Haji Ali Dargah , Mosque in Mumbai

The blame game has begun over the traffic snarls at the Haji Ali junction. A day after the traffic police blamed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the traffic woes; the civic body has shot back.

Corporation officials claim that the traffic snarls are because of the traffic diversion of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and not due to their own works.

The BMC’s road development department has also alleged that the traffic police are trying to divert attention from the series of accidents on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and thus are blaming the civic body for the traffic mess at the Haji Ali junction.

At least 500 people have been stranded in Haji Ali Dargah as 800 metre long way leading to it has been submerged.

According to the report, the way leading came under deep water due to incessant rains. It is worth mentioning that Met department has sounded alert for high tide.

The officials have expressed fear of High Tide at 1.23 pm today. The met officials have advised people not to visit coasts in this duration.

Issuing a warning, the met department has said that if rain continues for the next three days, people should not visit coasts. The advertisements are being published in the newspapers to make people alert about it.

Decks have been cleared for the restoration work of one of the city’s most famous landmarks in the Arabian Sea-the 400-year-old Haji Ali Dargah. The Bombay high court earlier this week declined to entertain a public interest litigation challenging the Rs 9-crore restoration work.

The PIL was filed by city-based advocate Sana Baugwala, who claimed various violations in law and sought a halt to the restoration work.

Baugwala alleged that no permission had been taken from the charity commissioner before commencing the work. The advocate said this was a violation of the Bombay Public Trust Act.

The petitioner also raised questions about the huge expenses to be incurred on the renovation work, which she said “could have been used for some good social cause”.

The state was represented by assistant government pleader Milind More who opposed the PIL.

According the restoration plans drawn up by the trust which manages the dargah, nearly 35,000 square feet of Makrana marble will be used-the same kind that was used in the construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra.

The Haji Ali Mosque is situated on an islet near the coast of Worli in Mumbai.
Despite the fact that this structure is a mosque and dargah, it is extremely famous amongst the Hindu population in Mumbai, Maharashtra and South Gujarat.

Haji Ali Dargah is one of the most popular religious places in Mumbai, visited by Hindus and Muslims alike. It is basically the tomb of Haji Ali, a wealthy merchant who renounced all the worldly possessions and became a saint, after he returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca. Along with the tomb, there is also a mosque at Haji Ali. There are two different accounts of how the tomb of Haji Ali came into being. As per one version, the saint drowned in the sea and his devotees built a tomb at the spot where he died.

Another version goes that Haji Ali died on his pilgrimage to Mecca and his body was put in a casket. The casket is said to have floated back to Bombay, stopping near the rock bed on the sea here. The place where his casket was found later served as the venue of his dargah (tomb), built by his devotees. Haji Ali Dargah is situated on an islet, in the middle of Worli Bay, located off the coast of Worli. It is visited by a large number of devotes every day. The rush particularly swells on Thursdays and Fridays.

It is a common belief among people that if one pray’s at this durgah, his/her wishes are fulfilled. This mosque is controlled by the Sunni Barelvi Movement of India. The mosque is spread over an area of 4,500 meters.

There is an 85 foot high tower. The tomb in the mosque has a red and green brocaded tomb cover sheet and an impressive silver frame. The main hall has some marble pillars that are decorated with yellow, green and blue mirror chips.

The new minaret in the shrine of Haji Ali is rising skyward, made entirely of pure marble with no iron or steel fortification. Drawing on techniques used to construct Rajabai Tower and the Maratha forts of Shivaji Maharaj, engineers and craftsmen are rebuilding the iconic monument that they claim will be earthquake-resistant and last a whole century.

Rajasthani artisans, whose roughened hands shape the finest monuments in the country, have brought with them white marble from their native Makrana. Neatly wrapped in bundles of hay, these are stacked beneath the emerging minaret.

Inside the minar rises a spiral staircase modelled along the one inside Rajabai Tower. It will eventually touch a height of 72 ft, approximating a seven-storey building. Each step is neatly interlocked with the previous one simply by brass pins and cement mortar.

The Tardeo police arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly stealing money from the donation box of Haji Ali dargah last week. The suspect Ravi alias Ramesh Kumar hails from Delhi and is said to be a historysheeter.

Mohammed Abdul Latif Shaikh, member of the Haji Ali Dargah committee had registered a complaint with the Tardeo police station. In his complaint, Shaikh reported that a person had stolen cash from the dargah donation box.

With the help of CCTV cameras around the dargah premises the police detained 15 people. The police then zeroed in on Ravi.

Ravi, who stays on a foothpath near Mahalaxmi bridge, confessed to his crime.

Ravi claimed to have stolen Rs 5,000, of which Rs 4,590 has been recovered from him, said the police. Kumar was involved in theft, pick-pocketing and other petty crimes, the police added. Kumar has been sent to police custody.

Money was stolen from a public donation box at the Haji Ali  dargah  in south Mumbai .

“A public donation box kept at the entrance of the road leading to the dargah was broken by some miscreants on Friday night and it was reported to the police on Saturday,”According to police official from the Tardeo police station.

The dargah is built on a tiny islet located 500 yards from the coast, in the middle of Worli Bay, in the vicinity of Worli. The islet is linked to the city precinct of Mahalakshmi by a narrow causeway. This causeway is not bound by railings, and is lashed by the sea during high-tide. Therefore, the dargah is accessible only during low tide. This 500-yard-walk on the causeway, with the sea on both sides, is one of the highlights of a trip to the shrine.

The whitewashed structure occupies an area of 4,500 metres, and an 85 foot (26 m) tower is the architectural highlight of the edifice. The tomb within the mosque is covered by a brocaded red and green chaddar (tomb cover sheet). It is supported by an exquisite silver frame. The main hall has marble pillars embellished with coloured mirror work: blue, green, yellow chips. The ninety-nine names of Allah are also written on the pillar

Haji Ali Dargah is one of the most popular religious places in Mumbai, visited by Hindus and Muslims alike. It is basically the tomb of Haji Ali, a wealthy merchant who renounced all the worldly possessions and became a saint, after he returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca. Along with the tomb, there is also a mosque at Haji Ali.

Haji Ali Dargah, which juts out into the sea, is being rebuilt in marble, as the present concrete structure is eroding due to saline air and harsh weather conditions.

The shrine, which is around 500 years old is a prominent landmark of Mumbai that attracts between 5,000 to 10,000 devotees every day.

The renovation project, which began and is expected to finish in two years, will focus on reconstructing the tomb, minarets and adjacent mosque in Makrana marble without changing the original architecture, Managing Trustee and Chairman of Haji Ali Dargah Trust, According to A H Merchant.

The project will cost around Rs 10 crore, Merchant said.

The present structure is a rebuilt of concrete and steel done way back between 1960-64, but the steel used in the tomb, minarets and mosque has corroded now due to saline air, he said.

The Dargah, which often features in Hindi films, notably in ‘Coolie’,'Fizaa’ and ‘Halla Bol’ also serves as a source of inspiration to many.

Four years after plans were first made to demolish and reconstruct Haji Ali dargah, one of most prominent shrines and landmarks of Mumbai, the project has got the final set of permissions from the government.

With the commencement certificate to start work in hand, the first step will be to demolish the dilapidated structure. Though the shrine of Pir Haji Ali Shah Baba dates back to the 14th century, the present structure nestled like a pearl in the sea, was constructed a little over a hundred years ago. But with constant erosion the building has become dilapidated, leading to concerns over safety.