Mumbai launches monorail to ease traffic congestion

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan takes a ride on the Mumbai monorail after inaugurating the country’s first monorail service yesterday. Starting today, Mumbai will become the first city in India to use a monorail when the first phase - an 8.9km-long section - will be open to the public.

Agencies/MumbaiIndia’s financial capital unveiled its - and the country’s - first monorail system yesterday, a much-delayed project that aims to boost the city’s creaking transport infrastructure and ease traffic on its notoriously congested roads. The first phase of the transit system, which opens to the public today, will ferry passengers in green, pink and blue carriages along an 8.8km stretch between Chembur and Wadala in the city’s east, with the line expected to extend to about 20km in length and into south Mumbai next year. Mumbai is famed for its poor roads, heaving traffic and a claustrophobic local train network, which carries millions to work each day and on which thousands die each year - mostly from illegally crossing the tracks. The monorail aims to ease congestion for commuters in the busy eastern suburbs and help connect them with the city’s trains. It will initially travel at a speed of 31km per hour.Usually, the Chembur-Wadala road journey takes around 60-70 minutes but the monorail will complete it in just 20 minutes.When completed, it will have capacity for 100,000 to 200,000 passengers a day, according to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The Wadala-Chembur section has seven stations en route - Wadala, Mysore Colony, Bhakti Park, BPCL, VNP-RC Marg Junction, Fertiliser Colony and Chembur.The monorail will also be cost-effective for commuters who can enjoy air-conditioned travel with the minimum fare starting at Rs5. The fare will go up to Rs11 for the full journey.Each train can ferry 600 passengers.From today, the trains will be operated at an interval of 15 minutes and ferry around 2,500 passengers per hour, for eight hours from 7am to 3pm.Later, the services are proposed to be increased to around 19 hours daily, from 5am to midnight, on the lines of the existing congested Mumbai suburban railways and BEST bus fleet.The fully completed Chembur-Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk corridor will be the second longest monorail corridor in the world after the 23.8km Osaka monorail in Japan.The monorail has generated immense excitement among the people - comparable to Bandra-Worli Sea Link opening in June 2009.But analysts are sceptical of the impact it will have in the densely populated city. “The fundamental issue is that the project is only half finished. So you can call the current stage just a pilot or a test of the hardware. It will not be a game changer,” said Ashok Datar, a transport expert who runs a non-profit group in Mumbai focused on traffic congestion. Road traffic issues cannot be solved by railway-based solutions, Datar added. Others have criticised the costs and delays of the project, built by Malaysia’s Scomi Engineering Bhd and its Indian partner Larsen and Toubro, which overshot its deadline by two years and came to Rs30mn ($479mn). The monorail was opened by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, whose embattled ruling Congress Party is trying to boost its standing and highlight its achievements ahead of general elections due by May. Just last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opened a swanky new air terminal in Mumbai, complete with a peacock-inspired design and huge art display, part of a lavish $2bn airport revamp that also ran over budget and schedule.