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 and on the northeastern side of Mumbai. 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 147 km2, 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 a military training and recruitment center of the 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.

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 2000–2500mm and humidity is 61–86%, making it a humid zone.

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.

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.

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)
Vasai Virar Municipal Transport (VVMT) operates two routes in Thane. First from Vasai to Mulund Via Thane/Ghodbunder road and second from Nala Sopara to Thane Kopri.

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.

Schools

 * D.A.V. Public School, Thane
 * 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

 * Anand Dighe, former politician, popular by honorific "Dharmaveer". He was unit chief of Shiv Sena in Thane district.
 * Amrita Arora, film actress
 * Malaika Arora, film actress and dancer
 * Jitendra Awhad, Indian politician
 * Hruta Durgule, Indian television actress
 * Poorva Gokhale, television actress
 * Avinash Jadhav, local politician
 * Suhas Joshi, film-television actor
 * Umesh Kamat, film-television actor
 * Sanjay Kelkar, politician
 * Prajakta Koli, youtuber
 * Kavita Lad, film-television actress
 * Pramod Mahajan, Indian politician
 * Priya Marathe, television actress
 * Sanjeev Naik, politician
 * Anand Paranjpe, politician
 * Prakash Paranjape, politician
 * Ravindra Phatak, politician
 * Satish Pradhan, local politician
 * Pratap Sarnaik, politician
 * Prithvi Shaw, professional cricketer
 * Eknath Shinde, present incumbent Chief minister of Maharashtra
 * Shrikant Shinde, Indian politician
 * Anant Tare, local politician
 * Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Indian LGBT activist
 * Rajan Vichare, local politician