Details of Cloak room facility in Dadar station, Mumbai- Best place to safekeep your bag and roam free
I had one full day to explore Mumbai but I had following conditions that hampered free movement.
Unfortunately I had a check-in bag, which I couldn't avoid for this trip like I did for Manila. Roaming around with a trolley bag is not practical.
I had following options;
Option 1: Rent a car on self drive
This was my first choice. I thought I will rent a car from Zoomcar/Revv, keep my bags in the car, drive around all day, return the car in the evening and go to airport. A small car like Swift/Figo would cost about Rs 2200 on a weekend. After including parking etc cost would be around 2500.
-All friends advised me against this option, as car would take much longer time than train. I will end up spending most of the time in traffic, without really exploring anything.
- I will have to spend extra time finding parking space etc
-Cost is a lot higher compared to taking train & auto/cab (for short distance)
Option 2: Keep the bag in the hotel, collect it in the evening before going to Airport
This option would have helped if the hotel was either close to airport or on the way to airport. But my hotel was in other part of town- Navi Mumbai. Going back to that area to collect bag and then come back all the way to airport didn't make sense. It would have taken 3-4 hours of travel time and lots of money for taxi/auto/train.
Option 3: Keep the bag at a friend's place
If you have friends staying closer to airport you can try this option. But this has its own drawbacks- though your friends might not refuse to help, it might inconvenience them a lot. They might have their own plans for the day, now they have to be there to let you drop/pick-up your bag. If your timing is odd, you might end up spoiling their sleep. They might be forced to offer something extra like food etc out of courtesy, putting extra workload on themselves. Though a few friends offered to let me keep my bag in their place, I decided I will use this option as last resort.
Option 4: Keep it at airport
Mumbai airport has a left luggage/luggage store facility. But it had following drawbacks
I had never availed cloak room facility at railway stations so far, though I was aware of their presence in major stations. My friend Satya Narayanan first said that some select railway stations in Mumbai have cloak room facility. Dadar and CST were the two he could suggest. I figured that Dadar station is a convenient location. From Airoli I could go to Dadar, keep my bag, roam around all day, come back to Dadar, pick the bag, go to Santa Cruz and then to airport. After consulting few friends, I zeroed in on this option.
On the D-Day, I checked out of hotel very early, took a cab to Mulund station and train to Dadar. At Dadar I asked around a few people and eventually found where the cloak room was. I found out the following
1) Only bags properly locked will be accepted. Unlocked/openable bags will not be accepted
2) Bags will be accepted only if one is a customer of Railways- i.e. only if the person has an intercity train ticket. Local tickets won't do. I had to go n buy a Mumbai- Pune ticket for Rs 85. I later realized that even Mumbai-Kandala ticket would have served the purpose. (Or I could have booked Mumbai-Kalyan on Chennai express?)
3) Guests need to get the bag scanned, get security tag and provide an ID proof.
4) Payment to be done during collection. Cloak room operates 24x7.
Even at 6.30 AM on a Saturday morning, Dadar station was crowded. After about 30 mins, I was done with all formalities to drop my bag (scanning, buying a ticket to Pune etc). With the main bag safely stored, I went out to explore the city- Siddhi Vinayak, Shivaji Park, Bandra, Church Gate, Kala Ghoda and finally the Indiblogger meet. At around 5.30 in the evening, I went back to collect my bag. (From Church gate, I bought one direct ticket to Santa Cruz, I could get down at Dadar, collect bag and board next train to Santa Cruz without having to buy another ticket.) I was asked to pay Rs 16 (Yes, Rupees Sixtreen only) while collecting the bag. Even after factoring unwanted intercity train ticket I had to buy, it was an extremely cost effective way to store my bag for 12 hours. Sharing with you so that you can avail the same if you're in Mumbai and wish to avoid carrying extra baggage all around.
Keep the receipt very very safe.
All thanks to Mumbai railway for making my Mumbai Darshan affordable and convenient. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the cloak room. The cloak room is located next to main entrance of the Dadar station (East entrance). Hope this information helps.
