The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will soon be floating tenders to monetise a portion of the Monorail depot land in Wadala. Senior officials said that the concept for the same is ready and they were currently working on the modalities on how to privatise the approximately 17-acre plot.
“There will be three towers, which will be a mix of residential and commercial spaces. The details are being worked out and we should be in a position to float tenders in the coming two months,” a senior official said. The MMRDA owns the property and is also the special planning authority (SPA). Sources said that they want to build it along the lines of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Some of the residential flats will be kept aside for MMRDA staff, while the rest will be sold in open market. The proceeds from the sale will be used in part to help finance the ailing Monorail.
The MMRDA terminated the contract of the Larsen & Toubro-Scomi Engineering consortium and took over the operations and maintenance of the Monorail on December 14. In the first week it collected over ₹7 lakh from ticketing revenue. MMRDA officials said they are also working on generating revenue from non-fare sources such as advertising in stations and trains, providing telecom towers, etc. Officials said that commercialisation of the land will also boost passenger traffic on the Monorail.
MMRDA will soon be issuing tenders for critical spare parts for six Monorail rakes that are not functional. “Since the spares are needed urgently, we will be floating a quick tender, which will be closed within 15 days. We aim to have the spares in the next two months,” a senior official said. The spares are critical for MMRDA to commence operations for the crucial 10.6 km Phase Two of the Monorail, which runs from Wadala to Jacob Circle. At present MMRDA has only four functional rakes, which has restricted them to operating the service on the 8.8 km Phase One from Chembur to Wadala. MMRDA officials said that with two additional functional rakes they will be able to run services on the entire corridor at a 20-minute frequency.
At present services run on the 8.8 km Phase One at a 15-minute frequency. After Phase Two is commissioned the fares will also increase and range from ₹10 to ₹40. Tickets at present range from ₹5 to ₹11.
MMRDA will also be floating additional tenders for 10 new Monorail rakes, which will be procured in batches of five. Scomi Engineering was supposed to provide 15 rakes in total of which it supplied only 10.
Phase One of the Monorail was commissioned in 2014 after several delays, and remained shut for nearly a year after a fire gutted two coaches in November 2017. Services between Chembur and Wadala resumed on September 1, 2018.