Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said 10 people had been killed and 54 wounded in the rush-hour blasts.
One explosion was reported in the Zaveri Bazaar, another in the Opera House business district and a third in Dadar district.
Indian media have quoted the home ministry as saying the explosions were a terrorist attack.
Police sources were reported as saying the explosions were caused by home-made bombs.
Mumbai was the scene of a 10-man raid and co-ordinated attacks in November 2008 in which nearly 170 people were killed.
Continue reading the main storyThe three explosions in Mumbai have taken place in some of the most crowded neighbourhoods in the city.
Zaveri Bazaar is a bustling market area famous for its jewellers. It has been targeted before: during the serial blasts in the city in 1993, 17 people were killed and 57 injured when a scooter packed with explosives blew up there.
Opera House, next door, is also a bustling business district teeming with traders. And Dadar, in the heart of the city, has one of the most crowded railway stations on Mumbai's busy suburban train network.
The choice of locations makes it clear that the blasts were intended to cause maximum casualties. But early footage of one of the blast sites - a ripped-off cover of a bus shelter and a car with its glass shattered - points to a medium-level and possibly crude explosion.
So far, there is no evidence to suggest that Mumbai is under attack the way it was in November 2008. And this could easily be the handiwork of a local group.
The BBC's Soutik Biswas, in Delhi, says there is no evidence so far to suggest that Mumbai is under attack in the same way.High alert
The latest explosions hit the city around 1900 local time (1330 GMT) as workers were making their way home.
While the Home Secretary said two people had been confirmed killed, police said eight people had died.
The city has been put on a state of high alert. Delhi, the capital, Calcutta and several other cities have also been put on alert.
The authorities have not yet said who they believe might be behind the explosions and no group has said it carried them out.
The explosion in Zaveri Bazaar, in the south of Mumbai, was reported in a jewellery shop, says the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan in Mumbai.
The third explosion hit the Opera House district, also in the city's south, at a time when it would have been crowded with workers and commuters.
The blast in Dadar district, in the city centre, went off in a taxi next to a bus stop.
One eyewitness from the scene there told our correspondent he saw the bus stop and a car were torn apart by an explosion.
According to some reports, the blasts came on the birthday of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks.
Those attacks, which targeted two high-end hotels, a Jewish centre and other sites frequented by foreigners, were blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
Pakistan condemned the latest explosions, in a statement issued by the foreign ministry.
Mumbai has been targeted many times in recent years.
As well as the 2008 attacks, co-ordinated blasts on seven of the city's trains on 11 July 2006 caused massive loss of life. More than 180 people were killed and hundreds wounded in those bombings, which were blamed on Islamist militants.
The city suffered four bomb attacks during 2003, including twin blasts on 25 August 2003 which killed 52 people.
In 1993, 257 people were killed and 700 injured in a series of 12 bomb blasts across the city. The attacks were allegedly ordered by the Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for Hindu-Muslim riots.
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