Sion & Wadala

Sion & Wadala in full

Sion was, until the causeways and reclamations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries joined the seven islands together, the northern tip of Bombay itself, and the 1669 fort on the hillock above the station was built to watch that boundary. The view from it now takes in a flyover and a rail junction rather than open water, but the fort is still there, free to climb, and still the clearest marker of where the old island city ends and the mainland suburbs begin. Sion Hospital, one of the city's larger public hospitals, sits at the foot of the hill and gives the area much of its daytime traffic.

Wadala, just east and south of Sion, is a plainer, more functional place: the depot and one terminus of the Mumbai Monorail, India's first, sit here, along with the regional transport office and freight yards that most visitors never notice from a train window. The Five Gardens area nearby is a quieter grid of 1920s bungalows and small parks, built as a planned residential pocket and largely unchanged since. None of it is dressed up for visitors, and that is more or less the point of coming here at all, on a part of the map most guidebooks skip entirely.

Immediately south of Sion lies the edge of Dharavi, one of the largest informal settlements in Asia and, less visibly, a dense manufacturing district producing everything from leather goods to recycled plastics. Seeing it properly means going in on a guided walk with an operator based in the area, not wandering in alone. Between the fort, the monorail and Dharavi's edge, Sion and Wadala suit a traveller who wants to understand how the working city actually functions, changing trains and crossing lines, more than one looking for a conventional sight to photograph and move on from.

Where to stay, and what it costs

Sion and Wadala are not a hotel district in any real sense; what exists is aimed at people passing through on business or transiting the rail junction, not at holidaymakers. Expect simple business hotels and lodges near the station, roughly ₹1,800 to ₹3,200 a night for a basic room, and a smaller number of mid-range options closer to ₹4,000 to ₹6,000 with a lift, air conditioning and a restaurant on site. There is nothing at the luxury end here at all. Rooms tend to be small and functional rather than characterful, and the streets around the station are loud with traffic well into the evening. It suits someone who values being at a rail and road junction above everything else — changing trains often, meeting people from across the city, or catching an early flight via the Eastern Freeway — and it does not suit anyone hoping for a quiet stay, a view, or walking-distance sightseeing.

Getting in and out

From Terminal 2 it is about 30 to 45 minutes by road off-peak, usually via the Eastern Express Highway, which effectively starts near here; that stretches to 50 to 75 minutes in evening traffic. From South Mumbai, Sion is about 30 to 40 minutes by fast Central line train from CSMT off-peak, with Wadala reachable on the Harbour line in a similar time; by road from Colaba or Fort, allow 45 to 65 minutes depending on the hour. This is also the boundary point at which auto rickshaws become legal to hail — south of here, in the island city, they are banned, while at Sion and everywhere north and east of it they are the cheapest way to cover short distances. The monorail connects Wadala to Chembur and on to Jacob Circle, though services run infrequently enough that it is better treated as a novelty than a reliable link.

Before land reclamation joined Bombay's seven original islands to the mainland, Sion sat at the northern tip of the built-up city, and the fort on its hillock was built in 1669 to watch that boundary. The name has stuck informally ever since, even though the geography around it has completely changed with roads, rail lines and reclaimed land where a creek used to run.