On Wednesday, Monorail employees had threatened to go on a strike, demanding timely payment of salaries, a fresh contract with the MMRDA, gratuity, medical insurance, leaves and compensatory offs. (Express photo: Ganesh Sirsekar)Employees of the Chembur-Wadala monorail service, who had threatened to go on a strike, called off their proposed agitation on Friday after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) agreed to fulfil the demands of more than 407 staffers.
Meanwhile, as BEST buses stayed off the roads for the fourth consecutive day, the monorail services witnessed a sharp increase in riders.
Cumulatively, the monorail carried 72,249 commuters on January 8, 9 and 10, which was 30,295 passengers more as compared to the figures of January 5, 6 and 7, when the cumulative ridership was 41,954.
On Friday morning, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, Sanjay Khandare, met monorail employees and accepted their demands.
Khandare told The Indian Express, “The MMRDA has accepted the important demands of the monorail employees, which includes 15 days’ salary that was pending with the LTSE. This will now be paid by MMRDA.” Khandare also said employees were demanding a contract letter from MMRDA, which would be given to them officially, from the Mumbai Metro Operations Corporation Limited (MOMCL).
On Wednesday, employees had threatened to go on a strike, demanding timely payment of salaries, a fresh contract with the MMRDA, gratuity, medical insurance, leaves and compensatory offs.
Khandare also confirmed the ridership of monorail phase-1 from Wadala to Chembur over the last four days. “The revenue collected on January 8, 9 and 10 is Rs 4,87,060, that is, Rs 1,93,644 more than what was collected on January 5, 6 and 7, when the cumulative revenue was
Rs 2,93,416,” he said.
