Monorail Phase 2 to begin in March
After an eight-year long wait, finally, Phase 2 of the Mumbai Monorail (Chembur to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk-Mahalaxmi) will be thrown open to the public in March, said R A Rajeev, commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will flag off the event.
This phase was expected to be commissioned in December 2010. But for various reasons, operations could not begin. First, it was stalled over pending approvals from the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) and the state government. Then, the MMRDA failed to get a bidder to undertake operations and maintenance of this elevated corridor, so it decided to take over the operations itself.
At present, only the monorail Phase 1 from Wadala to Chembur is operational, completing five years on February 1. According to the MMRDA, there are six mono rakes which are currently defunct, lying in the Wadala carshed. The MMRDA is operating the Phase 1 with just three rakes in service.
Another MMRDA official said, "The earlier operator, Scomi Engineering, had bought spare parts. But because of non-payment of import duty, the spare parts are languishing at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). We have paid this duty after we(MMRDA) took over the operations and expect the parts to be delivered in one or two days. We hope to bring back at least two defunct mono rakes into service after repairs."
"Interestingly, when Scomi was the operator, the mono had four rakes but when we (MMRDA) took over the operations, we learned that of the four rakes, one was in need of repair. We were thus left with no other option but to run services with just three rakes," said the official.