Thane

Thane (also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the state of Maharashtra in India. It is an immediate neighbour of Mumbai city proper, and a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island.
Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven talukas of Thane district; also, it is the headquarters of the namesake district. With a population of 1,841,488 distributed over a land area of about , Thane city is the 15th most populous city in India with a population of 1,890,000 according to the 2011 census.
Etymology and other names
The ancient name of Thana was . It appears as in early medieval Arab sources.
The name Thane has been variously Romanised as Tana, Thana, Thâṇâ, and Thame. Ibn Battuta and Abulfeda knew it as KukinTana; Duarte Barbosa as TanaMayambu. Before 1996, the city was called "Thana", the British spelling of the city, until it was replaced with the more-local name.
History
A copper plate dating to AD 1078 was discovered near the foundations of Thane Fort in 1787. A land grant from Arikesara Devaraja, lord of Tagara, wherein he addresses the inhabitants of a city called "Sri Sthanaka". for a long time it was military training and recruitment center of Maratha empire
British occupied Salsette Island, Thana Fort, Fort Versova and the island fort of Karanja in start of First Anglo-Maratha War but after short time it were recaptured by forces of Haripant Phadke and Tukoji Holkar it remained under control of Maratha empire until Second Anglo-Maratha War
Transport
Railways
Thana was the terminus for the first ever passenger train in Asia. On 16 April 1853, the passenger train service was inaugurated between Bori Bunder (Bombay) and Thane. Covering a distance of 34 km (21 mi), it was hauled by three locomotives: Sahib, Sindh and Sultan.
Thane is connected with neighbouring suburbs through Central and Trans-Harbour Line Suburban railway network. Thane is a railway junction for the Thane-Vashi & Panvel Harbour Line and Central Line. It is one of the busiest stations in India and handles 654,000 passengers daily.
Thane railway station will soon be revamped, Work to start soon on Rs 800-crore project.
Metro
As of January 2021, the MMRDA, the nodal agency for building 300 km of vast Metro network, has proposed a plan to build an elevated depot for three Metro lines : 4 (Wadala-Thane-Kasarvadavali), 4A (Kasarvadavali-Gaimukh), 10 (Gaimukh-Shivaji Nagar) and 11 (Wadala-General Post Office, CSMT) at one stop. This depot is proposed at Mogharpada, Thane. The total project cost is estimated to be ₹ 596.60 crore.
As of 2019, Wadala and Thane are being connected through a Metro line.
On 26 August 2015, the MMRDA sanctioned ₹354 billion for 118 km Mumbai metro network. This includes a 40-km Wadala-Ghatkopar-Thane-Kasarvadavali Metro-4 corridor via Wadala GPO and R.A.Kidwai Marg costing ₹120 billion.
Thane Municipal Transport (TMT)
Thane Municipal Corporation started its own transport service on 9 February 1989, known as Thane Municipal Transport (TMT). TMT provides services the city interior and Mumbai suburbs like Mulund, Andheri, Mira road, Nala Sopara, Bhiwandi, Vasai, Virar, Borivali, Vashi, Airoli, Ghatkopar, Dadar, Bandra, BKC, Bhayandar, Kalyan, and Panvel, among others.
Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT)
Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) ply in direction towards Vashi and Navi Mumbai. It goes through Airoli, Turbe etc. Most of NMMT buses ply in Thane from the Kalwa area. NMMT connects city of Thane to various parts of Navi Mumbai. NMMT operates buses to Airoli, Rabale, Mahape, Panvel, Vashi, Ghansoli, Nerul, CBD Belapur etc.
Mira Bhayandar Municipal Transport (MBMT)
Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Transport (MBMT) started from 2006. The buses ply from Dahisar Check naka towards Versova [Thane] Check naka. So till now majority of MBMT buses can be taken up at the Check naka only. MBMT has started new services to Thane City from January 2010.
Vasai-Virar Municipal Transport (VVMT)
VVMT is the newest public transport, operational from October 2013. The area of Thane City was connected to the Vasai & Virar by the VVMT.
Future of transport in Thane
A light rail network covering 42 km has been proposed in three phases. In the first phase, consultants have suggested connectivity between Balkum and Kolshet via Naupada. It will be 16.05 km long with 14.65 km elevated, and only 1.4 km on the surface, and 11 stations in all.
