MUMBAI: Seven deaths a day – that’s how dispensable human life is, for it’s the number of people who die on the suburban network of the Central Railway every single day. But the death of five commuters, who fell from two overcrowded trains crossing each other near Mumbra station on June 9, hides a darker truth. It was a tipping point politicians and city planners can no longer ignore.
The accident also compelled Dombivali resident Deepak Dubey, and other railway commuters, to present the Central Railway a charter of demands, hoping to make suburban train travel less perilous. On April 23 last year, Dubey’s brother Avadhesh had died along the same stretch when he fell out of a crowded local train on his way to work.
Their demands range from introducing automatic doors in local trains, stopping groupism inside trains, expediting the introduction of more 15-car trains, and posting doctors at railway stations. “We wanted Avadhesh’s death to be a turning point in the system,” said Deepak. “But a little over a year since my brother’s death, five commuters died in an almost identical manner. The authorities remain silent and nothing has changed.”
It’s the kind of apathy that has allowed the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) sprawl to grow unchecked, with city planners and politicians doing little to ensure transport infrastructure keeps pace. The last few years have seen a significant spurt in migration to the MMR, the stretch north and north-east of Thane, particularly from Kalwa to Kalyan, including Mumbra, where the accident took place. Commuting here is a struggle, and it’s only getting worse. While the Central Railway needs urgent upgrades, roads are buckling under pressure, the metro hasn’t yet arrived, and public transport is failing.
And, yet, the population is steadily rising.
MMR: Affordable Housing
In Mumbai, the search for affordable housing has pushed home buyers northward for decades. In recent years, though, the cost of a modest apartment slipped beyond the reach of Mumbai’s vast working population, even in regions such as Mira Road and Vasai, outside the city limits. That’s when real estate developers decided to exploit the MMR’s seemingly limitless potential.
For Vilas Narkar, 65, the dream of owning a home took him from a one-room-kitchen rented house in Vikhroli to a 350-sq ft 1 BHK in Diva in 2012. Narkar, who was then 52 years old and worked as a government contractor for printing books/calendars, says that boarding a train at Diva was then quite manageable.
“Now I dread boarding. When I do, I prefer going two stations ahead to Dombivali and then travel to Dadar,” said Narkar. “While I can choose my travel time, I am worried about the safety of my daughters in crowded trains, during morning peak hours.”
HR professional Siddhesh Desai, who was raised in a chawl in Dadar, moved to Kalwa in 2012, after marriage. “For a middle-class family, affordable housing is available only outside Mumbai. Thane is also out of reach. In MMR, rates are still affordable,” said Desai, who bought a 2BHK in Kalwa when he moved there.
In the MMR, the stretch between Thane and Kalyan – Thane, Kalwa, Mumbra, Diva, Dombivali, Thakurli and Kalyan – was the first to develop. Due to their proximity to Thane, and relative proximity to Mumbai, villages turned into busy townships as local municipal bodies built roads and other infrastructure. The railway line remained the backbone of connectivity.
As more and more families settled along this stretch, where ‘affordable housing’ was the watchword, the development juggernaut pushed deeper into the MMR. Suddenly areas such as Shahad, Titwala, Vasind towards Kasara, and Ulhasnagar, Ambarnath and Badlapur towards Karjat began to offer ‘cheap housing’, an alternative to the Thane-Kalyan belt, where prices were now rising.
In time, unscrupulous builders began to take advantage of the desperation of home buyers and started usurping land to build unauthorised housing clusters. They began to offer apartments to lower income families at hugely discounted rates.
Now that dream has turned to dust. Early this month, the Bombay High Court directed the Thane Municipal Corporation to demolish 17 illegal buildings in the Shil Daighar area, which was reinforced by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The high court also recently ordered the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) to demolish 65 illegal buildings constructed by generating fake documents and MahaRera registration numbers.
Sandeep Patil, the petitioner in the case relating to the 65 illegal buildings, said that a decade ago, decent homes were being provided at 50% of the market value. “We found that people bought 1 BHK homes in these illegal buildings for ₹20-25 lakh while those in authorised buildings were selling for ₹40-45 lakh. In Diva, Mumbra and Kopar, low-income home buyers bought 250-sq ft homes in illegal chawls for just ₹5-7 lakh. In the last couple of years, builders have demolished these chawls and built five-to-seven storey buildings, with slightly larger areas and have been selling those homes,” he said.
In the last decade or so, the population of the MMR has ballooned. While the last population census was in 2011, data from the Election Commission is consistent with a rising trend in population in MMR, showing a corresponding increase in the voting population in the last decade. The Kalwa-Mumbra constituency, for instance, had 3,48,482 voters in the 2014 assembly elections, which rose to 4,85,323 in 2024. Likewise, in the Kalyan rural constituency, which encompasses areas of Diva, there were 3,49,261 voters in the 2014 assembly elections. A decade later, the number of voters was 5,10,247. In the Ambarnath constituency, there were 3,44,044 voters in the 2014 assembly elections, which went up to 3,74,664 in 2024. The Kalyan West constituency had 3,96,951 voters in the 2014 assembly elections, going up to 4,40,597 in 2024.
