Maharashtra Chief Minister will inaugurate Phase II of the Mumbai Monorail from Wadala to Jacob’s Circle today.
Mirror Now did a ground report to ascertain the MMRDA’s preparedness.
Phase II of Mumbai Monorail to be inaugurated today
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is set to inaugurate the much-awaited Phase II of the Mumbai Monorail today. Phase II involves a 20 km stretch from Wadala to Jacob’s circle aimed at increasing the reach of public transportation for the citizens of India’s economic capital.
As per latest reports, phase II will start off with four tracks where monorails will operate at a frequency of 20-25 minutes.
Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), RA Rajeev told Mirror Now that the monorail project faced several challenges most of which were from outside the authority.
He also said that delays, accidents and civil work through heritage and congested areas added to the lag.
“The operator Scomi engineering ran into financial problems and decided to hand over the operations of the Monorail in December of last year,” added Rajeev.
He also said that the authority plans to add new trains to the Mumbai Monorail at the end of every month. However, the decision is still pending.
When asked about glitches or shortcomings such as the onboard communication system used by pilots which is still not operational, Rajeev said that these issues are being handled and will likely be resolved in the coming days.
Mumbai Monorail started commercial operations after partially opening its Phase 1 to the public in 2014.
Meanwhile, Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal will also inaugurate the new Parel terminus as part of Mumbai’s suburban train network.
A decision to build a new terminal was taken following a fatal stampede at Elphinstone station in October of 2017.
