Maharashtra advances a ₹6,067-crore 'Water Metro' to turn Mumbai's creeks into a commuter network

Maharashtra is pressing ahead with the Mumbai Water Metro, a roughly ₹6,067-crore plan to run electric and hybrid ferries across the region's creeks and coastline. Cleared by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the project envisions a network of about 340 km, with dozens of terminals and more than 200 vessels, to be rolled out in phases.

The design pairs 11 new waterways and 24 new terminals with the modernisation of existing routes, linking points such as the Mumbai Port, Vasai, Thane, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai, Bandra, Worli and Panvel. The first phase carries an outlay of about ₹1,500 crore, with services possible as early as December.

Water transport has repeatedly struggled to take hold in Mumbai, so execution and ridership are the open questions. But if it works, the network would connect waterfront nodes that road and rail serve poorly today — and accessibility, more than almost anything, is what moves suburban property values.

For now it is a plan in motion rather than a line in service. The pockets to watch are the creekside and coastal nodes that would gain a fast new link to the island city.