The state of the art monorail launched in February this year by the CM Prithviraj Chavan is unable to attract more commuters despite the extension of its operating hours.

The new transport contraption was mooted to ease traveller’s woes on Chembur-Wadala high traffic zone where commuters travel in public transportations – buses and local trains, like sardines. But monorail fails to attract more people it was earlier expected to.  The new transportation has let down the MMRDA with earning revenue much below its expectation. While tickets rake in Rs 2-lakh every day, it takes Rs 7 lakh to operate. Thus, there is a net loss of Rs 5 lakh per day  which works out to Rs 1.5 crore a month.   

On the contrary, the Versova-Ghatkopar Metro rightly boasts of more users compared to Monorail – given the crowd that it attracts on this route.

CM Prithviraj Chavan flagged off Monorail in February, and its timings then were 7 am to 3 pm. This was changed to 6 am-8 pm on April 15. The number of operating services was increased from the earlier 64 to the current 112. However, the line is attracting 14,000-15,000 passengers daily, well short of their projected number of 17,000-18,000.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the body which oversaw the Monorail project, said, “We extended the timings to increase the number of passengers. But, the response has not been as expected.”