Ghodbunder Road is one of the major roads leading out of Thane, in Maharashtra, India, and as the name suggests leads to the village of Ghodbunder. It is approximately 20 km long and links two main arterial roads of Mumbai - the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg which starts at Sion and terminates at Thane and the Western Express Highway which starts at Bandra (East) and becomes the National Highway leading to Gujarat.
One of the more interesting aspects of Ghodbunder Road is that it cuts across dense forests which form part of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It also skirts the Vasai Creek for most of its route and provides scenic views of the forest across the creek. In spite of development encroaching on the forest, a lot of flora and fauna continue to survive and prosper. Another less-known fact about Ghodbunder is that it is lined with numerous historical monuments, some minor and some not even that; just step off the Ghodbunder Road and you might walk into an old Portuguese church. Sometimes panthers also can be seen on the road.
However, since the late 1990s, the urban sprawl of Thane has caught up with the idyllic surroundings of Ghodbunder. What used to be paddy fields and abandoned industrial lots are rapidly being converted into mass housing projects. Pretty soon, most of the area adjoining Ghodbunder Road might well be one large suburban jungle linking the Thane and Bhayandar urban agglomerations.
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