It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911 at Strand Road near Wellington Fountain.

The foundation stone was laid in March 1913 for a monument built in the Indo-Islamic style, inspired by elements of 16th-century Gujarati architecture.

It is located on the waterfront at an angle, opposite the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel and overlooks the Arabian Sea.

[8] Between 1915 and 1919 work continued at the Apollo Bunder to reclaim the land on which the Gateway was to be built, along with the construction of a sea wall.

[28][29] This ritual was started by Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg of the chabad in Mumbai (located in Nariman House).

The façade is reminiscent of Gujarati mosque façades, for example the Jama Mosque, Ahmedabad of 1424, while the basic shape is, in the terminology of classical architecture, an octopylon with a floor plan of eight piers, as used in some triumphal arches and memorials, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris.

[21] It involves aerial surveys conducted with terrestrial laser scanning (LiDAR), drones, and photogrammetry exercises.

[45][46][J] In 2016, Mid-Day reported that the George V statue is kept locked in a tin shed belonging to the Public Works Department, behind Elphinstone College, in Fort, Mumbai.

[57] The second and third jetties are the starting point for tourists to reach the Elephanta Caves, which are fifty minutes away by boat from the monument.

[60] The Mumbai Port Trust licenses vessels to use the gateway while the Maharashtra Maritime Board issues fitness certificates to them.

[66] It involved the cutting down of trees, reducing the garden area, replacing toilets, and closing the car park.

The redevelopment led to a dispute between the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Urban Design Research Institute, and the government was criticised for poor project implementation which critics alleged had failed to conform to the original plans.

[67] In August 2014, the state Directorate of Archaeology and Museums had proposed conservation of the Gateway by the ASI, after noting deterioration caused by saline deposits from the sea.

[22] The project was aimed at reducing crowding at the Gateway by closing all its jetties and refocusing the location solely as a tourist attraction.

[73] The scheme also provides sponsors with the opportunity to generate revenue by selling their rights to feature the heritage monuments in commercials and advertisements.

[75] The state governor, C. Vidyasagar Rao, directed the Bombay Municipal Corporation commissioner and architects to submit a project plan in a month on measures to be taken for the purpose.

[76][77] In the same month, chemical conservation was proposed by the state archaeology department noting blackening of and algae on stones and surface cracks.

Structural stability audit had last been conducted eight years earlier with plant growth on the monument removed annually.

[79] The plan followed UNESCO guidance for protected heritage sites and took into account the views of interested parties, including the Directorate of Museums and Archaeology, which has the monument within its purview; the Mumbai Port Trust, which is entrusted with the land; and the Bombay Municipal Corporation, which controls the location.

[81] The force of the explosion, from a bomb in a taxi parked near the Taj Mahal Hotel, reportedly threw bystanders into the sea.

[82] On 13 August 2005, a mentally unstable man stabbed two young girls from Manipur at the gateway premises.

[89] Protestors were later relocated from the Gateway premises to Azad Maidan in Mumbai to ease the movement of traffic and people.

[90][91] The Mumbai-based video game Mumbai Gullies is expected to feature the Gateway of India in its fictional map.