Mumbai: MMRDA to negotiate with IL and FS to operate monorail

MMRDA had approached MRVC to see if they would be interested in operating and maintaining the monorail Phase-I and Phase-II corridors. Representation pic

Though the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) was in talks with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to operate monorail services, sources from the authority have told mid-day that there has been no definite response from them (MRVC) on it. Now, the only option left with MMRDA is to negotiate with IL & FS, which has won the contract to operate the monorail. MMRDA is also in talks with current operator Scomi Engineering, to see if they can restart the Phase I corridor by October or November, and has asked them to submit a plan for the same by July 31.

No response from MRVC
A senior MMRDA official said, "We had approached MRVC to see if they would be interested in operating and maintaining the monorail Phase-I and Phase-II corridors, but we have not received any response from their side." He added that negotiations with IL&FS are in progress.

MMRDA has also told Scomi Engineering to procure spare parts beforehand so there is no problem once the services are operational. It is also in talks with Scomi and has asked them to submit a plan for operations of monorail Phase-I between Wadala-Chembur by July 31. This will also help resolve the issue of the salaries of Scomi employees that are pending for the months of April, May and June. When Phase-I restarts, MMRDA will release some payment to Scomi which the company can use to pay the salaries of its employees.

High estimation from IL & FS
MRVC is a public sector undertaking of the government of India under the Ministry of Railways (MoS). The planning authority was in a dilemma regarding finalising the operator who will run the monorail services as two companies - IL & FS and Reliance Infrastructure - had quoted Rs 2,000-crore and Rs 6,408-crore respectively, which according to MMRDA, is very high compared to its estimation of Rs 1,000-crore to operate the monorail for a period of 10 years.

Popcorn
Rs 2,000-cr: The IL & FS estimation to operate the monorail for 10 years
Rs 1,000-cr: The MMRDA estimation to operate the monorail for 10 years

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