mumbai the name of mumbais oldest railway terminus has grown longer from vt to cst to csmt but the queues for local train tickets have grown shorter with the number of tickets sold daily dropping almost 30 over the last five years alonethe latest figures provided by central railway cr show that in 201213 chhatrapati shivaji maharaj terminus in south mumbai sold more than 2 lakh tickets per dayin 201718 the number had reduced to 144 lakh emergence of satellite townships and business hubs in the suburbs has altered mumbais conventional northsouth commuting pattern dispersing officegoers in new directions experts said the latest figures confirmed the trend that the south mumbai business district of fort nariman point and ballard estate is gradually ceding space to other areas like bkc and andherikurla road which are outside the island city we have witnessed this trend of numbers falling at csmt because offices have shifted out of south mumbai cr chief public relations officer sunil udasi saidthe former mill land areas of central mumbai in the parelelphinstonecurrey road belt have also become a new hub of employment redevelopment and large commercial housing projects have paved the way for companies in hospitality media and finance to expand office space in these areas we have planned a suburban train terminus at parel so that more originating trains can run from here to take care of overcrowding udasi said pankaj kapoor of liases foras a real estate research firm said jobs have clearly moved to parel andheri malad and bandrakurla complexanother contributory factor in the drop in footfalls at csmt is that number of vehicles on the roads has more than doubled from 22 lakh in 201213 to 33 lakh in 201718 clearly new road infrastructure is helping more people to opt for public or private transportcontrast this with the increase in the number of originating railway passengers in satellite townships outside the metropolis in ulhasnagar in thane district there has been a nearly 110 jump in passengers in 201213 the number of passengers at this station was 66363 and has now increased to 138 lakh titwala witnessed a jump of almost 46 and badlapur of 29 in five years