Panchratnam () is a noted skyscraper and a landmark in
South Mumbai
South Mumbai, colloquially SoBo from South Bombay in Anglo-Indian English, administratively the Mumbai City District, is the city centre and the southernmost precinct of Greater Bombay. It extends from Colaba to Mahim and Sion neighbour ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, near its Western Railway's
Charni Road
Charni Road (Marathi pronunciation: ͡ʃəɾniː ɾoːɖ is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Mumbai. It is served by Charni Road railway station.
History
It is believed that when the British Government raised a grazing tax on peopl ...
Station. It was built in 1975. It has 25 floors with a unique design where the bottom six floors face the road, the seventh floor is a terrace and the remaining floors from eight to twenty-five face the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
, giving views of Queen's Necklace, Cuffe Parade,
Nariman Point
Nariman Point is a prominent downtown area of Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. Located on the southern tip of the Mumbai peninsula, at the end of the Mumbai's Marine Drive, Nariman Point houses some of India's prestigious business headquarters.
...
,
Marine Drive Marine Drive may refer to:
Roads Bangladesh
* Cox Bazar-Tekhnaf Marine Drive, world's longest marine drive road.
Canada
*Marine Drive (Nova Scotia), a scenic route in Nova Scotia
*Marine Drive (Greater Vancouver), a number of roadways in Metropo ...
,
Chowpatty and
Walkeshwar
Walkeshwar (Pronunciation: aːɭkeʃʋəɾ is an affluent area in South Mumbai, India, at the north-western end of the Marine Drive loop. It has a large Gujarati population. It is mostly known for Walkeshwar Temple, Banganga Tank and Jain t ...
. It was developed by Vidyasagar & Daftary
Architecture
The first six floors were designed to be commercial offices while the floors above the seventh floor were designed to be residential apartments. By the early 1980s, most of the diamond market in Mumbai moved into the commercial offices, which drove up the demand for offices in nearby locations. Due to sustained high demand, the residential apartments were sold at commercial rates, where one residential apartment was converted into two or three commercial offices. In a decade, a local Mumbai newspaper estimated that the prices for each residential apartment was the most expensive residential real estate per sq. foot in all of Asia, including that of
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
or
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
.
There are about 15 residences currently and the diamond market has moved from this building after a two decade run, to BKC. The Panchratna Housing Co-operative Society is preparing for a second re-run of encouraging residences to grow. The building has been in many news over the decades, but it is one of the first high rises to actually face the bay area of the city.
13 July 2011 bombing
On 13 July 2011, at 6:55pm, when the
13 July 2011 Mumbai bombings
The 2011 Mumbai bombings, also known as 13/7, were a series of three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in Mumbai, India, on 13 July 2011 between 18:54 and 19:06 IST. The blasts occurred at the Opera House, at Zaveri Bazaar an ...
took place, an
improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...
was detonated outside of Panchratna. Although most of the offices were empty at the time of the explosion, as many as thirty individuals on the streets nearby were injured or killed by the blasts. The bomb was one of three detonated that evening in
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
. Representatives of the diamond trade believed that the attacks specifically targeted their industry.
References
Buildings and structures in Mumbai
{{Mumbai-geo-stub