The commissioning of country’s first monorail is expected to considerably cut down traffic on Mumbai’s roads and reduce pollution as well. As per estimates drawn by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), BEST bus trips could go down by 5,000 a day, while, in the case of taxis and autorickshaws, it could go down by 10,000 once the monorail is operational.
“Monorail will, for sure, help save large quantity of fuel used for buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws and private vehicles. The safe, air-conditioned and comfortable mono is expected to attract most of the private vehicle owners as it will cover a 21-km distance from Chembur to Jacob Circle via Wadala in about 35-40 minutes. This ride will also cut down on fuel expenditure, travel time and parking woes faced by private vehicle owners,” said Ratnakar Gaikwad, Metropolitan Commissioner.
“It will reduce 5,000 BEST bus trips, 10,000 taxi and auto-rickshaw trips during a day, as monorail will accommodate 550 commuters per trip,” said Ashwini Bhide, joint metropolitan commissioner. The monorail is expected to ferry over 2 lakh commuters every day.
According to the MMRDA, since monorail does not require any fossil fuel, it remains free of air pollution and as it runs on a narrow 0.8-metre beam on rubber tyres, it makes little noise.
On the operational front, it will use regenerative braking which means when the train brakes, it passes on the electric power back to the system which can be used by other trains running on the system at that time. This would save about 25% power. The monorail will act as a feeder to high capacity Mass Rapid Transit Systems like suburban railways and metro rail services and will add to the public transportation network in the city.
The Rs 2,460-crore project is being designed and built by Larsen & Toubro and M/s SCOMI Engineering, Malaysia.
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