Maharashtra lines up a ₹6,066-crore water metro billed as the world's largest network

Maharashtra has cleared plans for a water metro across the Mumbai region's creeks, rivers and harbour at an estimated cost of ₹6,066 crore — a network the state bills as the world's largest of its kind. The blueprint covers roughly 340 km across 33 water routes and 44 terminals, served by 203 environment-friendly electric-hybrid vessels, with completion targeted by 2031 and ridership projected at around 7.5 crore passengers a year.

The rollout is planned in phases — Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has previously indicated three — and early reports suggest the first phase would knit together about 16 routes and 26 terminals along the Thane creek, Navi Mumbai and Vasai belts. The supply chain is moving in parallel: the Maharashtra Maritime Board has signed an MoU with M Zoya Marine Services for a roughly ₹150-crore electric-boat manufacturing facility at Talawane in Sindhudurg's Sawantwadi taluka to build the fleet.

For property markets, the significance is capacity where road and rail are most saturated. Water transit would add a third commuting layer along the Thane–Navi Mumbai–Vasai arc, and terminal locations could do for waterfront micro-markets what metro stations have done inland — improving access pricing for nodes on both sides of the creeks.

The caveats are familiar ones: ferry and waterway projects in the region have a history of slipping timelines, and fare economics against buses and trains will decide whether vessels run full. Progress on tendering and the first-phase terminals is the thing to watch.