With mounting losses, monorail’s fate hangs in balance

Mumbai's monorail is causing financial losses of ₹529 crore this year. Officials are considering whether to buy 10 new monorail rakes and upgrade infrastructure. The monorail has been a financial burden, with losses of ₹255 crore in 2022-23. The monorail only earned ₹7.50 crore in 2022-23, but officials expect it to reach ₹13.64 crore in 2023-24. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority will hold meetings with the state government to decide the future of the monorail. The monorail currently operates 200 services per day with 10 rakes and attracts only 9,000-10,000 passengers daily.

Mumbai: With expected losses of ₹529 crore in the current financial year, Mumbai’s monorail running on the Jacob Circle-Wadala-Chembur line is proving to be a white elephant for the city’s mass transportation system.

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On Friday, officials from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) stated that they are contemplating whether to go ahead with procuring 10 new monorail rakes and spend further on infrastructure upgrades at stations.

An official said that they will hold meetings with the state government to decide on the monorail, which has become a financial burden.

The 20kms long mass transit, touted as an ‘iconic project’, is now eating into the coffers of the MMRDA. Officials said the MMRDA had suffered losses of ₹255 crore in 2022-23.

The earnings from monorail operations in 2022-23, have been mere ₹7.50 crore per annum though they expect it to touch ₹13.64 crore in 2023-24 while expenditure is pegged at ₹542 crore that includes the procurement of 10 new rakes.

Sources said for 2022-23, they had expected revenues to the tune of ₹26.90 crore, which dropped to ₹7.50 crore per annum.

“We will be holding meetings with the state government to see what can be done with the monorail as it has become a financial burden,” said an official of the MMRDA.

“We are studying the balance sheet to understand whether to procure 10 new monorail rakes and provide upgrades to the existing infrastructure,” said the official.

The MMRDA authorities have asked their teams to look into the monorail and its operations to curtail costs, plan services as per requirement and control unwanted expenditure. The MMRDA operates around 200 services everyday with their 10 rakes and barely sees 9,000-10,000 passengers per day.

Plans are afoot to construct travelators that will link Jacob Circle and Mahalaxmi railway station and boost connectivity between railway and monorail stations.

The frequency between the two train services is around 18-20 minutes and the proposed 10 rakes will gradually replace the existing ones.

The life cycle of these monorails is around 15 years. The prototype was supposed to come by the end of this year as well. The 10 new rakes are expected to bring down headway between two services to five to seven minutes.

Government authorities agreed that monorail that started back in 2014, has been a failure and has unable to attract footfall.

“Development on this stretch took place and real estate developers took advantage of it. They sold their properties in the name of monorail,” said a government official.

“However, The MMRDA did not benefit from it. We are working on different revenue models to boost revenue from monorail, but we will have to meet higher ups in the state government to do something about this project,” said the official.

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Metro, too, suffering losses

The losses on Metro line 2A on Andheri (W)-Dahisar and line-7 on Dahisar (E)-Gundavali is pegged at ₹281 crore for 2022-23. Sources said that despite carrying around 1.85-2 lakh passengers per day, the revenue earned is ₹41 crore while the expenditure has been ₹322 crore. Metro 2A is more popular as the MMRDA earned ₹ 19 crore whereas Metro 7 generated revenue of ₹15 crore. “At this point of time, it might look like an elephant as there is not much rush barring the peak hours. By the time all the metro lines become operational, we are certain that it will turn a new leaf. We will at least be able to recover the operational costs,” said another MMRDA official. Last month, the MMRDA achieved the three-crore mark in total number of passengers carried on lines 2A and 7.