Understand
These are some of the oldest suburbs of the city. In particular, Bandra has existed as a separate town almost as long as Bombay. The area started its history as a bunch of fishing villages. Then it became home to a Christian population which set up its churches, orphanages, and monasteries. It later turned into a place where Bombay's beautiful people live, a status that it holds to this day. It is a very cosmopolitan place and does not have the rundown look of the other suburbs. It still has a lot of old bungalows.
Bombay's only river, the Mithi, flows through this area and also serves as a sewage line. In the 80s, a well-intentioned attempt to set up a new downtown away from Nariman Point resulted in the establishment of the Bandra-Kurla complex. Most of the larger financial banks and companies moved to this place. This is a nice-looking place, but it was built by filling up the mouth of the Mithi river. This is said to have worsened the impact of the worst flood in the city's history on 26 July 2005.
Bombay's airport is located in this district. Most hotels are located here. Many software and BPO companies have their offices in and around SEEPZ, Andheri. The western suburbs also boast of the Juhu beach which was cleaned and cleared of hawkers in 2006.
These suburbs can get extremely crowded in the evenings, with nightmarish traffic snarls.
