The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) successfully carried out a test run of Mumbai Monorail, India?s first mono rail. About 100 journalists travelled in a glittering four-coach modern pink train that looked more like a toy train than the 12 coach trains Mumbaikars are used to. The test run covered seven stations from Wadala to Chembur in an 8.80km long journey with the one-way journey being completed in 20 minutes.
This line would form the first phase of the monorail. The work on the stations of the monorail such as Wadala Depot, Bhakti Park and Mysore too is nearing completion. The second phase of the monorail?s first project would be from Wadala to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk.
The MMRDA Commissioner, Rahul Asthana, expressed hope that the monorail would be operational by August this year ? once all the safety clearances were in place. Without the safety certification, the monorail cannot be commissioned. ?A proposal by the state government to appoint a safety certification engineer for issuing the safety certificate is in process,? said Asthana. The procedure would begin in June and the commissioning would take place in August, he said.
MMRDA is implementing the Mono Rail project along with Larsen & Toubro and a consortium of Scomi Engineering, an infrastructure company from Malaysia.
The Monorail would provide more of a feeder service once all the Metro Lines become operational. But till then, the short distance travel would ease a lot of burden of the suburban commute. The mono rail, in green, pink and sky blue colours, will fly past buildings, roads and establishments on an elevated track for the said stations ? also on elevated areas. The air conditioning of the 75-seater four-coach trains with a carrying capacity of 560 passengers can be controlled by the driver of the train. Each side of the coach has three bucket seats and the handles for standees are made in plastic. Ashwini Bhide, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, and her team can be credited with the colour scheme which was implemented by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
The mono rail is fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology and offers features like advanced passenger driver communication, passenger information system, emergency box system, etc. The automated ticketing facility looks good and neat. The platforms will have CCTV and the fare will range between ? 8 and 20. The monorail does not use any fossil fuel and will use regenerative braking system which will enable about 25% saving in power consumption, claims MMRDA.