The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will continue running the 8.93-km-long monorail at losses that amount to around Rs 10 lakh per day.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will continue running the 8.93-km-long monorail at losses that amount to around Rs 10 lakh per day. However, the state government will allow the revised fare structure only after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, which are slated to be held in 2017, claimed MMRDA sources.
Currently, MMRDA charges Rs 5 to Rs 11 between Wadala to Chembur depending on the distance travelled, due to which the MMRDA suffers a loss of Rs 10 lakh per day despite the number of commuters using the monorail increasing approximately from 14,000 to 19,000 per day.
To recover losses, the authority had increased the number of daily trips from 130 to around 160, for which services were made available at an interval of 12 minutes.
“The monorail services on the first phase started right before the Lok Sabha elections and at that time we had proposed a fare structure of Rs 8 (minimum) and Rs 20 (maximum), but it was brought down to Rs 5 and Rs 11 (maximum) by the state government owing to the nearing elections,” added a source from the MMRDA.
According to MMRDA officials, the recovery of money lost would be possible once the connectivity created by the monorail became more appealing for commuters, which would be possible after the second phase, from Wadala to Jacob Circle, is commissioned.
“The second phase of the monorail is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year as the project is now on track and we expect to receive switches for the tracks soon; the civil works will also be completed by September,” said asenior MMRDA official.
