Mumbai Monorail: Coming soon to Jacob Circle

The authorities hope that once the Monorail is extended to the full route, the ridership will increase at least two-fold

The loss-making Monorail hasn't amounted to anything more than a joyride so far, but that is about to change. In less than a month, the Monorail will finally achieve its full potential as it starts plying on the entire 20-km route from Chembur to Jacob Circle via Wadala on a trial basis.

Phase-II of the project has already missed a dozen deadlines, but the authorities are confident the entire corridor will be up and running in time for the current deadline in December. Civil construction is 90% complete and the electric and signalling work is on. Additional Metropolitan Commissioner Sanjay Khandare said, "The electrification work on the phase II of the Monorail between Jacob Circle and Wadala is complete and, in less than a month's time, we will carry out the first trial run on the complete route."

The trial runs will continue for another month, following which the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will approach the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) for the final safety certification. After this, the corridor will be thrown open to the public. "Once we have all the things in place, including the infrastructure, we will approach the CRS for safety certification. By the start of next year, we are confident that the services will be operational," added a senior official.

In the past, MMRDA faced a lot of criticism because less than a year after the launch of Phase-I between Wadala Chembur, the services were hit by technical glitches. This has raised doubts about possible problems once Phase-II is operational.

Ridership
At the moment, the Monorail is restricted to Phase-I, which passes through less populated areas and does not generate much ridership. The authorities hope that once the Monorail is extended to the full route, the ridership will increase at least two-fold, taking the project out of the red. Phase-II passes through highly-populated areas in central Mumbai, such as Wadala, Parel, Lower Parel, Chinchpokli, Delisle Road before arriving at Jacob Circle, which means the authorities can expect a daily ridership of about 40,000 passengers, as compared to the paltry 15,000-17,000 recorded currently.

MMRDA authorities also told this newspaper that they had dealt with the objections raised by the Arthur Road Jail authorities over two years ago, regarding the addition of view cutters on the prison walls to prevent passengers from peeking into the high-security facility as the Monorail passes by.