Travelling to Mumbai
Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is big. It’s full of dreamers and hard-laborers, starlets and gangsters, stray dogs and exotic birds, artists and servants, fisher folk and crorepatis (millionaires), and lots and lots of people. It has India’s most prolific film industry, some of Asia’s biggest slums as well as the world’s most expensive home and the largest tropical forest in an urban zone. Mumbai is India’s financial powerhouse and fashion epicenter. The heart of the city contains some of the grandest colonial-era architecture on the planet but explore a little more and you’ll uncover unique bazaars, hidden temples, hipster enclaves and India’s premier restaurants and nightlife. Mumbai is well connected from across the country by air and rail and road,
AIR CONNECTIVITY
Mumbai has excellent connectivity with most of the major cities around the world, including, New York, London, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur to name a few. Most of the domestic sectors too are linked to Mumbai, making it the second busiest aviation hub in the country
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is India’s second busiest airport and one of the main international gateways to the country.
Terminal 1: serves various private airlines, such as Indigo, SpiceJet, & GO Air
Terminal 2: International Terminal and serves Jet Air, Air India & Vistara (domestic flights). The new international terminal (T2) opened in 2014 replacing the old international terminal.
RAIL CONNECTIVITY
Mumbai Boasts of the busiest rail road junction known as Mumbai Central. Trains arrive in Mumbai from all over India. The Central line serves connectivity to Southern India, Eastern India, and parts of North India. The key stations are Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus, known just as VT), Dadar Terminus, and Kurla (Lokmanya Tilak) Terminus. The Western line connects to the Western states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and some parts of North India. The main terminal are Mumbai Central and Bandra Terminus.
The Konkan Railway (which is a separately administered and newly built line) travels through the picturesque Konkan coast of Maharastra. The Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) is the destination for the line.
ROAD CONNECTIVITY
By Car :National highway numbers 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 17, and the Mumbai-Pune expressway radiate from the city providing links to all parts of the country. The road conditions are generally better than in the rest of India. The comfortable air-conditioned blue cabs are available to Pune and Ahmednagar-Nashik from opposite Asiad Bus Terminal in Dadar and Lakhamsi Nappoo Rd near Dadar (E) railway station respectively.
By Bus :Mumbai is well served by buses from destinations inside India. There also exist numerous private bus operators who operate a large number of services from/to Mumbai from most major cities like Udaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Indore, Nashik, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Belgaum, Hubli, Bangalore, Mangalore, Trichur and Goa.
TRAVELLING WITHIN THE CITY
Commuting within Mumbai is easy with a solid Rail and public transportation system. There are 3 lines (Harbor, Western and Central) that connect virtually all parts of Mumbai by train. You can download the M-indicator mobile app for train schedules. Mumbai now also has a Metro service and a Mono Rail Service
It is also very easy to hail a taxi that generally runs by the meter. If you are in the suburbs, an auto- rickshaw (Tuk-Tuk) can also be used. These vehicles are characterized by their black and yellow color
Online Cab services like OLA and Uber can also be used for commuting within Mumbai. Taxi aggregators are quite popular and easily available in Mumbai. These cabs typically need to be booked 30 minutes before departure. Some of the large aggregators are Meru and Tab Cab.