Anushakti Nagar is the residential township of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, DCSEM, Atomic Energy Education Society in Mumbai, India. Anu Shaktimeans atomic power in many Sanskrit based Indian languages. It is the residential complex for the employees of Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India in Mumbai. Situated in North-east Mumbai. It is claimed to be the largest township (by population) housing employees of a single organisation in the World. Anushaktinagar also claims to be the largest scientific community (in a single area) in the world.
About
In the early 1960s the government decided to expand the nuclear research (see BARC) facility in (what was then) a distant suburb of Mumbai. The township is about 3 km north of the research centre.
Anushakti Nagar is a well planned self-contained community with a population of about 45,000. It has residential flats, local grocery shops, sports and recreation facilities, schools, medical clinics, a large hospital, bank, post office and transport links to many parts of Mumbai. Both the atomic research centre and the town maintenance is funded by the central (federal) government. The complex is sprawling and lies stretched out alongside four suburbs - Govandi, Mankhurd, New Mandala and Trombay. The other facilities include, two community Centres for social occasions and gatherings, various departmental and co-operative stores, a restaurant, 2 creches. The electricity to the colony is provided by TATA Power, and the cable (and more recently, cablenet) by ANUSAT club.
Anushaktinagar has 17 high-rises and numerous buildings, that have grades, depending on flat-size, and are allotted on the basis of seniority to DAE employees. The nomenclature of these buildings is unique and one of the best aspects of the colony, with names taken from - Indian Heritage names (Nalanda, Hastinapur, Pataliputra, Indraprastha, Takshashila, Kapilvastu)
Rivers (Saraswati, Godavari, Narmada, Saryu, Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Ghaghra, Gomti etc.)
Himalayan peaks (Kamet, Annapurna, Kanchenjunga, Dhawalgiri {Dhawalgiri}, Nandadevi {Nanda Devi}, Gaurishankar{Gauri Sankar}, Everest etc.)
Hill-stations (Venkatgiri, Almora, Gulmarg, Mount Abu etc.), Hill-ranges (Sahyadri, Vindhya, Satpura, Aravalli, Nilgiri etc.)
Historical Places (Sanchi, Ajanta, Ellora, Shantiniketan, Sriniketan, Golconda etc.)
famous Hindu Pilgrim Places (Kailash, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Dwarka, Sarnath etc.)
Great Saints (Meerabaie, Namdev, Jaidev, Ramdas, Tuslidas, Kabir, Tukaram, Chaitanya etc.),
Classical Ragas (the Raagmala buildings - Mohana, Deepak, Malhar, Darbari, Bhairavi etc.).
The Mandala "suburb" of this township has buildings named after seasons (Hemant, Sharad, Shishir
some buildings of New Mandala are flowers names like Pankaj,Kamal,Champa,Parijat,Gulmohar,Kumud etc.)
Recent additions to the high-rises are two buildings: Udayagiri and Malayagiri, both of which are state of the art, spacious and well designed buildings.
Barring the road which connects the main gate with the BARC north gate, no other roads are named. The Central Avenue road which divides the colony roughly into two halves center connects the colony entrance with the BARC North Gate. It is a 2+2 lane divided by a 70-foot-wide (21 m) green stretch which runs all along. A number of people use the footpaths along the roadside for a pleasant stroll.
Anushakti nagar can be said to be divided into three parts:
- Anushakti Nagar
- New Mandala
- Western Sector
It is considered to be one of the "greenest" and better maintained parts of (an otherwise polluted) Mumbai city.
Location
Anushakti Nagar is located about 20 km north-east of Mumbai downtown. It has its own Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus depot connecting it to most major Mumbai suburbs.Mankhurd, located about 1 km north of the neighbourhood, serves as its primary railway station connecting it via the harbour line of the Mumbai suburban railway network to downtown Mumbai (about 22 km south).
It is part of the Mumbai South Central (Lok Sabha constituency) which until a few years back was the largest (by population) Lok Sabha electorate in India. It is bordered on one side by a large hill which is the highest in Mumbai.
People
As the education provided to this community is very good and subsidized it tends to have a high concentration of very educated (though mainly academic) population. It claims to have one of the highest concentrations of Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) entrants in any given year. There has been a significant contribution to the International Olympaids by the anushaktinagar'ites.
Even by the standards of Mumbai, which is considered very cosmopolitan, Anushakti Nagar is a melting pot of races, cultures and religions from all over mostly Rural India. The "Colony Junta" comprises people from virtually all parts of India. This results in a diversity seldom seen in other parts of India, and a very social celebration of all the Indian festivals.
People associated with this township are today scattered across the globe and are making Anushaktinagar proud in their own ways. Most still retain some form of 'atomic bond' with the place and its people long after leaving the colony.
It has given many business leaders to the corporates and continues to do so. Many teachers of the AECS schools of A'Nagar have also been awarded with Presidents Gold Medals. H.S.Kamath (Ex CEO Heavy Water Board - a Padmashree awardee), Shreya Ghosal a (lead singer - a national awardee), Anand Ramaswamy (Strategist-Yahoo! India) also happens to be from A'nagar, apart from the numerous known industry personalities.
P. K. Iyengar, R Chidambaram, Anil Kakodkar - All ex-directors of BARC (Chairman Atomic Energy Commission) were associated with Anushaktinagar directly.
Education
It is home to the Atomic Energy Central School (AECS), which are numbered 1 through 6, and a sprawling Atomic Energy Junior College (AEJC) for grades 11 and 12, on the foot of the Trombay Hill. Now the School 4 has grade 11 and grade 12 under the CBSE. Admission to these schools is strictly for children whose parents or guardians are employees of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and/or theBhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).The fee structure is highly subsidised and may be the reason for most of the employees to stay put in this colony. Recently the AECS have started taking in grandchildren of the DAE/BARC/NPC employees as well. Now non-DAE students are admitted in these schools at high fees. The school system follows the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) syllabus which is considered[by whom?] to be much better in structure and content, emphasis on Hindi and is regarded as one of the tougher ones and somewhat better than the syllabus of the state-run schools of Maharashtra. The medium of instruction is English. Hindi language is taught, and is compulsory till the 10th standard. The other choice of language offered is Marathi, which is the state language of Maharashtra.
There is a Training School & Hostel (TSH), and the New Bachelor's Hostel (NBH) for BARC trainees, as well as for interns and students who come for various academic purposes (like training for International Mathematics Olympiad or International Physics Olympiad etc.)
Leisure and Sports
Anushakti Nagar has very good sports facilities with many apartment complexes having their own grounds which are usually occupied by cricket playing youngsters. It has a staff club for indoor games like Badminton & Table-Tennis and Gym, One field each for Football, Cricket and Hockey, 9 floodlit Tennis Courts, 2 Basketball courts and 2 volleyball courts and a large number of badminton courts. There are vast playgrounds spread across the colony.It also has, a few scattered basketball courts, volleyball facilities & a huge football field near the junior college. Now a new sports complex with swimming pool is also available.