THANE: A week after 18-year-old HSC student Soham Kathare fell to his death from a packed local train between Mumbra and Kalwa stations on the morning of his Class XII board examination, the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) and the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to roll out bus services between Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan in a bid to ease crippling congestion at railway stations.
KDMC plans to begin the service with two 40-seater buses operating four peak-hour trips in each direction. TMC, meanwhile, is set to receive 303 electric buses under the Centre’s PM E-Bus Seva Yojana, a portion of which will be deployed on the Thane–Dombivli route.
Kathare was travelling on the overcrowded Kalyan–CSMT corridor on February 11 when he fell from the footboard of a moving train. His death came barely 10 days after a similar incident on January 31, when 28-year-old Chetana Devrukhkar fell from a crowded local during the morning rush at Badlapur railway station on the Central Line and later succumbed to her injuries.
The back-to-back fatalities have triggered outrage among daily commuters, who have repeatedly flagged acute overcrowding on the suburban network, particularly between Thane and Dombivli. The stretch has witnessed several falls during peak hours over the years.
In the aftermath, KDMC BJP corporator Deepesh Mhatre met civic officials on Thursday, demanding immediate bus connectivity between Dombivli and Thane to reduce dependence on suburban trains. Within days, both KDMC and TMC initiated plans to operationalise services via the Mankoli–Mothagaon bridge.
KDMC officials said services are likely to begin in the first week of March between Majiwada on Ghodbunder Road in Thane and Mothagaon in Dombivli West. The route has become viable after the opening of the Mankoli-Mothagaon bridge, which reduced the travel distance by over 10 km and provided direct access to the Mumbai-Nashik Highway.
Earlier proposals were shelved because commuters had to rely on longer routes via the Bhiwandi Bypass (around 30 km) or the Shilphata-Mumbra stretch (around 28 km), both of which often took more than two hours during peak traffic. The opening of the long-delayed Kharegaon bridge on the Mumbai-Nashik Highway is also expected to ease bottlenecks and improve travel time.
Civic officials said a significant number of commuters travel daily from Dombivli to Thane’s commercial hubs, including Wagle Estate and Ghodbunder Road. The proposed bus services are aimed at diverting a section of this rush away from overcrowded trains, particularly during peak hours.
“Our survey has been completed and we are finalising the fare structure and timetable. We plan to begin with two standard long buses with a seating capacity of 40 passengers each. Initially, there may be four services each from Thane and Dombivli during the morning and evening peak hours. We will study the demand and then consider adding more buses,” said Deepak Choudhary, a KDMC transport official.
Bhalchandra Behere, Transport Manager of TMC, said deliveries of the new e-buses are expected to begin in March. “We plan to introduce services between Thane and Dombivli and beyond from June,” he said.