Technical glitches mar Mumbai Monorail services again

Two trains had to be withdrawn from service for an hour, leading to disruption that further inconvenienced hundreds of commuters.

Mumbai: On a day when public transport in south Mumbai was paralysed due to heavy rain and thousands of protestors heading to Azad Maidan to support Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s indefinite hunger strike, an increased passenger load caused technical glitches in two of the five operational monorail trains. The trains had to be withdrawn from service for an hour, leading to disruption that further inconvenienced hundreds of commuters.

Mumbai: The site after a Monorail train came to a halt between Mysore Colony and Bhakti Park stations amid rainfall, in Mumbai, Tuesday. (PTI)

With incessant rain lashing down on the city, Central Railway’s suburban services had come to a standstill in the morning. In the afternoon, CR officials discouraged passengers from travelling via the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus due to the Maratha agitation at Azad Maidan, leading to people opting for alternate transport modes, including the monorail.

At 8.22 am, the RST 10 monorail train coming from Chembur was withdrawn from service at the Wadala Depot station due to a multiple traction motor fault, officials said. As per the safety protocol, the train was moved to the depot for rectification and passengers were guided to the next approaching train.

“The issue was resolved and the train was restored to service within an hour,” said an official from the Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL), an arm of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) that operates the monorail.

Similarly, at 8.49 am, the RST 11 train was taken out of service at the same station after an abnormal noise emanated from the bottom of the train. “As a precautionary measure, passengers were deboarded, the train was withdrawn from service and taken into the depot for further inspection and repairs. This train resumed service in half an hour. These measures are part of the overall safety measures we are ensuring,” said the MMMOCL official.

With just five rakes in service, the Mumbai Monorail’s frequency is around 22-25 minutes. With two of them withdrawn temporarily, the frequency had dropped to almost one per hour on Monday morning.

To reduce the waiting time between two trains, MMMOCL is planning to introduce at least two of the 10 new rakes it has acquired from Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives into service by October. Seven of the 10 new rakes are stationed at the Wadala Depot and are undergoing trials, with safety certification also awaited.

Until then, the Mumbai Monorail continues to remain an unreliable transport mode for commuters. On August 19, 1,148 passengers had to be rescued when two overcrowded monorail trains came to a halt on elevated tracks between stations on a day of torrential rain. Two days later, another train got overloaded at the Acharya Atre station, leading to 50 passengers being asked to deboard to keep the rail network operational.