The place that is now Powai Lake was a hilly area with jungle in olden days. The surrounding hills were a source of rainwater and river streams Many tribes lived here in villages. Padmavati Devi Temple this is an ancient 10^th century temple.

The word Powai came from the goddess Padmavati Devi. During the British rule in India, the land of Powai was leased to a man called Dr. Scott in 1799. Which was on yearly rent for Rs 3,200.After Dr. Scott died in 1816, the British government took back the land of Powai and again leased to a Parsi merchant named Framji Cowasjee Banaji. The British  planned to supply the city of Bombay with water and therefore decided to construct two dams on the tributaries of Mithi River. They did this in year 1889, when they built two dams of 10 m each on the streams that flowed down the slopes of nearby hills. Powai Lake was formed to collect this rain water and supply water in Bombay. The total cost of this project cost Rs.6,50,000. Powai Lake supplied two million gallons of water per day to the suburbs of Bombay.In 1943, when freedom fighter Chandrabhan Sharma came to Bombay and bought five villages of Powai from Sir Mohamed Yusuf for a small sum of money. These villages were Saki, Kopri, Tirandaz, Powai and Paspauli. In 1950s, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru personally visited Chandrabhan Sharma and convinced him to give part of the land for free to set up IIT. Also in 1983 Goverment estabalished National Institute Of Industrial Engineering (NITIE). Gopal Chandrabhan Sharma who ultimately laid the first foundations of buildings in Powai. Gopal Chandrabhan Sharma construction company GHP Corporation built the first residential building in Powai called Prashant Apartments. Bhawani Towers followed and it was a 13 storey building with residential apartments. These were among the earliest residential buildings to come up in Powai. Niranjan Hiranandani saw a promise in this deserted quarry land, and sold off his garment business and invested in Powai. He entered into an agreement with MMRDA and Maharashtra State to develop 230 acres of land for constructing affordable housing projects for people. Niranjan Hiranandani went on to build a complete township with its own schools, supermarkets, shopping centres, landscaped gardens, parks, hospitals, playgrounds, roads and pavements