Geography
Climate
Thane has a tropical monsoon climate that borders on a tropical wet and dry climate. The overall climate is equable with high rainfall days and very few days of extreme temperatures.
In Thane, temperature varies from 22 °C to 36 °C. Winter temperatures can fall to 12 °C at night while summer temperatures can rise to over 40 °C at noon. The lowest daytime temperatures are witnessed during the peak of the summer monsoon in July and August when temperatures can drop to about 25 °C. Out of total rainfall, 80% rainfall is experienced during June to October. Average annual rainfall is 2000–2500 mm and humidity is 61–86%, making it a humid zone.
Lakes
Sports
Cricket is the most popular sport in this settlement. Dadoji Kondadev Stadium, a sports arena of cricket is present in the city. Thane comes under jurisdiction of Mumbai Cricket Association, the governing body for cricket in Mumbai. Its players play for Mumbai cricket team in Indian domestic cricket.
Demographics
The population of Thane according to the 2011 census is 1,886,941. The average literacy rate of Thane city is 91.36 percent for where male and female literacy was 94.19 and 88.14 percent respectively. The sex ratio of Thane city is 882 females per 1000 males. Child sex ratio is 900 girls per 1000 boys. Total children (0–6) in Thane city are 186,259 as per Census India report on 2011. There were 98,017 boys while 88,242 are girls. Children form 10.24% of total population of Thane City.
The dominant language spoken in Thane is Marathi. Hindi too is well understood and spoken. Around 70% of population speaks Marathi. Some of the East Indian families in the Khatri ward of Thane still speak Portuguese. About 1,800 of India's approximately 5,000 Jews live in Thane.
At the time of the 2011 census, 48.50% of the population spoke Marathi, 19.59% Hindi, 12.99% Urdu, 3.93% Gujarati, 2.44% Bhojpuri, 1.37% Kannada, 1.29% Malayalam, 1.21% Bengali, 1.15% Tamil, 1.14% Marwari and 0.94% Konkani as their first language.
Education
Schools
D.A.V. Public School
Hiranandani Foundation School
Holy Cross Convent High School
Little Flower High School, Thane
New Horizon Scholars School, Thane
Podar International School
Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School
Sri Ma Vidyalaya, Patlipada, Thane
St. John the Baptist High School, Thane
Vasant Vihar High School
Colleges and Institutes
A. P. Shah Institute of Technology
Dr. V. N. Bedekar Institute of Management Studies And Law
Institute of Management and Computer Studies
KC College of Engineering
Rajiv Gandhi Medical College
Rustomjee Academy for Global Careers
Vidya Prasarak Mandal's Polytechnic
Notable people
Eknath Shinde, present incumbent Chief minister of Maharashtra
Malaika Arora, film actress and dancer
Amrita Arora, film actress
Jitendra Awhad, Indian politician
Hruta Durgule, Indian television actress
Anand Dighe, former politician, popular by honorific "Dharmaveer". He was unit chief of Shiv Sena in Thane district.
Poorva Gokhale, television actress
Suhas Joshi, film-television actor
Umesh Kamat, film-television actor
Kavita Lad, film-television actress
Sanjay Kelkar, politician
Prajakta Koli, youtuber
Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician
Priya Marathe, television actress
Sanjeev Naik, politician
Anand Paranjpe, politician
Prakash Paranjape, politician
Ravindra Phatak, politician
Satish Pradhan, local politician
Prithvi Shaw, professional cricketer
Shrikant Shinde, Indian politician
Pratap Sarnaik, politician
Anant Tare, local politician
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Indian LGBT activist
Rajan Vichare, local politician
Bal Thackeray, former Shiva sena politician
See also
2013 Thane building collapse in Shil Phata
Thane Railway Station
Transportation in Thane
Trans Thane Creek
List of schools in Thane
Chandanwadi
Line 4 (Mumbai Metro)
List of towns and villages in Thane district
Thane Creek
References
External links
Thaneweb.com—The city portal
Official Website of Thane Forest Circle
ThaneMahapailika.com —Thane Municipal Corporation (Local Body)
Official website of Thane City
Thane District
Cities and towns in Thane district
Cities in Maharashtra