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Watch: Passengers use flashlights, fan themselves inside Mumbai monorail, rescued after 3 hours
After being stuck for three hours, 582 passengers were evacuated from an overloaded monorail near Mysore Colony.
A video from inside the Mumbai monorail, stranded for over three hours, shows passengers desperately fanning themselves as they waited to be rescued. By 9.50 PM, all 582 passengers were evacuated through the windowpanes after the train lost power amid heavy rain.
Footage captured by a passenger revealed the packed interiors of the stalled monorail, where commuters relied on phone flashlights after the power cut out. With the cabin sweltering, some used napkins to fan themselves while anxiously watching rescue efforts unfold through the windows.
A passenger who was among the first to be brought out of the train claimed that suffocation was one of the main issues faced by the commuters stuck inside. "Passengers were patient. The train had many senior citizens and kids, and they were facing difficulties... Suffocation was the main problem inside the train," the passenger told news agency ANI.
(Also read: Mumbai monorail rescue: Passenger recounts being ‘suffocated’)
Another passenger said that the rescue operation began after the passengers were stuck for an hour on the tracks. The four-coach monorail was stranded on a curve near Mysore Colony and could not be towed to the nearest station as its brakes jammed, officials told HT.
(Also read: Why did the Mumbai monorail get stuck? ‘Overloading’ blamed)
Astik Pandey, joint commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, stated that the train was loaded beyond capacity which led to it being stuck. “The capacity of the monorail is 109 metric tonnes. On Tuesday, it was overloaded due to excessive crowds. On a curve, there was a mechanical disconnect of the electric current. After that, emergency brake was deployed, hence the rake stopped working,” he added.
A rescued passenger also claimed that the train was running late and overloaded when it arrived after a 30-minute gap.
Google trends
The search term ‘monorail’ saw a sharp spike on Tuesday and continued trending into Wednesday following the Mumbai Monorail breakdown due to heavy rains. According to Google Trends, the highest volume of searches came from Maharashtra, followed by Goa, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Karnataka. Related breakout queries included ‘monorail stuck’, ‘Mumbai monorail stuck’, ‘monorail accident’, ‘monorail news today’, and ‘monorail accident Mumbai’, indicating widespread public interest and concern around the incident.
