Travel and land-use impacts of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail in the Mumbai metropolitan region

Mumbai is the financial capital of India, where the commuter share of suburban rail and city bus systems is greater than 70%. With only one metro line, 11.4 kilometers (km) long (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar), being operational at present, a large network i.e., about 230 km of metro system has been planned to ease the commuting across the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) by 2025. The initial 65 km stretch of the proposed high-speed rail (HSR) from Mumbai to Ahmedabad falls under the jurisdiction of MMR and includes the three proposed HSR stations at Bandra, Thane, and Virar. This study examines the travel and land use impacts of the introduction of HSR in MMR by applying a four-stage travel demand model. This model has been developed incorporating all the proposed land use and transport network developments across MMR till 2041, replicating the existing travel behavior. An equilibrium between highway and public transit assignments is achieved in the state-of-the-art transportation planning software CUBE. The HSR corridor with all its intricate details has been coded on to the MMR network, and the variations in the ridership of metro, suburban rail, bus, and other public transport systems with and without HSR have been studied. Due to high land use prices inside MMR, more and more people are moving to the outskirts, which is also supported by government schemes relating to providing affordable housing for all. One of the locations chosen for this housing scheme is at the Boisar area, just outside the MMR, which is the next HSR station after Virar. The improvement in accessibility of such peripheral areas due to the proximity of an HSR station and the associated impact on the current intense activity areas of the region have also been studied and reported.