Transport in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India. It is the second most populous state and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the northwest, Madhya Pradesh to the north and northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka to the south, Telangana to the southeast and Goa to the southwest. The state covers an area of 307,731 km² (118,816 sq mi) or 9.84% of the total geographical area of India. Mumbai, the capital city of the state, is India's largest city and the financial capital of the nation.

The Mumbai Pune Expressway

Maharashtra consist three mode of transportation viz. Roads, Railways and Civil aviation. Besides, Maharashtra has three major ports at Mumbai (operated by the Mumbai Port Trust), the JNPT lying across the Mumbai harbour in Navi Mumbai, and in Ratnagiri.

Roads

Major roads network

Nashik Mumbai NH3

A road in rural area at Chinawal village in Jalgaon district

Maharashtra has the largest road network in India at 267,452 kilometres. 17 National Highways connect Maharashtra to six neighbouring states. The length of National Highways in Maharashtra is 3688 kilometres. Maharashtra has a large state highway network. 97.5 per cent of the villages in the state were connected by all-weather roads as of March 2010. The Yeshwantrao Chavan Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the first access controlled toll road project in India was made fully operational in April 2002.

The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has been providing passenger road transport service in the public sector since 1948, linking most of the towns and villages in and around the state with a large network of operation. These buses, popularly called ST (State Transport), are the preferred mode of transport for much of the populace. In addition to the government run buses, privately run luxury buses also ply between major towns. Other modes of public transport, such as a seven-seater tempo have gained popularity in semi-urban areas.

Railways

A Central Railway Train near Pune

The state is well-connected to other parts of the country with a railway network spanning 5,983 km between four Railways.

• The Central Railway and the Western Railway zones of the Indian Railways that are headquartered in Mumbai, at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Churchgate respectively,
• The Nanded division of the South Central Railway that caters to the Marathwada region of Maharashtra and
• The Konkan Railway, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways based in CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai that serves the Konkan coastal region south of Mumbai and continues down the west coast of India.

Maharashtra also has suburban railway networks that carry around 6.4 million passengers every day. In addition to this, a monorail and Metro has been planned for Mumbai.

Trams used to exist until the 1960s.

Civil aviation

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is among the busiest airports in India

Civil aviation in Maharashtra began in the 1920s with the establishment of Juhu Aerodrome as of one of the first aerodromes in British India. It served as a base for J.R.D. Tata's Tata Airlines in the 1930s. The Maharaja of the princely state of Kolhapur, constructed an airfield in his city in 1939 and offered a subsidy to Air Services of India to operate an air service to Juhu. By the 1940s, small airstrips had been built at Phaltan, Sangli, Akola and Gondia. in addition to the bigger airfields at Santacruz, Pune and Nagpur built by the Royal Air Force which were also used for civilian operations. During the 80's and 90's, Vayudoot served as many as ten airports in the state. The booming Indian economy, growing tourism industry, entry of low cost airlines, liberalisation of international bi-lateral agreements and liberalisation of civil aviation policy at the centre towards the turn of the century has resulted in an unprecedented growth in air traffic.

Airports

See also: List of airports in Maharashtra

Most of the State's airfields are operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) while Reliance Airport Developers (RADPL), currently operate five non – metro airports at Latur, Nanded, Baramati, Osmanabad and Yavatmal on a 95-year lease. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) was set up in 2002 to take up development of airports in the state that are not under the AAI or the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). MADC is playing the lead role in the planning and implementation of the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) project.

Maharashtra has three international airports:

• Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (among the busiest airports in India);
• Pune Airport with flights to Dubai, Frankfurt and Sharjah;
• Nagpur's Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport.

Aurangabad Airport serves domestic flights. Airports at Akola, Amravati, Baramati, Chandrapur, Dhule, Gondia, Jalgaon, Karad, Kolhapur, Latur, Nashik, Nanded, Osmanabad, Ratnagiri, Solapur and Yavatmal do not have any scheduled air services. There are also private airstrips at Aamby Valley City and Shirpur.

A greenfield airport is being built by the MADC at Shirdi while IRB Infrastructure is constructing Sindhudurg Airport. A new passenger terminal at Ozar Airport near Nashik was inaugurated in March 2014. Navi Mumbai International Airport, being built by CIDCO for ₹90 billion (US$1.3 billion) is in the land acquisition stage. The New Pune International Airport is being planned near Pune as well as greenfield airports at Boramani (near Solapur) and Gadchiroli.