Powai is a northern suburb of Mumbai, that shares its name with a lake in the same locality. It is reachable from the western suburbs by the Saki Vihar Road, the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road or the Aarey Colony Road. Also, Adi Shankaracharya Road connects Powai to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Road and the Eastern Express Highway, which are the gateways to eastern suburbs. The nearest Mumbai Suburban Railway station is Kanjurmarg on the Central line.

Powai, historically, has been the home to five temples. A small locality called Panchakutir (meaning five abodes) is still present in Powai. One of these temples is devoted to Goddess Padmavati. It is believed that the word Powai came from the temple. Its etimology is drawn from Padma Aai, which means mother Padma, in the local language Marathi.

Besides the Powai Lake, Powai is host to some important landmarks of Mumbai, such as:

• the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay),
• the Hiranandani Gardens township,
• the Construction, engineering and manufacturing conglomerate Larsen & Toubro group of companies
• the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), and
• the various Government colonies of Income Tax Dept,Customs, Coast guard etc.
• Gopal Sharma Group of Schools
• Powai plaza.
• Prathamesh galaxy.
• Raheja Vihar
• Hotel Pramod Vihar
• Hotel Radhakrishna
• International Business School (IBS)

The Powai area has grown tremendously in the past decade and it is presently a residential, commercial and retail hub for the eastern suburbs of Bombay - in news more for traffic snarls than anything else. A local weekly newspaper Planet Powai regularly reports on the latest news and development of this area.