Mumbai’s proposed Mumbai Water Metro has now moved beyond announcement stage, with the Maharashtra Maritime Board beginning pre-execution work after receiving Chief Minister-level approval for the regional electric ferry network in March. The first implementation tender for project management consultancy on Mumbai Water Metro Phase 1 was issued this month, marking the first formal infrastructure step toward building terminals, navigational systems and commuter jetties across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The Mumbai Water Metro, planned by the Maharashtra Maritime Board in partnership with Kochi Metro Rail Limited, is no longer just a concept note. Public tender filings now show the state has shifted the project into execution planning under a PPP model, where government agencies will build marine terminals and private operators will procure and run the ferry fleet.
That matters because Mumbai’s water-based transport has historically remained limited to fragmented ferry services. The new plan seeks to convert the region’s coastline, creeks and harbour edges into a scheduled urban commuter network built on metro-style interchange logic rather than tourism ferries.
According to the Detailed Project Report submitted in early March, the Mumbai Water Metro is planned as a 36-route network with 45 terminals and 207 battery-electric or hybrid vessels, designed to carry nearly 18 million passengers annually once complete. The first rollout covers roughly 21 routes in Phase 1, with upgraded existing jetties and new passenger terminals linking South Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane Creek, Vasai, Mira-Bhayandar and airport-side waterfront corridors.
The immediate visible shift is institutional: Maharashtra is not treating this as a standalone ferry scheme but as a marine extension of metropolitan transport. Tender records show the state is prioritising passenger terminals, route engineering, charging systems, vessel berths and multimodal integration before vessel procurement begins. Officials have also started identifying shipyard land at Nandgaon, Dighi and Vijaydurg after directions from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to manufacture much of the fleet within Maharashtra instead of relying fully on outside suppliers.
This reveals the state’s larger trade-off.
Rather than spending only on more east-west flyovers or rail duplications inside an already congested Mumbai land corridor, Maharashtra is choosing to invest in marine commuter infrastructure that uses water bodies as right of way. It is a cheaper corridor acquisition strategy than acquiring dense urban land, but it postpones one unresolved issue: commuter usefulness will depend less on boats and more on whether terminals are stitched properly into suburban rail stations, BEST bus loops and Metro nodes.
That concern is already visible in public commuter discussions around the DPR, where residents have flagged that terminal access and frequency will determine whether the system becomes a daily commute tool or another limited premium ferry service.
For residents, the first impact will not be felt citywide immediately. Initial routes are expected to prioritise high-water-advantage corridors where road travel is disproportionately slow — including South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai connectors, Thane Creek stretches and Vasai-Bhayandar links. Ports Minister Nitesh Rane has previously stated that limited services are targeted to begin from December 2026, though full Phase 1 buildout extends well beyond that.
So what exists in Mumbai right now is not yet a running Water Metro, but something more consequential than another announcement: the state has begun building the institutional and tender machinery for a marine transit system that will test whether Mumbai can finally commute on the coastline it has long ignored.