From April, Wadala to Chembur in 19 mins

Your travel time between Wadala and Chembur will be cut by 21 minutes after April 2011.

That’s what the planning agency, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, promises after the Wadala-Chembur monorail line is complete.

“We will complete the first phase of the first line between Wadala to Chembur by April 2011 and the second phase by July 2011,” said metropolitan commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said.

So, people who now take 40 minutes to drive between Wadala and Chembur during peak hours will be able to cover the same distance in 19 minutes in the comfort of an air-conditioned monorail by next April.

The MMRDA, through SCOMI and L&T, is building a 19.5-km Jacob Circle-Wadala-Chembur monorail corridor — this is one of the eight routes proposed by the agency.

While the Wadala-Chembur line is 8.7 km long, the distance for the Chembur-Jacob Circle stretch is 11.28 km.

The planning agency also claims that by July next people will be able to travel between Jacob Circle and Wadala in 25 minutes. Currently, it takes motorists 45 minutes during peak hours to cover this distance.

This city’s first monorail line is expected to cater to four lakh commuters and each air-conditioned train will have a carrying capacity of 600.

Once functional, the MMRDA believes that Jacob Circle-Wadala-Chembur monorail route will help reduce nearly 28,000 taxi and autorickshaw trips and take 25,000 private cars off the roads on this stretch as people will prefer to travel in air-conditioned coaches.

Mumbai suburban trains currently cater to more than 60 lakh commuters every day, while public buses ferry 45 lakh passengers daily.

The existing suburban transportation systems have been groaning under the weight of increasing population hence the MMRDA embarked on the ambitious monorail network project at a cost of Rs 20,926 crore to cater to 36 lakh commuters daily by 2021.

These networks will mostly provide east-west connectivity as presently the city’s arterial roads and railway lines provide north-south connectivity.

Of the eight proposed monorail corridors, the costliest would be the Mulund-Goregaon-Borivli line. This 30-km line will cost Rs 4,170 crore and will serve 7.35 lakh commuters by 2021.