Mumbai: Town planning authority MMRDA on Friday said the second phase of the much-delayed Jacob Circle-Wadala-Chembur monorail project is likely to commence operations from March 1. It has also decided to increase the minimum fare to Rs 10, which is double the current minimum fare, as authority aims to recover expenditure of operations through fare hike. The authorities are expecting to recover 35 per cent of the revenue from fare box (tickets) as well as through advertisements.
Meanwhile monorail’s two containers containing 112 spare parts are on the way to Wadala depot. With this, four more monorail will run in Mumbai. The route for second phase will be from Wadala to Jacob Circle (Sant Gadgebaba Chowk). Total seven trains will run on both routes. Nearly 260 trips are expected per day said monorail chief operating officer DLN Murthy. Working hours for trains will be same as the present schedule, which is, morning 6am to 10 pm at night. “After 10pm, lines will remain shut for maintenance purpose till next morning 6am,” said Mr Murthy.
He also mentioned about fare hikes. “Nearly one lakh commuters are expected on phase 2 within a year. Presently on phase one 15 to 17 thousand commuters travel daily.”
Dilip Kavathkar, joint project director (PR) MMRDA said, “No promotional activity has been planned or decided yet to attract commuters. We will later think about it.”
Last year one rake went up in flames, while on service, and it forced shutting of the services for many months. The L&T-Scomi consortium won the Rs 2,460-crore contract in 2009 to build and operate the 19.5-km monorail network on the Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle corridor connecting the eastern periphery of the island city to the central parts.
