Santacruz and its neighbouring suburb Khar fall under the H East and H West wards of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The locality had a population of 675,951 in 1991, over an area of 12.98 square kilometers, giving it a population density of 36,668 persons per square kilometer.
The term Santa Cruz comes from the Portuguese words meaning "Holy Cross",[1] a reference to a 150-year-old Cross located on Chapel lane within the compound of a home for destitute women run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity trust. That name was also given to a church that existed on a site on the western side of the railway station along the current Swami Vivekanand Road, presently occupied by the Sacred Heart Boys High School and Sacred Heart Church. This original church was destroyed by the Marathas during their conquest of the Salsette Island from Portugal. When the railways began operations in October 1888, the local railway station was named after the Holy Cross, and Santacruz as a locality came into being.
The then British Government set up RAF Santacruz, a military airfield, in 1942. It was home to several RAF squadrons during World War II from 1942 to 1947. [3] The Airport covered an area of about 1,160 hectares (2,900 acres) and initially had three runways. [4] The airfield was transferred to the Indian Government for civilian use upon Independence, [5] and came to be known as Santa Cruz airport, the city's main airport. Construction of a new passenger terminal and apron began in 1950 and was commissioned in 1958. [4] In the 1980s, a new international terminal was built at Sahar, to cater for the increasing number of passenger movements and types of aircraft; the terminal at Santa Cruz was converted to serve domestic flights and was primarily used by Indian Airlines until the 1990s, when Jet Airways and East West Airlines appeared. The original terminal building still exists and has been given a new façade and host of interior upgrades. A second terminal complex has also been built to supplement existing facilities.