After sell-out Day 1 on Mumbai Monorail, numbers fall

Services began on Monday, and as it was Shiv Ratra and a bank holiday, it was observed that majority of the commuters had come for a joyride

While the Chief Minister and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials expected the ridership on the entire monorail corridor between Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle to be close to one lakh a day, it has been observed that it is not close to even 50,000 per day. Nearly 10 years after construction on the monorail began, the Phase-II corridor between Wadala and Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk was inaugurated on Sunday by CM Devendra Fadnavis and union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. Talking at the inauguration, they had said that Phase-II would help increase the ridership.

Few commuters
Services began on Monday, and as it was Shiv Ratra and a bank holiday, it was observed that majority of the commuters had come for a joyride. According to the figures given by MMRDA, the ridership along the entire corridor on Monday was 27, 619 and the revenue collected was Rs 5,19,936.

Commuters take a joyride on Monday, when services began on Phase-II of the corridor

'Fares must reduce'
Tuesday was a regular working day and it was expected that the ridership would increase as many office goers could have taken the new mode of travel. However, the ridership figures on Tuesday were 23,321 and the revenue collected was R4,10,284. As per the figures of Wednesday till 10 pm, the ridership on the entire corridor was 24,575 and the revenue generated was R4,25,023.

Transport experts feel that in order to increase the ridership, the authorities should run the monorail at a frequency of 5-7 minutes, and reduce the fares. Transport expert A V Shenoy said, "If the authorities want more commuters to take the monorail, then they should see to it that the frequency of the trains is 5-7 minutes against the current 20-22 minutes. Also, commuters prefer travel by BEST and local trains, as their fares are cheaper compared to the monorail. To increase the ridership of monorail the fares must be close to those of the BEST and local trains."

'Fear on their minds'
He also said that once monorail services stabilise and run without problems, the ridership will see an increase. "Past incidents like fire and other technical issues during the operations of Phase-I, have created fear in the minds of people. If the services on the corridor run without a problem, there will be an increase in ridership in the coming months. The authorities also need to share details about the evacuation plans and measures in place if at all there is a fire," added Shenoy.

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