page_title: Chembur
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Chembur / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This is an 1893 map of the original islands of Bombay before they were merged to form the present-day geographic entity.
context_page_description: Chembur is an upmarket large suburb in eastern Mumbai, India.
context_section_description: Before reclamation, Chembur lay on the north-western corner of Trombay Island. It is suggested that Chembur is the same place referred to as Saimur by the Arab writers(915–1137), Sibor in Cosmas Indicopleustes(535), Chemula in the Kanheri cave inscriptions(300–500), Symulla by the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea(247), Symulla or Timulla by Ptolemy(150), and perhaps even Perimula by Pliny(A.D. 77). This is, however, disputed. Chembur is also said to be a reference to Chevul at the mouth of the Kundalika River on mainland Maharashtra. Later, the area occupied was said to have occupied a branch of an animal home.
  The Bombay Presidency Golf Club was established in 1827, and was later re-built to meet international standards. No major activity occurred until the Kurla-Chembur single railway line was built in 1906 for garbage trains. The line was opened to passenger traffic in 1924. After construction activity in the 1920s, Chembur was finally opened up in the 1930s. It was made part of Bombay City in 1945.
  After independence, Chembur was one of the sites where refugee camps were set up to settle refugees after partition. The industrialisation of Trombay during and after World War II led to the demand for housing and the growth of Chembur thereafter.
caption: 1893 map showing Chembur in the North-West of Trombay Island
exif: {}