Being located beside Mumbai, one has a very tough challenge of keeping up and exceeding Mumbai’s developments and progress made during the past years. Thane, however, is doing more than enough to be competitive with its almost twin city. What once was known as an underdeveloped sister city compared to Mumbai is now outshining it in several key areas, and developing quite fast into a new city with neat and well-made infrastructure.
Geography of Thane
Thane is located just adjacent of Mumbai, and the only thing separating the suburbs of Mumbai from Thane is a meager roadway. It’s one of the main reasons that Thane has always been overshadowed by its bigger counterpart, because of the bigger size of Mumbai. But Thane is also great in its own right, and with the hills surrounding the periphery of the city, the area is very nice to visit for tourists. The city is divided neatly into two halves by Thane Creek, a river system running straight from the Arabian Sea. The two halves are still connected however, with two bridges for automobiles and one for the railway system.
Demographics of the City
Most of the residents in the city of Thane come from Maharashtrian backgrounds, and the native Marathi tongue is the most widely used language in the city. Much like sister city Mumbai, a cosmopolitan atmosphere prevails in Thane, although that has been the case only for recent years. Before that, the city was considered more laid-back area than Mumbai, but the people coming out of Mumbai and into Thane because of housing considerations has expanded the city and made the city progress faster than it would normally have.
Modernization of life in Thane is evident during the present situation, mainly because of malls and other large retail stores popping up over the cityscape. Shopping centers, cafes, and other establishments are becoming quite common in Thane, along with parks being constructed to make the city exceed Mumbai in its infrastructure and culture progress.
Economic Background
The economy in Thane is mostly supported by industries deeply rooted in the city. A large portion of the city is dedicated to industrial use, and with it the revenues of the city are mounting, with big and small companies filling up the space in the area. Manufacturing is also a big part of the Thane economy, and multinational GlaxoSmithKline has its production plant for medicines in the local market located in the city. In 2004, they put up measures to conserve water and make more efficient use of this resource, saving a not-insignificant four thousand kilolitres in one year alone. This type of industrial cooperation in the city has helped progress in the city, and has greatly reduced usage of a scarce resource, partly due to the monsoon season the city experiences, with most rainfall occurring during this time.
One of the most notable industrial areas in Thane is Wagle Estate, established by the Thane Government in 1962, and currently having many industries represented in this area. Along with the rest of India, the entry of the information technology industry in Thane has marked a significant change in the atmosphere in this city.
Traveling to, from, and Within Thane
Thane Municipal Transport, otherwise known as TMT, runs the transport system in the city. This is one of the most common means of transport for residents, and although some buses are already old and ready to be retired, these are still deemed roadworthy and pressed into service for far longer periods than normal buses. Bus lines also travel from Thane to nearby Mumbai, and traveling outside the city is done mainly by train. To cope up with the increasing number of passengers traveling by train everyday in Thane, the city has undertaken an MRTS project, which will have more capacity to let travelers reach their city destinations faster, and many routes circling the city to help people get from their homes on one side of the city to the other end where they may be working.
Thane Property Investments
Thane could be considered a good alternative to investing in Mumbai properties, because of its relatively close proximity to its sister city, and in spite of that fact the real estate in Thane is significantly cheaper to acquire than over in Mumbai. The potential of Thane as a property investment project has long been known by the British, who were the ones who spearheaded building a railway line between the two cities. The growth of the city has also been a big draw to those looking for a more relaxed area than Mumbai but are unwilling to give up the facilities and infrastructure of a modern area.
There are also several advantages with which people base their decision to put their money with properties in Thane over Mumbai. One important thing would be congestion, because the situation in Mumbai is getting worse with people flocking in to the city for work, and though Thane also has congestion in its streets, it’s not quite as bad as Mumbai. Another is that the city is growing fast, and catching up to its neighbor in infrastructure and development, but it offers a better city planning arrangement and is considered superior in some respects as to implementation.
With these advantages over Mumbai properties, Thane is quickly catching the eye of investors looking for a good piece of land with a potential for high future value growth, and property developers are rushing to cope with the higher demand. The investments are starting to pour out from Mumbai and into Thane because of the saturation of the market in Mumbai, and sometimes the cost of acquiring land here is prohibitive for investment purposes, or if it’s going to be used for business or industry, the returns from the capital outlay for Mumbai land isn’t worth the high expense. If you’re looking to invest in real estate in Thane, you’d better act fast, before the prices in Thane’s real estate shoots up to Mumbai levels in the near future.