilitation. The “full responsibility of rehabilitation” and “financial burden” would lie with the government.
While RWITC office-bearers refused to comment on the lease agreement, a BMC source says people will be relocated “within the city limits”.
The clubbables
In 1883, the sea-facing land was, as per the RWITC website, donated by Sir Cusrow Nowrosjee Wadia, who owned the cloth manufacturing business, Bombay Dyeing. On its website, the club describes itself as “exclusive”, and “enjoying the patronage of socialites and eminent personalities alike” with “10,250 members as on 20th December 2020”. It wears its British ‘heritage’ on its sleeve.
Besides its ‘social value’, the Mahalaxmi Race Course serves as a hub for children who are learning to ride. The Amateur Riders’ Club (ARC), which has operated here for about 50 years, as per their information, provides this coaching for several equestrian events.
Parag Pandya along with his daughter, 12, travels every day from Mira Road to the racecourse, 40 km away, for the training. “My daughter has developed an interest in riding, and she religiously trains for it. ARC is the only well-equipped centre in Mumbai,” he says. Some stables will be destroyed, and the current park is where future jockeys do exercise drills. “We may have to consider quitting. She also qualified for the Junior National championship,” he says, worried.
ARC has produced Olympians and Asian Games medallists such as Hriday Chheda, who was part of the dressage team that won gold at the 2023 Asian Games. Jockey Pesi Shroff, riding instructor Riyad Gandhy, Shlok Jhunjhunwalla who competes in dressage and eventing, and rider Moksh Kothari, have all performed at national and international events.
Some part of the stables fall in the same area where Singh and the other families live. At least 350 people working with ARC, including coaches, grooms, staff, farriers, veterinarians, and groundsmen stay within the racecourse.
A source in the BMC says the cost of rebuilding part of the infrastructure that will be destroyed, including the stables, will be borne by the municipality, but not exceeding ₹100 crore.
During the Mumbai season, from November to April, about 700 horses descend on the racecourse and are stabled here.
Each year, the Indian Derby is held on the first Sunday of February, attracting several well-known Mumbaikars.
Milan Luthria, president of ARC, says he had expressed concern during a meeting with BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, who assured him that they would look into the matter. “We have put in years of hard work to reach where we are today. It is not going to be easy to move somewhere else. It took a lot of time to make a field suitable for practice.”
Politics prevail
The BMC has committed that it will not erect structures on this central park so as not to obstruct views of the horses. “The land will not undergo major changes. Only the garden and recreational activity places will come up. Not much plantation is possible as it will obstruct the view of the racecourse, and there are huge storm water drain connections going underground. We are consulting an expert for landscaping the area, but no structure will come up,” says Gagrani.
Criticism has been levelled at the Mahayuti government for not engaging in public dialogue and approving the proposal without stakeholder involvement.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, under whose Assembly constituency (Worli) the Mahalaxmi Race Course falls, has accused the government of compromising on open space for the benefit of builders and contractors associated with CM Shinde. “His government wants to pour in concrete for pathways and construct an underground car park,” he says. “They are also looking at altering the membership structure, heritage clubhouse, and bifurcation of the land. They eventually plan an SRA project.”
The concept of a public park at the racecourse was discussed in 2013 when the then undivided Shiv Sena had proposed developing a theme park and relocating the racecourse to the outskirts of the city. The BJP accuses Thackeray of inconsistency, pointing out that his party had initially supported the park idea.
Thackeray, however, says their concept was a landscaped park, devoid of construction. “[If we form the government] we’ll restore the original boundaries, work with RWITC members, and ensure a consensus on landscaped gardens and open space for all Mumbaikars. The Amateur Riders’ Club and other informal activities will be given a boost,” he says. Elections in Maharashtra are slated for this year.
Mumbai-based advocate-activist Godfrey Pimenta fears that landscaping will cut down space. “Creating open space from existing open space is deceitful to Mumbaikars,” he says.