However, despite red flags, transport infrastructure in the region suffers from siloed planning – disjointed, poorly integrated and seemingly random. The only constant, and reliable, mode of transport has been the railway network – now it’s not enough.
CR: Expansion Plans
The MMR covers a colossal 6,328sq km, and despite the exponential increase in population in recent years, the number of trains on the Central Railway has remained unchanged. Overcrowding and footboard travel became inevitable.
There are many railway projects in the pipeline, but it will be a while before they materialise. These include construction of new rail lines across 300km, including a new 30-km-long Panvel-Karjat suburban corridor. It will cater to the rapidly developing regions of Panvel, Karjat, bypass the busy Kalyan station, and connect with the Navi Mumbai international airport.
Also on the cards is a ₹900-crore plan to remodel Kalyan station and the railway yard, which will ease passenger movement. “There will be separate terminuses for suburban and long distance trains, and separate platforms for trains going to Karjat and Kasara.
The Central Railway will also add third and fourth lines between Kalyan and Badlapur, and Kalyan and Asangaon to separate suburban and long-distance trains. This would allow the addition of more local trains, easing crowding in locals, making travel safer.
Metro: Yet to Roll In
Senior railway officials argue that road and metro transport must also keep up – it is unrealistic to expect the railway to carry the burden alone.
Work on building a 337-km metro network in MMR is on course, claims MMRDA. “We have undertaken multiple metro rail and road projects in MMR that are expected to be complete in the next 2-3 years,” said Dr Sanjay Mukherjee, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA.
These projects include metro lines in regions covering Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi. Sources said Metro 4 and 4A, covering the Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali route, and extended to Gaimukh, should be opened by December 2026. The Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan Metro 5 and Kalyan-Taloja Metro 12 line are underway.
The Thane Integral Ring Metro, a 29-km-long corridor, is also under construction. Sources said three metro lines (8, 10 and 14) will also be built in the eastern parts of MMR.
Roads: Miles To Go
Lack of adequate road connectivity within the MMR, and with Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, makes commuting a daily struggle for residents in this region. One of the oldest pending proposals is the construction of a road parallel to the railway line between Mumbra and Dombivali. In 2007, the MMRDA had approved a ₹93-crore plan, which remains on paper since it could not secure environmental clearances.
“I bought a car 20 years ago, assuming I’d commute comfortably,” said Shekhar Gandhi, 51, a resident of Dombivali. “But the first time I drove to my office in Asalpha in 2005, it took me 2 hours and 21 minutes. Since then, I have returned to using the train.”
Gandhi tried driving again recently after the Motagaon-Mankoli bridge was thrown open, but traffic congestion on the Bhiwandi bypass forced him to give up again. “I was stuck for 40 minutes. I’m back on the train now.”
The Kalyan-Shil Road remains the only road link to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, and even that is usually choc-a-bloc during peak hours.
Also planned is the Kalyan Ring Road, which would connect one of the busiest areas in MMR, Kalyan, to Titwala and Badlapur, which have become growth centres in the last few years. The ring road will start at Hedutane village, proceeding 16km until Titwala, and covering key areas like the Shil-Kalyan-Bhiwandi Road, Diva-Vasai loop line, Kopar railway station road, and Durgadi bridge. There are three other smaller roads branching out, thus covering the 23-km ring route, which is expected to ease road traffic on the busy Padgha-Nashik highway.
But many of these road projects are yet to get off the ground. Kamlesh Gala, who drives daily from Dombivali to Mahape, said, “It takes me an hour and a half during peak time, even though it should take just 40-45 minutes. I have no choice.” Although the Motagaon-Mankoli bridge—part of this plan—is now operational and connects Dombivali to Thane, the adjoining roads are still incomplete, limiting its usefulness.
Bus Transport In Shambles
Bus transport is abysmal in MMR. BEST, for instance, operates only 39 routes outside Mumbai limits, most of them to Mira Road, Bhayandar, Thane and Navi Mumbai. Barely any routes go further into MMR, all the way till Kalyan.
Urban transport planner Bhaumik Gowande says transport planning across the MMR remains fragmented and arbitrary as there is no integrated plan. “Air-conditioned trains are a welcome addition, but the efficiency of this service is questionable during peak hours. By the time boarding and alighting is complete at crowded stations, two regular locals have already gone past,” said Gowande.
“For Mumbaiites, time and money matter most. And so people continue to travel in crowded local trains, as it is a lot quicker and affordable than even the metro.” For the metro to draw commuters away from local trains, he points out, it must be seamlessly integrated with railway stations.
Subodh Jain, former Railway Board Member and general manager, Central Railway, says, “There is a need to run more services in the MMR. The focus on introducing more air-conditioned local trains is on reducing the carrying capacity of trains due to their closed doors. As far roads are concerned, the government, by design, is giving priority to private cars. Look at the Coastal Road and freeways; BEST buses are few and far between. Why can’t dedicated bus lanes be provided to boost public transport?”
The lesson for planners and politicians is a simple one – with the MMR still in the throes of expanding, development must be integrated, and public transport must become a priority.