Tracking the Monorail

The Rs 2,460-crore corridor from Jacob Circle to Chembur via Wadala was to come up in two phases. The first phase from Wadala to Chembur,a stretch of 8.26 kilometres,was to be commissioned by December 2010 and the remaining 11.28 kilometres by April 2011.

A visit to the site,from Wadala to Chembur,would show that the April deadline seems unlikely to be met. The Wadala depot,where rakes will be maintained and where the control room for the monorail is to come up,is far from completion. The construction depot was supposed to be completed by June and thereafter,six monorail rakes were to be brought for the first corridor.

The MMRDA’s plan to commission the corridor with even four stations seems a tall order. Work on the Bhakti Park station,the first on the corridor,at Wadala has begun,but work at other stations like Chembur,the last on the corridor,have not yet begun. On some stretches on RC Marg which cover a sizeable portion of the corridor,work of erecting piers has not commenced. “We have been given the deadline of completing the work by May 2011,” said Bhide.

The MMRDA has also not yet got permission from the High Court to start work on the stretch where there is a patch of mangroves near Wadala. “Only three piers would be constructed on that stretch and this should not take time. Our alignment had been fixed before the patch was declared a mangrove forest,we have approached the High Court and getting the permission would not be a problem,” added Bhide.