The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will soon be floating tenders for the spare parts for the six defunct monorail rakes, with the immediate aim to commission Phase 2 of the project.
“We couldn’t float the tenders earlier, as it came under the contractor responsibilities,” Metropolitan Commissioner R.A. Rajeev said.
While Phase 2 of the Monorail has been ready for several months, it has not been commissioned due to a lack of rakes. At present only four of the ten rakes are functional and running them on the entire 19.5 km corridor will reduce frequency of services. Commissioning Phase 2 is critical for the project as it will provide seamless connectivity between all three suburban train lines at Mahalaxmi on Western Line, Currey Road on Central Line and Wadala Road and Chembur on Harbour line.
MMRDA officials said that they expect to carry 1.5 lakh passengers per day once the entire corridor is commissioned. At present only around 10,000 passengers travel between Chembur and Wadala. Even if two more rakes are made operational, MMRDA can start the entire corridor at the existing 20 minute frequency, which will give a huge boost to operations.
Moreover, MMRDA will also be floating tenders to exploit sources of non-fare revenue such as advertising on piers, stations and trains. They have floated bids for telecom towers along the Monorail corridor, which could fetch them around ₹8 to 10 crore annually, sources said.
MMRDA will also be floating tenders for ten new rakes for the Monorail by February 2019. As part of the original contract Scomi Engineering was expected to provide 15 rakes. The balance five have not yet come.