Mumbai - a mega city
Mumbai, formally known as Bombay is located on the west coast of India and is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. A megacity is termed a megacity when it reaches in excess of 10 million people. Mumbai is 12th in the world with an estimated population of 21,000,000 in 2013. Mumbai started out as a cluster of seven islands, all fishing villages and it was then called Bombay. As the British colonised India, Bombay grew. In the 1880's, with many landfill projects, British engineers combined all the seven islands and formed one big island. When there was a cotton shortage in the 1860s, Mumbai became rich from exporting cotton. With it's natural deep harbour, Mumbai attracted trade from all over the world. It also had a financial boom in the 1990s. With all of this, Mumbai became the wealthiest city in India. The currency is the Indian Rupee. Mumbai is also known for it's film industry called Bollywood. This megacity has the highest GDP of any city in South, West or Central Asia. Note that this wealth is not evenly shared amongst the people and Mumbai's GDP/capita is not very high. You will find a massive gap between the rich and the poor who live in the slums of Mumbai. I will be focussing on this aspect in more detail and also what is happening now for the next generation who live in the already over-crowded Mumbai. Enjoy. Mumbai is shown on a regional and local map below, please click for sources.