city guide

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport isn’t like the sleek, highly efficient airports of the West. “As you land, there’s a funny smell. You think it’s fuel burning but it’s dung that’s burning. It’s your first signal you’re in a country that’s moving from significant poverty to a consumer society,” says Hal Sirkin, senior partner of the Boston Consulting Group.

The airport is adequately clean, though services are limited. Mumbai has a separate domestic airport, Santa Cruz, and you can’t walk from one to the other. There are no trains. Arriving, from the smells to the heat to the hordes of taxi hawkers outside, is a fitting introduction to the extremes of Mumbai. Taxis to the business district take 45 minutes or longer. Make sure you have your colleagues or hotel arrange for a car to pick you up; at the greeting area, a driver will carry a placard with your name. Choosing your own driver is a mistake. “Roads are six lanes wide but unmarked, and it’s a left-side-drive country—but it’s not clear everyone is driving on the left side,” says Sirkin. “In your ears is constant honking. In most cities, you expect a highway leaving the airport to the city, but it’s a road with lights, weird twists and turns, the pavement broken at times,” he warns.


Mumbai’s center, known as South Mumbai, is walkable in parts, but overall it’s quite spread out. This means it’s wise to hire a car and driver during your time there—never rent a car. The increasingly commercial suburbs, which now house megamalls and a substantial contingent of Bollywood celebrities, are known as North Bombay. Local trains are jam-packed and not appropriate for businesspeople. The driver will not only transport you but wait for you as long as is necessary.

Going through the center of town during rush hour can take hours, so plan meetings accordingly. “In Bombay, don’t try to do two meetings on two ends of the town in one day,” says Rajnish Mishra, president and CEO of Avaan Therapeutics.