For more than a century, Mumbai’s old harbour on the eastern waterfront was a place people passed through on their way elsewhere. Now, Ballard Pier is getting ready to welcome a rather different visitor. The Mumbaikar with no ship to catch.
For decades, the city’s own residents could only glimpse the bustling harbour that had helped build their city from outside the gates of its working port. The Ballard Pier Downtown Experience Centre, which opened its heavy wrought-iron gates on Oct 23, hopes to change that.
Located at the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal (MICT) at Indira Dock, on the edge of historic Ballard Estate, its entrance with fortress-style stone towers recalls colonial Bombay’s maritime past. In its heyday, arriving at Bombay’s Ballard Pier, established in 1915, was quite an occasion. Steamships pulled in after long voyages. Customs officers waited to inspect luggage, while trains at Ballard Pier Mole station stood ready to carry passengers and mail to Delhi and even Peshawar.
The tracks are long gone, but MICT has been receiving cruise passengers since March 2025. Now, its two upper floors will house restaurants, shops and a seaside sit-out, opening in phases over the next two months.
Architect Rahul Mehta of RM Architects wanted to make the most of the harbour without copying another city’s waterfront. “We had the rare privilege of designing this project from beginning to end, without borrowing a vision from Singapore or London. This is an Indian waterfront, and it deserved an architecture that belonged unmistakably to Mumbai,” he said at the inauguration.
Inside, escalators rise through a tall glass atrium to sea-facing restaurants and cafes, with shops across the way. Those who find the escalator pedestrian can take the massive slide alongside it for a more entertaining ride down. Outside, yellow parasols shade cafe tables and curved blue seating on a spacious seaside terrace overlooks cruise liners and tugboats.
Mumbai’s old live-music favourite Blue Frog is slated for Dec, while Barcelona’s Paradiso, once crowned the world’s best cocktail bar, is also headed here. Nicobar and Mulmul are among the homegrown brands setting up shop.
Behind the venture is J M Baxi Ports & Logistics, which operates 14 cargo terminals across India and has a 30-year concession from Mumbai Port Authority. Aditi Kotak, director of Ballard Pier, hopes a few evenings by the harbour might change how Indians feel about holidays at sea.
“For many Indians, cruising is still an unfamiliar way to travel. The opportunity is to make the experience more accessible,” she tells TOI. “Families can spend an evening by the waterfront, watch cruise ships come and go, and gradually begin to imagine a journey of their own.”
Kotak recalled being asked whether the new precinct was only for the wealthy. “These gates are not there to keep people in or out. They are a transition point from the chaos of the city to the blue state of mind the ocean offers.”
Some practices from Baxi’s other terminals have found their way here, including zero liquid discharge and on-site composting. A solar partnership is expected to meet half the terminal’s energy needs, while women currently make up 50% of its workforce, with plans to raise that to 70%.
The effort to open up Mumbai’s waterfront predates Ballard Pier Downtown by over a decade. In 2014, a Mumbai Port Trust committee proposed transforming the city’s 1,800-acre docklands with public promenades, marinas, a cruise terminal, floating restaurants and even an aquarium. More than a decade later, Ballard Pier Downtown is giving Mumbaikars their first real taste of what was imagined.
“It is not simply a matter of laying a promenade along the water,” says M Angamuthu, chairperson of the Mumbai Port Authority. “Customs restrictions and coastal regulations complicate matters, and the port still needs much of its land for everyday operations.”
The thinking behind cruise terminals is changing too. Earlier, their job was largely to “provide a berth, process passengers, move them to or from the city, and secure the facility between calls,” says Angamuthu. Now, the idea is to give people a reason to visit even when there isn’t a ship in port.
Elsewhere, Angamuthu says, the Domestic Cruise Terminal and RoPax Terminal are already operational, and the Bhaucha Dhakka Glass House Restaurant is being upgraded. A global tender has been floated for the proposed $97-million Viksit Bharat Mumbai Marina, with room for over 424 yachts, a sailing school, hotel and convention centre.
Meanwhile, Mumbai’s cruise traffic has grown from 36 calls and 32,060 passengers in 2013-14 to 95 calls and 2.4 lakh passengers in 2025-26. The Cruise Bharat Mission aims to bring more ships to Indian ports, but whether Mumbai gets a larger share will depend on port charges and itineraries that make the city worth a stop. That apart, Angamuthu believes opening Ballard Pier to the public has its own rewards. “It can support jobs and small businesses, encourage people to reconnect with the harbour and make the maritime heritage of Mumbai Port more visible.”
