Chembur to Jacob Circle phase of monorail delayed to 2014-end

Commuters will have to wait until the end of next year to travel on the entire corridor — the 20-km-long Chembur-Jacob Circle stretch — due to hurdles in constructing monorail stations.

Although Mumbai’s first monorail service from Chembur to Wadala will begin operating this September, commuters will have to wait until the end of next year to travel on the entire corridor — the 20-km-long Chembur-Jacob Circle stretch — due to hurdles in constructing monorail stations.

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The nodal agency for the project, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), had earlier anticipated the 12.2-km Wadala-Jacob Circle phase would be ready by mid-2014, but the difficulty in construction of staircases and elevators for monorail stations due to narrow roads is expected to cause a delay.

MMRDA additional commissioner Ashwini Bhide said: “We have started construction of monorail stations on the Wadala Jacob Circle corridor, which seems to be a challenging job. We are required to construct escalators and staircases at all stations, but due to narrow roads, it will be a difficult job. Hence, we expect the second phase to be ready by the end of next year.”

According to MMRDA, it has finished about 80 to 90% of civil work of the second phase. It is yet to construct elevated corridor over the central and western railway lines and Dr Ambedkar flyover.

Meanwhile, the first phase is nearing completion with the safety certification process on in full swing.

Singapore-based SMART agency, which has been appointconstruction of monorail stations on the Wadala-Jacob Circle corridor, which seems to be a challenging job.

We are supposed to construct escalators and staircases at all stations.

However, as a result of narrow roads, the construction of escalators and staircases will be a difficult job.

So we anticipate that the second phase will be ready by the end of next year.” ed as an independent assessor for testing and commissioning of the monorail corridor, started safety checks earlier this month. After completion of the safety checks, a retired commissioner for railway safety (CRS) will carry out another safety certification.

“We expect the SMART agency to finish its safety certification checks by the end of August. Subsequently, the retired CRS is expected to finish his safety checks in 15 days thereafter. So, the Chembur-Wadala corridor will be ready for use in September,” said Bhide.