Two more monorail rakes to be pressed into service soon in Mumbai

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to add two rakes to its monorail service in a month.

The 19.5-km monorail was inaugurated with just four trains in March. The metropolitan authority recently added one more train, taking the total to five. However, the frequency continues to be around 40 minutes, irking citizens.

A senior official from MMRDA said, “The frequency will improve with the addition of 10 rakes. We are working towards improving the efficiency of trains. With two more rakes, there will be improvement in efficiency as there will be more trains available in case one stops functioning.”

Currently, the tendering process is underway to get 10 new rakes for the monorail. The MMRDA has got responses from Hitachi, Bombardier, CRRC and BYD.

The monorail authorities are also looking at improving station premises by increasing seats and constructing toilets. “Ideally, these should have been done by the contractor, but it was not.”

In December 2018, MMRDA terminated its contract with LTSE, a joint venture of Larsen and Toubro and Scomi Engineering, owing to contractual failures. Scomi was also barred from bidding for a proposal on the new rakes, an official confirmed.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also recently written to Google to mark the station co-ordinates of phase-2 (Wadala-Jacob Circle) on Google maps.

First Published: Jun 07, 2019 14:56 IST