Poor planning, Lalbaug flyover may limit monorail to Naigaon

Congestion, oversight roadblocks for completing project according to plan, say contractors.

The contractors building the monorail between Chembur and Jacob Circle in central Mumbai have told chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad the project may miss the December deadline. To blame, they say, is poor infrastructural planning, and the densely populated Currey Road stretch, which may force the line to terminate at Naigaon.

Miffed over delays in the project initiated by him when he was chief of the city’s urban planning authority, Gaikwad has asked the L&T-Scomi consortium to to ensure the monorail is at least operational from Chembur to Naigaon by year-end.

“L&T officials told the chief secretary about difficulties in constructing the monorail over the Lalbaug flyover, and in working on a busy stretch like Currey Road. They also raised concerns about the shifting of underground utilities at Jacob Circle,” a senior state government official said.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which commissioned the Rs2,450-crore project, had decided to divide it into two phases. The first phase, 8.26-km-long, travels through comparatively less populated areas between Chembur and Wadala. Work on this phase is to be completed by May. The 11.28-km second section, from Wadala to Jacob Circle, runs through congested ones, for which the state government had set a deadline of December. But the contractors now seem to have realised the difficulty in undertaking this work.

The key challenges are building the monorail over Lalbaug flyover and working on the Currey Road station stretch, which is narrow and crowded. The monorail will also pass through busy stretches like KEM hospital and Haffkine’s Institute, where construction activity could be a problem.

It was also extended by 750 metres to avoid construction on a narrow stretch at Parel Tank road. Issues had also been raised about building the monorail very close to Arthur Road jail. Worried about these problems, the MMRDA has now kept plans of new monorail routes on the backburner.