Mumbai Monorail to resume Chembur to Wadala run

Sources revealed that the operations were likely to start after August 15.(Express photo by Pradeep Kochrekar. Mumbai)

Seven months after its rakes caught fire, the monorail will be operational between Chembur and Wadala in about a month. However, commuters will have to wait at least seven more months to travel by the monorail to Jacob Circle due to shortage of rakes. Also, commuters will now have to shell out more as the revised fares are more than twice the existing fare.

“The operations of Phase I of the corridor will begin soon. We will soon begin conducting trial runs as the systems have not been used for many months,” said Sanjay Khandare, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

While Khandare did not commit to a date for resumption of services on Phase II, sources revealed that the operations were likely to start after August 15.

“We have enough rakes to conduct operations on Phase I. As the contractors were not paying the staff, many of them had left. We have asked them to clear their payments and get adequate staff needed for the operations. The operations are likely to start after August 15 and the next phase will start in another six months,” said an official.

The services of Phase I will resume with revised fares, which are almost at par with the Metro One fares. While the previous fares ranged between Rs 5 and Rs 19, they have now been hiked to Rs 10 and Rs 40. The MMRDA had approved the revised fares in January. Services of the monorail were brought to a halt nine months ago after a fire gutted two of it coaches at Mysore Colony Station. The MMRDA had then planned to resume services along with the opening of Phase II. However, due to shortage of rakes and with contractors Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Scomi Engineering (LTSE), expressing inability to provide additional rakes before February, they have now decided to resume services between Chembur and Wadala.

“The contractors have assured us that the remaining rakes will be delivered by February. Since we cannot start Phase II until then, we have decided to at least resume services of Phase I,” added Khandare.
Currently, the MMRDA has 10 rakes to conduct operations, of which only seven are operational. The contractors are expected to deliver five more rakes apart from repairing and refurbishing the existing ones. “Some spares are missing in the rakes that we have here. They will be taking care of them as well and are expected to complete it by next year,” he added.