The town planners of yore must have sensed the uncontrolled urge of Mumbai to grow and the almost insatiable direct and indirect need for land by the Mumbaikars. Perhaps that is the reason why the entire region in the neighbourhood also became a part of the larger plan for the city.

Back then the only approach route to Pune was from near Thane and it continued to be so till the creek was bridged at Navi Mumbai. Though the road to Pune has since changed it technically still is in Thane district of which Navi Mumbai is a part. Even so I havekept Navi Mumbai out of my idea of the Third Mumbai.

Suburban trains on the harbour line now go upto Panvel. But even before trains could begin crossing the creek bridge to go on to Navi Mumbai, a Diva-Panvel rail link already existed and the Konkan Railway today uses the same route. Not only this the trains which have go towards Gujarat from Pune can now do so without going to Mumbai at all by taking the Diva-Bhiwandi-Vasai route. However, since the traffic on this route is almost negligible and unreliable, people are forced to take the more tedious but reliable route via Dadar. Not that I want to garner symapthy for this class of people who spend more than half their lifetime hanging on to trains, but it could be a matter of research to discover the last serious attempt made to addrress the problems faced by the residents of the third Mumbai who have been reduced to scondary citizens.

If one compares the population with Mumbai it will be apprarent that density-wise the third Mumbai will turn out lessclaustrophobic and comfortable. However one needs only to look at the GNP and the quality of life of the populace here and a very different picture comes across. Though the Third Mumbai is put on the MMR map alongwith Mumbai it pales in comparison as the poor cousin. It is almost as if a conscious attempt is being made to keep it segregated from Mumbai.

In Mumbai's shadow: It was soon after independence that the city fathers began thinking of this area. In 1950 the municipal councils of Bandra-Santa Cruz, Parel-Andheri, Juhu, Kurla and Ghatkopar were merged with the grampanchayat of Chembur and 38 villages of Mumbai to form the corporation. This limit was further extended to Dahisar and Mulund and Mumbai's total area became 437.71 sq km. Once the limits were decided the state government appointed a team of officials under the then ICS officer S G Barve to make recommendations of development. This work was further carried on by Albert Mayer and V N Modak (who had recommneded then itself that an undergroundrail service was necesssary) who suggested the systematic ways of developing the suburbs, the relocation of heavy industires beyond the creek and the proper development of the the region which we are now calling Third Mumbai. Teesri Mumbai, 96 pages; published by Vishaal Prakashan. Price Rs 60