Mumbai: Despite chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ assurance of starting monorail phase II (Wadala to Jacob Circle) by December this year, the commissioning of the corridor has been extended to January 2018. With this, phase II has missed a total 15 deadlines till now. However, MMRDA has now decided to slap a Rs 5 lakh fine on the contractor in the event it misses the January 2018 deadline as well.
Sanjay Khandare, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “The trial runs are on track and we are expecting it (phase II) to be operational by January first week. We have approached the commissioner of railway safety (CRS).”
In October this year, the CM announced that phase II would be commissioned in December 2017. MMRDA authorities said that some testing still remained to be completed. But this time, they are serious about meeting the deadline and have decided to fine the contractor in the event the deadline is not met.
Meanwhile, MMRDA does not have sufficient rakes to carry out trial runs. The contractor, a Malaysian firm named Scomi Engineering, was supposed to provide an additional five rakes to the authority, which it has not delivered till date.
Hefty Penalty
MMRDA authorities have drafted a proposal to fine Scomi Engineering, the contractor for the monorail corridor. If Scomi Engineering misses the January 2018 deadline to commission phase II, an amount of Rs 5 lakh will be imposed as penalty on the Malaysian firm Scomi Engineering.
