A week on, not even 50,000 use Mumbai Monorail daily

Authorities had estimated around 1 lakh would use the monorail each day

A week after the state government inaugurated the Mumbai Monorail project with much fanfare, the new transport project is yet to attract ridership.

The Maharashtra government recently inaugurated the second phase of the Mumbai Monorail. (HT FILE)

While authorities estimated that the ridership would be around one lakh once phase-2 (from Wadala to Jacob Circle) was functional, the per-day ridership has not even reached the 50,000 mark. According to data, ridership between March 4 and March 10 was 1,76,841.

On March 3, CM Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated phase-2 and said it would attract a ridership of 30 lakh per month.

Since its launch, ridership was highest on Maha Shivratri (March 4), indicating that citizens are still using the Monorail for joyrides rather than daily commute. On March 4, the ridership was 27,793 and on March 10, a Sunday, it was 30,744, revealed the data. In this one week, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority earned a revenue of ₹32,21,548.

City-based transport experts said one of the main reasons for the poor show is the infrequency between trains. “Who will wait for 22 minutes in a city like Mumbai?” asked AV Shenoy, a transport expert. He said the new fares, which are equivalent to those for the Metro, may not be affordable to all. Ravinarayan Seshan, a resident of Matunga, said, “Maybe lack of publicity and infrequency is putting people off.”

However, Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director, said ridership has been increasing. “Even on Sunday, we crossed the 30,000 mark,” he said.