Riddled with technical snags, losses Chembur-Wadala monorail runs on

Mumbai: The Chembur-Wadala monorail corridor has been seen struggling with technical failures in the last few years. In 2014, power outages were reported at a fertiliser township station, which had resulted in a power cable being burnt. In 2016, the monorail was in the news for two separate incidents — a tyre burst and tyre detachment after a rolling stock had developed a technical snag. The contractor running the first phase of monorail (Chembur to Wadala) has been running into losses since the corridor has not been able to reap much profit.

Recently, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had called out to appoint a new contractor to run the corridor since under the current operator, Scomi Engineering, a Malaysian firm, the corridor is grappling with several technical failures. Earlier this year in July, a rake was left stranded near Wadala due to power failure. Later, another monorail rake had to be sent to pull back the stranded rake. Owing to technical glitches in 2014, its launching year itself, more than 20 services were cancelled. A majority of the snags have occurred on the route due to power failures and voltage fluctuations.

The MMRDA pays Scomi Rs.15.60 crore per month as fees for running the operation and the contractor is expected to cover the cost of maintenance through this amount.