Thane

Infobox Indian Jurisdiction
state_name=Maharashtra
metro=Mumbai
type=suburb
inset_map_marker=yes
skyline=Mumbai Bombay Night.jpg
skyline_caption=Thane Skyline
native_name= Thane


latd = 19.172431
longd=72.957019
state_name=Maharashtra
district=Thane
altitude=
population_as_of = 2001 | population_total = 1261517 | population_density =
area_magnitude=
area_total=
area_telephone= 022
postal_code= 400 6xx
vehicle_code_range= MH-04
parliament_const= Thane
assembly_const= Thane
footnotes = | mayor =Smita Indulkar

Thane (Marathi / Konkani : ठाणे) (formerly Thana) is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Conurbation, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane District. The city has an area of 147 sq.km. It had a population of 1.26 million according to the 2001 census. [ [http://www.thanemahapalika.com/english/about_us.htm Thane Municipal Corporation] ]

Geography

Thane is located on Salsette Island to the Northeast of Mumbai. Spanning an area of about 147 km², the city is located at an elevation of 7 meters from sea level. It is surrounded by scenic hills, the hill of Yeoor and Parsik Hill. It is divided by Thane Creek, a stream of water from the Ulhas river and Arabian Sea forming an estuary. Two road bridges & one rail bridge connect the two parts of the city.

The city has around 30 lakes. The most beautiful of them is the Masunda Talao, also known as Talao Pali. The lake offers boating and water scooter facilities.

Demographics and Culture

Thane has a predominant Maharashtrian culture although like its neighbouring city Mumbai, boasts of a very vibrant cosmopolitan culture as well. People from different regions choose to live in Thane mainly thanks to its easy accessibility to Mumbai.Thane is bordered by the Yeoor Hills on one side and is dotted with numerous beautiful lakes due to which the weather is extremely pleasant and cooler than that of Mumbai

Festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Durga Puja are celebrated with great zest in the city. Similar to Mumbai, Thane offers one of the highest rewards amounting to 1 million rupees (US$ 25,000) for winners of Dahi Handi sport conducted during Gokulashtami festival.

Since 2005 onwards, Dahi Handi festival has taken on to much larger scale. There is some kind of competition between various clubs to host the biggest of Dahi Handis. The big ones are Open House, Panchpakhdi; Jambli Naka; Tembhi Naka; Vartak Nagar. All of these are now having huge TV coverage will almost all major news channels beaming the day proceedings to the whole nation.

Life

Thane used to be described as a 'sleepy town' when compared to Mumbai until the early 90s. The size of the city has increased manifold in recent years, spurred by a residential boom due to people moving away from the Mumbai city to find affordable homes and good amenities in Thane.

The Panchpakhadi area, in particular, is well-known for its many eateries having a wide variety of restaurants, ice-cream parlours, cake-shops, cafés and snack shops. There have also been plans to construct boardwalks along the three major lakes to attract more tourism into the cityThe development of upmarket residential complexes such as Vasant Vihar, Neelkanth Heights and Hiranandani Estate too has increased the influx of people into the city.The city also has seen an increasing number of malls such as Eternity mall, Cine Wonder Mall and Lake City mall. In addition, there are a number of older single-screen theatres, prominent among them, Malhar Talkies, Vandana Talkies and Anand Talkies.

Transport

Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport corporations provide public bus service to the city. Thane is well connected with neighbouring suburbs through Mumbai's railway network. There are 3 railway stations in Thane city limit. Thane station is part of the Central Railway division of Indian railways, and is about 30 km away from the Mumbai city station. The other 2 stations are Kalwa and Mumbra which are also the suburbs of Thane. Thane has gained new importance as a railway link to Navi Mumbai due to the Thane-Vashi and Panvel-Karjat local train line. This line runs two trains between Thane and Vashi, the principal node of Navi Mumbai, passing through Airoli, Ghansoli, Koparkhairane, Turbhe and Sanpada.Almost all trains going to Konkan railway from Bombay have stops at 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. [ [http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Now_attention_on_Thane_light_rail/articleshow/msid-1345898,curpg-2.cms Now, attention on Thane light rail] ]

Industries

Thane has a large industrial area. Thane industrial area consists of Wagle estate, Trans Thane Creek (TTC) area known as Thane belapur road, Ghodbunder road. These industrial areas house mostly chemical, engineering, textile and electrical industries. Now many of these industrial area are housing IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Adventity, Godrej BPO (Lawkim), Infotech, ICICI Customer care and many more. Cadburys and GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals Ltd,Emerson also have plants here in Thane.

Education

Thane has a number of good schools offering education in English as well as vernacular medium. Some of the English medium schools include [http://www.sjbhs.org St. John the Baptist High School] , Holy Cross High School Thane, [http://www.singhaniaschool.org/ Smt.Sulochana Devi Singhania High School] , A.K.Joshi High School and Saraswathi Education Society's High School. Some of the new english schools that have come up are Vasant Vihar High School and Junior College, DAV Public School,Thane, Arunodaya Public School and Lok Puram Public School. Some of the Marathi medium schools include Saraswati Secondary School, Bedekar Vidyamandir, Maharashtra Vidyalaya,Shiva Samartha Vidyalaya,M.H. High School,New English School,New Girl's School,Vartak Nagar Vidyalaya.Thane also has two well known B-Schools, ASM's Institute of Management & Computer Studies(IMCOST), Wagle Estate, Thane; and Bedekar Institute of Management Studies, Near Station. These institutes offer quality management education with excellent placement opportunities.

Celebrities

* Malaika Arora Khan - Former MTV Veejay, Ramp Model, Bollywood Actress
* Amrita Arora - Former MTV Veejay, Bollywood Actress
* Sonali Bendre - Bolywood Actress
* Miss Jasmine Moses/ Mrs. Jasmine D’souza - Former Gladrags Mrs. India 2002, Mrs. World runners-up, Bollywood Actress
* Poorva Gokhale - Television actress
* Luke Kenny - Actor & Veejay ('Rock On' fame)
* Manasi Salvi - Television Actress
* Kavita Lad - Television Actress
* Sampada Joglekar Kulkarni - Television Actress
* Sulekha - Actress (acted in two Malayalam films )
* Gauri Tonk - Television Actress
* Shreyas Talpade - Bollywood star
* Sanjay Narvekar - Bollywood star
* Kiran Karmarkar - Television Actor
* Suhasini (Suhas) Joshi - Television Actress
* Ravi Patwardhan - Television Actor
* Salil Ankola - Former Cricketer & Actor
* Shekhar Phadake - Television Actor
* Ganesh Pol - ThanaVeer

External links

* [http://www.thanepolice.org Thane Police]
* [http://www.thaneweb.com Thaneweb.com]
*wikitravel|Thane

References