April may see hike in monorail fares

After running the 8.93-km-long first phase of the monorail — from Wadala to Chembur — in monetary losses for two years, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is considering to revise the fares of the monorail in the new financial year i.e. after April 2016.

Currently, MMRDA charges Rs 5 to Rs 11 between Wadala to Chembur depending on the amount of distance to be travelled. To recover losses, the MMRDA had also increased the number of daily trips from 130 to around 160 by which services were made available at an interval of 12 minutes.

“We are suffering losses of Rs 10 lakh per day though the commuter pattern has been increasing over time. The number of commuters using the services has increased approximately from 14,000 to 19,000 per day but that has not helped us much,” said a senior MMRDA official requesting anonymity.

However, the MMRDA is expecting the number of commuters to increase once the 10.24-km-long phase-2 of the monorail from Wadala to Jacob Circle becomes operational. “But that is not going to be enough considering the amount of loss that we are incurring every day. We may have to increase the fare in the new financial year to reduce our losses. However, we are yet to work on the ratio by which the fares will be hiked,” added the senior official.

“We are not even recovering the operational cost and with that the maintenance of the monorail stations which includes cleaning and security goes up to '13 crore per year,” said the senior MMRDA official.

However, experts believe that MMRDA should try exploring other options before opting to increasing the fares.

“The connectivity of monorail should have that appeal which will automatically lead to a boost in the footfalls and once the phase-2 is operational the number of commuters will increase. Increasing fares without increasing connectivity would de-motivate people from using the service,” said transport expert, Jitendra Gupta. “Also, MMRDA should consider renting out empty spaces to private companies for advertising, which can generate income. Renting the vacant real estate spaces can also help,” added Mr Gupta.