There is good news for monorail passengers in Mumbai. According to reports, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is all set to procure 10 more rakes for its monorail project. With this, it is expected to improve the frequency of trains as well as the ridership, which is the lowest in Mumbai’s public transport system.
The first rake of the train is likely to come within a year. All the rakes will be made in India. The estimated tender cost is INR 590 crores.
The MMRDA has awarded the tender to Medha Servo Drives Private Limited for procurement of new 10 monorail rakes as per the decision taken in a meeting last month, said an official.
At present, the monorail is running on the 19.54 km route between Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk-Wadala-Chembur in Mumbai. The project is considered to cost more than the income. MMRDA plans to add a metro line to this route in the future to sustain the monorail.
The new trains are being bought by Medha in a bid to run the monorail efficiently and improve its connectivity.
Though the promised frequency of trains was every 4-5 minutes, it was eventually 18 minutes officially, and owing to functional issues the wait time goes up to as much as 30 minutes. The reason behind less frequency is non-availability or a limited number of rakes.
As per the official record, there are only seven trains right now on the 20-km stretch. The minimum ridership it had after the lockdown was just over 5,000 a day. With the addition of 10 new trains, bringing the total to 17, the frequency of trains will be available every 4 to 6 minutes.
Share
Tweet
