*Mumbai singlehandedly handles about 25% of the domestic and 38% of the international air passenger traffic in the country.
*Mumbai’s suburban rail systems carry a total of 2.2 billion passengers every year. Incidentally, the world’s population is 6 billion.
*Mumbai’s literacy rate is 85.6% (female: 82.7%, male: 90%) compared with India’s overall literacy of 65.4%.
*Mumbai’s per capita income is Rs 48,954. This is almost three times the national average!
*At the end of financial year 2002-03, Mumbai paid Rs 28,000 crore in taxes, 35% of India’s collection of Rs 82,000 crore!
*Mumbai city and its suburbs get, on an average, 2160 mm (85 inches) of rainfall every year.
*As of June 2003, there are an incredible 982 villages in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
*The Stearns & Kittredge company was given permission in 1874 to start Bombay's first tram service with a fleet of 900 horses.
*The Gateway of India, with a maximum height of 83 feet, was completed in 1924 with a cost of Rs 21 lakh.
*The Flora Fountain was built in 1864 by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India from a donation by Cursetjee Fardoonjee Parekh.
*The Hanging Gardens at Malabar Hill was built over three reservoirs which can store up to 300 lakh gallons of water.
*It took 60 years to merge the seven islands of Bombay into one landmass between 1784 and 1845.
*The name Bombay was derived from Bom Bahia (The Good Bay), a name given by Portuguese sailor Francis Almeida, in 1508.
*When a person travel towards Mumbai,one can see milestone stating Mumbai 35 Kms, but where is Mumbai Zero Kms, it is at Flora Fountain
*Former English cricket captain Douglas Jardine of Bodyline fame was born in Malabar Hill, Mumbai, in 1900.
Impressive...
But I thought Mumbai was named after a certain Mumba devi...
It has a temple named Mumba Devi…South Mumbai…but its not a fact it was named after the temple.
http://www.mid-day.com/mumbai_dope/mumbaidope.asp?currentPage=11
Nice to read. Thanks.
Except, 2.2 billion year is big but not as big as big as it sounds, considering it is a commuter system. Meaning a single person will be counted around 400 times in this count. In spite of that, it is a very large system.
The only Dope I knew in Bombay is now living in the US.:)
Impressive numbers but for third world countries where the entire activity of the country revolves around 2-3 cities, this seems pretty normal. You'd find similar numbers for Karachi when compared to the whole of Pakistan.