Air

Almost all main cities of Maharashtra have airports with flights operated by both private and government airlines. Mumbai has one international airport, the Sahara Airport and one domestic Airport, Santa Cruz.

The exceptional growth in air traffic is a direct result of rapidly growing Indian economy, booming tourism industry, availability of low cost flights, liberalisation of bi-lateral agreements and civil aviation policy. Most airfields are operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI). The non-metro airports at Latur, Baramati, Yavatmal, Nanded and Osmanabad are operated by Reliance Airport Developers (RADPL) on a 95 year lease. Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) set up in 2002 by the government will take up the developmental work for airports in Maharashtra that are neither under AAI nor the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). MADC is pivotal in planning and implementing of multi modal Cargo Hub and Nagpur Airport (MIHAN) project.

There are three international airports in Maharashtra -

• The Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai is one of the busiest airports in India.
• The Civil Enclave International Airport in Pune has flights to Dubai and Frankfurt
• Nagpur's Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport.

Apart from these, there are smaller airports as well. These include Akola, Baramati, Amravati, Aurangabad, Latur, Karad, Jalgaon, Nashik, Nanded, Chandrapur, Gondia, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Dhule, Kolhapur, Solapur and Yavatmal. Amby Valley City and Shirpur also have private airstrips.

The MADC is building a Greenfield airport at Shirdi and IRB Infrastructure is being built by the MADC at Shirdi while IRB Infrastructure is constructing Sindhudurg Airport. The cost of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, being built by CIDCO is INR 90 billion (US$1.4 billion). This project is at the land acquisition stage.The construction of the New Pune International Airport is being planned near Pune. Also, planning is being done for Greenfield airports at Boramani (near Solapur) and Gadchiroli.

Ports

There are almost 48 minor ports in Maharashtra with limited capacity for handling passenger traffic. Jawaharlal Nehru Port and Mumbai Port are the major ports in Mumbai. These are controlled and managed by the Government of India.

The Mumbai Port Trust operates three principle ports at Mumbai in Maharashtra. The JNPT lies across Mumbai harbour in Navi Mumbai. The ores mined in Maharashtra are exported through the port in Ratnagiri. Also, there are 53 minor ports apart from the major ones. Mumbai is connected to the neighbouring coastal areas through ferry boat services from these ports. The State Government comes together with the private sector companies under the Maharashtra Maritime Board to develop Minor ports in the state. In Phase-I of this project, seven minor ports are being developed.

Railways

The rail facility has been made available by the Indian Railway even at the remotest of locations in the state. Railway junctions, both small and big are present in almost all cities of the state. These trains allow you to travel from one city to another in the state. Also, cities like Mumbai in Maharashtra have a suburban railway network of their own so people can travel from one locality to another conveniently. However, there is heavy rush at these stations.

A well developed network of railways connects Mumbai to the rest of the country. The railway network spans 5,983 km between four Railways.

• The headquarters of The Central Railway and the Western Railway zones of the Indian Railways lie in Mumbai. Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Churchgate act as headquarters for Central and Western Railway respectively.
• The Marathwada region, Maharashtra is served by the Nanded division of the South Central Railway.
• The Indian Railways’ subsidiary, the Konkan Railway, is based in CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai. It serves south Mumbai’s Konkan coastal region and extends to the Indian west coast.

The suburban railway of Maharashtra serves 6.4 million passengers every day.

Road Transport

The state run bus service of Maharashtra, known as the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, abbreviated to MSRTC, or simply ST, runs 16,000 buses which carry 7 million passengers on a daily basis covering 17,000 routes. This third largest bus service provider in India covers connecting routes to town and cities in and around Maharashtra. Destinations in neighbouring states are also covered by this bus service. With a facility of online booking for all 17,000 routed covered, the MSRTC is one of the largest fleet owners in India.

The road network in Maharashtra covering a total of 267,452 kilometres is the largest in India. Maharashtra is well connected to the neighbouring states. With total length of national highways in Maharashtra equal to 3688 kilometres, it has the largest state highway network. As of march 2010, 97.5 per cent of all the villages in Maharashtra were provided connectivity through all-weather roads. In April 2002, India’s first access controlled toll road, the Yeshwantrao Chavan Mumbai-Pune Expressway, became fully operational.