Monorail - The much-delayed second phase of the 20km Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail network

City gets up to speed with surface transport boost
Phase I was a joyride, Monorail may now see 30 lakh riders a month: CM

The much-delayed second phase of the 20km Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail network was finally inaugurated on Sunday. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, railway minister Piyush Goyal and MMRDA chief R A Rajeev and other dignitaries undertook the inaugural run, days before the code of conduct is enforced before the Lok Sabha polls. The Monorail left Jacob Circle station at 6.15pm and arrived at Wadala depot at 6.43pm.


Regular services on the entire 20-km stretch will commence from Monday morning. Monorail had been operational only on the 8.8-km route between Chembur and Wadala depot since February 2014. The safety certification for phase II came in April 2018, but there were no rakes to run the services.

“Phase I was opened in 2014, but it was known for joyride. The opening of the entire corridor will help attract almost 30 lakh commuters per month compared to 4.5 lakh in Phase I,” said Fadnavis. He added that around 250km of Metro network is being laid across Mumbai Metropolitan Region and the aim is to ensure that its takes only an hour to travel from one end to another.

Goyal said, “Mumbai is the only city now that has suburban railway, Metro and monorail networks. It has been decided that MMRDA and railways will work towards providing integration with suburban stations by way of subways or foot overbridges.” MMRDA will run Monorail rakes at a frequency of 22 minutes, from 6am to 10pm. In all, 130 services will run between Jacob Circle and Chembur The fare will be in the slab of Rs 10, Rs, 20, Rs 30 and Rs 40.

Rajeev said. “Completing the second phase was indeed a challenge. However, support from the state government and our officers, engineers and workers made the challenges look easier.” The inauguration of Phase II had been delayed because the operations and maintenance operator, Scomi Engineering, had failed to roll out adequate number of rakes. Scomi had received seven extensions before which the system first opened on truncated 8.8km route between Chembur and Wadala on February 2, 2014.

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