Ratan Tata passes away: Here’s a look at 5 buildings in Mumbai commissioned by the Tatas

Here’s a look at a few buildings.

1. Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Colaba

The Taj Mahal Hotel was commissioned by Jamsetji Tata and opened its doors to the general public in 1903. According to media reports, the hotel opened with only 17 guests and rooms were then priced at ₹6 per day. 

According to Vogue, when it opened, it boasted several firsts such as American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths and English butlers. The building was also the first in Bombay to be lit by electricity. Eventually it also ended up having the city’s first licensed bar, India’s first all-day dining restaurant, and the country’s first international discotheque, Blow Up.

Taj Mahal Palace is India’s oldest luxury hotel and is located in Colaba area of Mumbai. It celebrated its 120th anniversary in December last year.

2. Bakhtavar, Colaba

Bakhtavar, Ratan Tata’s residence since 2012, is located close to the Bombay House, the headquarters of Tata Sons. It is a 13,350- square foot multi-storey sea-facing property in South Mumbai, which was evaluated at ₹150 crore during the time of purchase, according to proptech unicorn NoBroker.

Colaba is today the starting point of Colaba-Seepz Mumbai Metro-3 underground corridor that was flagged off by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi last week.

To own a house in Colaba may require a budget of ₹7 crore for a 700 sq ft 2 BHK apartment. The per sq ft rate for an apartment in the area is around ₹1 lakh, according to real estate brokers.

Rent for a 3 BHK apartment in the area is anything between ₹6 lakh to ₹10 lakh per month, according to real estate consultants.

Also Read: 5 facts about Ratan Tata’s beachfront Colaba residence Bakhtavar

3. Bombay House, Fort

Bombay House, also known as Tata’s headquarters, is located in the Fort area of Mumbai on a plot measuring 21,273 square feet. The building was completed in 1924 and has been the company’s headquarters since then. According to reports, the Tata Group is perhaps the only Indian corporate to name its headquarters after the city where it started its journey.

According to Tata Group’s website, Bombay House was built on land put up for sale by the Bombay Municipality in 1921. The plans for the building were conceived by the Scottish architect George Wittet, who at one time was the consulting architect to the Government of Bombay and later joined the Tatas’ as the head of Tata Engineering Company Ltd. By then he had already designed the city’s iconic Gateway of India.

“The construction of Bombay House was completed in July 1924. The headquarters had four businesses functioning within — textiles, hotels, steel and power — under the leadership of Sir Dorabji Tata. By 1942, the Tata group had grown and a fourth floor was added to Bombay House,” the website reads.

The building houses senior leadership of leading Tata companies and also houses Tata Chemicals, Tata Power and Tata Industries, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Sons.

According to real estate consultants, commercial properties in the Fort area command a rent of anything between ₹600 and ₹800 per sq ft per month.

4. Esplanade House, Fort

Esplanade House is one of the oldest properties that the Tata families owned in Mumbai. It is located in the Fort area of Mumbai.

The construction of the house began in the mid 1880s. It was located close to Nusserwanji Tata and his son Jamsetji Tata’s office, according to the information available on Tata central archives dot com.

Esplanade House was one of the first houses in the city to be lit with electricity and had an elevator. The compound of the house consisted of two buildings. The heritage structure was restored around 2004 by RD Sethna Scholarship Fund, according to the website.

Also Read: Ratan Tata funeral: Stampede-like situation as crowd gathers to pay tributes, cops resort to lathi charge

5. Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel

Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel area of Mumbai was conceptualized by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust in 1941. The death of Dorabji’s wife Meherbai due to leukemia spurred him to create a center dedicated to researching the disease. It was in 1952 that the Indian Cancer Research Centre was established as a research institute for basic research, later called the Cancer Research Institute (CRI).

The per sq ft price of residential apartments in Parel varies from ₹50,000 per sq ft to ₹1 lakh per sq ft. Rents for a 2 BHK apartment in Parel range from ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh per month. Commercial office space rentals in the area vary from ₹200 to ₹400 per sq ft.

Buildings commissioned by Tata Group are mostly located in South Mumbai

According to real estate consultants, South Mumbai has been the focus of almost all buildings that were commissioned by the Tata Group.

“Tata Group has been one of the few companies that has been constant in South Mumbai and they still have a presence in the area,” said Gulam Zia, Senior Executive Director at Knight Frank India, a real estate consultancy firm.

Infrastructure developments in the area such as the Mumbai Coastal Road project and the Mumbai Metro 3 project are expected to provide a fillip to the South Mumbai area, especially commercial markets such as Nariman Point.

Also Read: Tata Digital renews lease for its headquarters in South Mumbai at a monthly rent of ₹3 crore

Knight Frank India, in a report released on October 10, said that South Mumbai’s new office supply is poised for significant growth, with projections of over 4 million to 6 million square feet of fresh mixed-use space expected to be added in the next six to eight years. This is almost three times the supply seen in the past decade.

This upcoming expansion will be fuelled by the redevelopment of vacant land, including parcels owned by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), old mills, and unused industrial sites that are now eligible for conversion into modern office spaces. This anticipated growth in South Mumbai’s office market, coupled with major infrastructure upgrades, could restore the area’s status as a premier office destination, the Knight Frank India report noted.