Entire Mumbai Monorail to be functional from Saturday

CM to inaugurate second phase; MMRDA expects 1L riders a day

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will on Saturday inaugurate the second phase of the Mumbai monorail (Wadala-Jacob Circle), making the entire corridor (Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle) operational eight years after its first deadline.

Fadnavis is expected to flag off the second phase from the Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk station at 11am, and address citizens after travelling till the Wadala depot (Bhushan Koyande)

Fadnavis is expected to flag off the second phase from the Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk station at 11am, and address citizens after travelling till the Wadala depot. The 19.5-km corridor is being inaugurated days before the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections sets in. According to officials, trial runs for the second phase are being conducted every night for the past few days. In December 2018, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) took over the project from the contractor, after serving a show-cause notice for not completing the project on time.

The initial deadline for the opening of the entire corridor was May 13, 2011. It was revised eight times through the years, with the project running into several hurdles. The first phase (Chembur-Wadala) was operationalised before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

A senior MMRDA official said, “The ridership will increase once the gap between trains reduces. We are looking at purchasing new rakes for this purpose.”

Currently, the phase-1 is operational using four rakes, while six rakes are lying unused.