In a major embarrassment for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the trial run of the monorail that had been planned for Wednesday, has been dropped after the Sena-BJP raised opposed the move.
The city’s planning body had decided to conduct the trail run of the
monorail on Wednesday, a day before the BMC elections. An infuriated Shiv Sena-BJP then alleged that the move was planned by the MMRDA, headed by chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, with the hope of influencing voters before the polls.
“What is the need to hold the trial run a day before the elections? We will complain to the State Election Commission (SEC) and ask them to postpone the trial run to after the elections,” senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai had said soon after the announcement.
BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said the party
would take up the issue with the SEC. “I am going to write to the SEC against this violation of the code of conduct and will ask them to punish the official who proposed the move,” BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said.
The trial run for the city’s first monorail line was to be conducted on a four-km stretch between Wadala and Mysore Colony.
The 8.26 km line between Wadala and Chembur is expected to be completed only by the middle of 2012.