Photos: One year since the lockdown, photographers revisit Mumbai's iconic spots
Mumbai, a city that never sleeps, came to a grinding halt on March 25, 2020. A nationwide lockdown to arrest the novel coronavirus had come into effect as India and the world rushed to understand a new pathogen. After several extensions, the city slowly made a bid at normalcy, lifting restrictions and resuming economic activity. HT’s photographers captured the eerie silence that befell Mumbai in the early days of the lockdown last year. They returned to those spots a year later to find the city quiet, but not out.
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The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) traffic junction, seen the first day of what began as a 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the novel coronavirus, in Mumbai on March 25, 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the measure during a televised address to the nation the previous evening.(Bhushan Koyande / HT Archive)
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CSMT junction seen almost a year since the start of the Covid-19 induced lockdown, on March 20. After reigning in its first wave of infections in mid-September last year, Maharashtra is now facing its second wave of infections, with caseloads surging since early March.(Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)
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Gateway of India overrun by pigeons after police closed it off due to precautions in light of rising Covid-19 cases, on March 19, 2020.(Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Archive)
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The bustle of the Gateway back, in this scene a year later on March 20. Precautions, now internalised, persist despite major relaxations from the hard lockdown that came last year.(Anshuman Poyrekar / HT Photo)
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