Mumbai’s monorail was ready to return. Why has its comeback been delayed?

“The MMMOCL is evaluating covering up the open-to-sky gap between the guideways, perhaps with a safety net. This will take another three to four months,” an official said.

The move stems from an old railway safety principle that elevated railway tracks should be protected from below. The authority is now assessing whether such a covering can be installed without adding excessive load to the monorail’s pillars.

It is also examining whether the gaps need to be covered along the entire 17-km stretch or only at vulnerable locations.

The evacuation problem

Evacuation of passengers if a monorail gets stranded between stations is also a concern, which gained urgency after the August 2025 incident when a rake stopped between stations due to overloading, trapping passengers for nearly two hours. They were finally evacuated by breaking the glass.

Officials now want to ensure there is a workable evacuation mechanism if a similar incident occurs.

They have sought recommendations from IIT-Bombay and Medha Servo Drives, which supplied the new rakes. IIT-B has advised against constructing a permanent walkway along the guideways, saying that additional structures could compromise the existing structure.

The evacuation challenge is particularly complicated in congested areas and in areas over nallahs. In less complicated situations, stranded rakes are generally pulled towards a station using another rake.

The safety reviews for now mean the monorail’s much-awaited return is slipping further away, with the officials looking at Diwali or December-end as a possible window. The restart could be pushed beyond that if the safety measures take longer.

The Chembur-Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk monorail has been shut since September last year.