Similar: Luggage room facility in Canberra bus terminal * Bag in Bag strategy *
Unfortunately I had a check-in bag, which I couldn't avoid for this trip like I did for Manila. Roaming around with a trolley bag is not practical.
I had following options;
This was my first choice. I thought I will rent a car from Zoomcar/Revv, keep my bags in the car, drive around all day, return the car in the evening and go to airport. A small car like Swift/Figo would cost about Rs 2200 on a weekend. After including parking etc cost would be around 2500.
-All friends advised me against this option, as car would take much longer time than train. I will end up spending most of the time in traffic, without really exploring anything.
- I will have to spend extra time finding parking space etc
-Cost is a lot higher compared to taking train & auto/cab (for short distance)
Option 2: Keep the bag in the hotel, collect it in the evening before going to Airport
This option would have helped if the hotel was either close to airport or on the way to airport. But my hotel was in other part of town- Navi Mumbai. Going back to that area to collect bag and then come back all the way to airport didn't make sense. It would have taken 3-4 hours of travel time and lots of money for taxi/auto/train.
Option 3: Keep the bag at a friend's place
If you have friends staying closer to airport you can try this option. But this has its own drawbacks- though your friends might not refuse to help, it might inconvenience them a lot. They might have their own plans for the day, now they have to be there to let you drop/pick-up your bag. If your timing is odd, you might end up spoiling their sleep. They might be forced to offer something extra like food etc out of courtesy, putting extra workload on themselves. Though a few friends offered to let me keep my bag in their place, I decided I will use this option as last resort.
Option 4: Keep it at airport
Mumbai airport has a left luggage/luggage store facility. But it had following drawbacks
- Travel time to airport and back & expense
- Storage cost here is bit expensive, about Rs 300 for 12 hours.
I had never availed cloak room facility at railway stations so far, though I was aware of their presence in major stations. My friend Satya Narayanan first said that some select railway stations in Mumbai have cloak room facility. Dadar and CST were the two he could suggest. I figured that Dadar station is a convenient location. From Airoli I could go to Dadar, keep my bag, roam around all day, come back to Dadar, pick the bag, go to Santa Cruz and then to airport. After consulting few friends, I zeroed in on this option.
On the D-Day, I checked out of hotel very early, took a cab to Mulund station and train to Dadar. At Dadar I asked around a few people and eventually found where the cloak room was. I found out the following
1) Only bags properly locked will be accepted. Unlocked/openable bags will not be accepted
2) Bags will be accepted only if one is a customer of Railways- i.e. only if the person has an intercity train ticket. Local tickets won't do. I had to go n buy a Mumbai- Pune ticket for Rs 85. I later realized that even Mumbai-Kandala ticket would have served the purpose. (Or I could have booked Mumbai-Kalyan on Chennai express?)
3) Guests need to get the bag scanned, get security tag and provide an ID proof.
4) Payment to be done during collection. Cloak room operates 24x7.
Even at 6.30 AM on a Saturday morning, Dadar station was crowded. After about 30 mins, I was done with all formalities to drop my bag (scanning, buying a ticket to Pune etc). With the main bag safely stored, I went out to explore the city- Siddhi Vinayak, Shivaji Park, Bandra, Church Gate, Kala Ghoda and finally the Indiblogger meet. At around 5.30 in the evening, I went back to collect my bag. (From Church gate, I bought one direct ticket to Santa Cruz, I could get down at Dadar, collect bag and board next train to Santa Cruz without having to buy another ticket.) I was asked to pay Rs 16 (Yes, Rupees Sixtreen only) while collecting the bag. Even after factoring unwanted intercity train ticket I had to buy, it was an extremely cost effective way to store my bag for 12 hours. Sharing with you so that you can avail the same if you're in Mumbai and wish to avoid carrying extra baggage all around.
Keep the receipt very very safe.
All thanks to Mumbai railway for making my Mumbai Darshan affordable and convenient. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the cloak room. The cloak room is located next to main entrance of the Dadar station (East entrance). Hope this information helps.
Similar: Luggage room facility in Canberra bus terminal * Bag in Bag strategy *
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