While the route will open in two months, a senior official from MMRDA told mid-day that the financial condition of the company looking after its maintenance is grim
The monorail has been racking up huge losses ever since its launch in Feb 2014
For those excited at travelling on the Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail stretch, here's bad news. While the route will open in two months, a senior official from MMRDA told mid-day that the financial condition of the company looking after its maintenance is grim. Information obtained through Right To Information (RTI) has confirmed the company's sinking status.
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This also means that commuters could expect more technical glitches once the monorail hits the tracks.
According to Mumbai-based activist Prithviraj Maske, who sought information related to the project, Scomi generates an annual income of around R4.4 crore from running monorail services, but the expenses incurred in operating it are over R13.14 crore per year. That's almost three times more. "The company is facing losses worth R10 crore," Maske said.
Ever since its launch in 2014, Phase 1 of the monorail service between Wadala and Chembur has faced a lot of flak, not only because of low ridership, but also due to the numerous technical issues that the line has seen. In August last year, passengers on the monorail were stuck inside the train for hours owing to a technical glitch.
Speaking to mid-day, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner Sanjay Khandare confirmed that MMRDA had plans to start the Phase 2 route by December. "The safety certification for Phase 2 Circle will take place next month and operations should begin in December," he said.
The monorail has been racking up huge losses ever since its launch in Feb 2014
However, senior MMRDA officials predict that the spate of problems it faced with Phase 1 could continue once the new line is thrown open as Scomi doesn't have the necessary funds to helm the operations smoothly. "The financial condition of Scomi Engineering, which has built and currently operates the monorail services, is not good. During a recent meeting, they admitted the same. We can only hope that post the inauguration of Phase 2, there won't be any technical issues as it could lead to chaos," said a senior official, on condition of anonymity.
Despite repeated attempts, Scomi Engineering remained unavailable for comment.
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