Mumbai: Once operational, the monorail service, Chembur to Jacob Circle, will be available in a frequency of 20 minutes. Initially, the commuters could avail the service in every seven minutes. However, due to paucity of rakes, the frequency will be affected for the first several months. Also, the commuters have to shell extra as the rates of tickets have been increased. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had revised the rates recently.
"Once started, seven rakes will be put into operations for the service. Thus, the frequency will be of 20 minutes per service,” said UPS Madan, Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA. The Phase 1 (Chembur to Wadala) used to have a ridership per day, however now with the commissioning of the second phase which will connect areas like Dadar and Parel, the authority expects a spike in the rider ship. Meanwhile, with new rates will start from Rs 10 and will go upto Rs 40. Initially, the ticket rates were between Rs 5 to Rs 11.
Further, the authority is seeking to generate electricity through solar panels in all the monorail stations. The solar power will be used for non-traction purposes.
