Thane’s Talaopali makeover
A three-year project is improving Talaopali for better recreational facilities
Anybody who stays at Talaopali will sooner or later visit this lake at the center of Thane. For the registration of your Rustomjee Urbania apartment purchase, you would have gone to the Registrar's office on the lakeshore. The quiet Talaopali environs now have an intense activity to convert the lakeshore to a better recreational hub of Thane.
Talaopali is a popular Thane recreation spot. However, the footpaths on the lake periphery had worn out, and you could find garbage along the lake if you took a walk around it. All that is to change with TMC's Talaopali lake makeover.
Since late 2018, TMC has been working on sprucing Talaopali to offer a pleasant experience to people visiting the lake. The COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed down the Talaopali makeover, but the work progressed in 2020, and by the end of this year, we should see the fruition of those efforts.
I park my car along the wall of the St. John the Baptist Church, which faces Talaopali when I go shopping at the Jambhali Naka market. About a year ago, I had seen that TMC had constructed a bright white toilet block with colorful graphics on fitness. This toilet is now open for a fee and is a relief in the area with no other public toilet.
The remodeling of the footpath around Talaopali near the Registrar'sRegistrar's office is complete and gives you a glimpse of what you will experience all around the lake.
The 400-meter footpath around the lake will soon have maintenance-free strong granite tiles to last long. In a recess at this section, TMC has made seats from which you can look over the lake. TMC has installed steel railings at the footpath and the ledge over the lake for lake users' safety. TMC has retained all trees around the lake and built the footpath around trees, though some trees could have had larger basins around them.
You would find a lot of seagulls in the lake after people would attract, thereby offering snacks. After protests by wildlife activists, TMC has stopped seagull feeding, so on a visit to Talaopali today, I did not find even one seagull in this space today.
The most attractive feature of the Talaopali makeover is the float-glass walkway along the lake periphery. Right now, you can see the steel frame on which the TMC contractor shall install the glass. This scenic walkway will offer a unique experience when ready and offer lake visitors an opportunity to see the water beneath their feet as they walk over it on glass.
I remember walking around Talaopali in February 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic had still not caused restrictions. We could eat street food on the footpath along the lake even as we saw people indulging in their fitness routines. Talaopali also had horse carts offering rides, but you do not see them today.
In 2020, the Talaopali surroundings had lesser business as the Jambhali Naka market closed for few months in lockdown. The business has returned to the Talaopali area since June 2020, and you can also see the lake's visitors each morning and evening.
Talaopali area has numerous ancient places of worship, with the St. John's Church and the Koupineshwar temple being the most important. The lake also houses a Hanuman temple which you can see from the shore.
At Tembi Naka, you will find the Cowasji Patel agiary.
The lake has a fort-like structure with a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on a horse.
When you approach Dr. Mooses Marg around Talopali from the Ajaramji Chowk, you will find numerous ice cream parlors and other eateries. There is also an aquarium and fish shop on the lakeshore at this end of the lake.
The Ram Ganesh Gadkari Rangayatan on Talaopali is Thane's largest auditorium famous for dramas. Its road-facing wall is so long you cannot capture it in one frame on your camera. Facing the Rangayatan is a home with a 100+-year-old Baobab, among the few such trees at Thane. This Baobab is at the compound wall of a home and around which the owners have built the wall. This tree has a bottle-like trunk and goes leafless in winter to regain foliage in summer.
As Thane's center Talaopali is a popular place among visitors, though, in 2020, the pandemic has affected its popularity. TMC progressed Talaopali redevelopment in 2020, and by 2022, Talaopali should be ready to receive visitors in its new form.
There is already a senior citizen park on Talaopali, which TMC will improve as part of Talaopali makeover. TMC shall also install digital displays and LED lighting along the lake.
Talaopali water is green right now, and TMC will have to clean the water to restore its color when the lake development is complete. TMC has installed aerator fans at lakes across the city, and those should help in cleaning Talaopali to make its water colorless and odorless.
You can look forward to boat rides in better boats when Talaopali resumes its boating services. The lake shall also have selfie points on the shore, though I could not find out those in my recent visits.
I am also waiting to see how TMC restores the street food stalls along Talaopali after it inaugurates the glass walkway and other new facilities along the lake.
There may be restrictions on the horse carts at Talaopali as horse carts find opposition at Mumbai, and courts are ordering their stoppage to prevent horses' cruelty.
Horses also generate dung and dirty roads, which they use, and TMC may stop horse carts at Talaopali to prevent the dirtying of an improved lakefront.
More than three years after the start of the work, Talaopali makeover is seeing fruition and will offer Thane's residents an improved recreation spot in their city. I am sure more people will visit Talaopali after hearing its glass walkway, which is a first in the Mumbai region.