Bus and Railroad Service
Mumbai is an important rail center. Trains with colorful names, such as the Frontier Mail and Deccan Queen, set out from the city’s two main stations, Victoria Terminus (now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) and Mumbai Central, carrying passengers to distant parts of the country. The headquarters of India’s Western Railway and Central Railway are located in the city. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation and other State and private companies provide bus service to and from the city.

Airports
Mumbai’s Sahar International Airport (recently renamed the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport), on Salsette Island, handles almost two-thirds of India’s international air traffic. The airport is served by most major international carriers. Domestic flights use Santa Cruz Airport (also renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Airport), which shares the same runways but operates from separate terminals.

Shipping
Mumbai’s deepwater harbor and harbor facilities make it the largest port in western India, handling some 40 percent of India’s total maritime trade. Catamaran and hovercraft services carry passengers from Mumbai to Goa, a major tourist destination.

ATMs
The number of 24-hour ATMs linked to international networks in Mumbai has exploded in recent years and you’re rarely far from one.

History
The area of the Konkan coast where Mumbai 1ies has been settled since prehistoric times. It later came under the control of several states that ruled western India. These included the Buddhist Mauryan Empire (fourth–third centuries B. C. ) and the Hindu Satavahana, Shaka, and Rashtrakuta dynasties. The Chalukyas (A. D. 550–750) built the magnificent cave temples on Elephanta Island in Mumbai Harbor. At the end of the thirteenth century, the Yadava rulers, who had their capital at Aurangabad, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the northeast, established a settlement at Mahim on one of Mumbai’s original seven islands. This was in response to raids on their territory by the expanding Delhi Sultanate.

Mahim was captured by the Muslim ruler of Gujarat in 1348. The Portuguese reached India’s western shores in 1498, Francisco de Almeida becoming the first Portuguese to enter Mumbai Harbor when he seized a Gujarati ship there in 1508. The Portuguese eventually forced Bahadur Shah, the sultan of Gujarat, to cede them Mumbai in 1534. Mumbai was acquired by the British in 1664 as part of Catherine of Branganza’s dowry when the sister of Portugal’s king married Charles II (1630–1685; r. 1660–1685) of England. In 1668, the British East India Company leased the islands from the Crown for the nominal rent of ten pounds per year.

Recognizing the potential of Mumbai and its harbor, the East India Company set about strengthening the settlement’s defenses and soon shifted its administrative headquarters to Mumbai from Surat, in Gujarat. Mumbai’s second governor, Gerald Aungier (d. 1677), laid the foundations for the city’s future growth. Political stability, the promise of religious freedom, and land grants soon attracted large numbers of settlers, including Gujarati and Parsi merchants, to Mumbai. These, and later immigrants, contributed significantly to the growth of Mumbai as an important trading center. By 1676, Mumbai had a population of around 60,000. The very end of the seventeenth century saw the beginning of the construction of seawalls, breakwaters, and reclamation projects that eventually connected the original seven islands (Mahim, Worli, Mazagaon, Old Woman’s Island, Colaba, and Mumbai Island) into a single Mumbai Island.