Monorail doesn't derail during rain, gets its moment of glory

MUMBAI: Mired in controversies for years, the 20km monorail, which runs from Jacob Circle near Mahalaxmi to Chembur, finally came to the rescue of Mumbaikars on Wednesday. While the main modes of transport ground to a halt because of heavy rain, monorail services continued to operate because of the route's elevation, but with a rider-overcrowding, like in a suburban train, is to be strictly avoided.
While commuters elsewhere struggled, monorail riders had a happy and comfortable experience. Overall, almost 15,000 people used the service on Wednesday, a manifold increase from the transport mode's average daily ridership. Revenue also zoomed: MMRDA collected Rs 3.58 lakh through ticket sale on Wednesday. "Monorail stood by us," said Sairaj Kadam, a Chembur resident who works with a real estate firm at Mahalaxmi.
But commuters also found monorail's limitation: it cannot carry more than 560 passengers per rake, or 140 in each of its four coaches, and thus cannot be overcrowded like a suburban train. If it's overloaded, monorail stops.
Hiren Joshi and Prashun Diwan, who boarded monorail at Jacob Circle and Wadala, respectively, to go to Chembur, said they experienced panic and noise among commuters when their rake got stuck on sharp turns towards Mysore Colony, Bhakti Park and Wadala. Diwan said that when the motorman announced that commuters shouldn't panic and make the rake maintain its balance by not crowding towards the door on one side, commuters took time to settle and calm down.
According to technical experts, monorail stalls in case of overloading as through a mechanism, power supply to the rake is automatically cut. Following that, the motorman is supposed to issue a request to passengers to reorganise themselves in the coaches so that their load is uniformly balanced across the rake. Once this formation is achieved, power is restored and the rake goes to the nearest station, after which it is sent for an inspection, as per protocol.