Monorail commuters suffered twice on Tuesday as services were hit during the morning and evening peak hours following technical snags in the power supply and train control system.
MMRDA officials said that after the morning hiccup, passengers were evacuated from the Monorail around 10 am at Wadala Bridge station and the empty train began making its way to the Wadala depot. "But it got stuck mid-way and another train had to be called to pull it along," an MMRDA official said.
With operations being suspended for 45 minutes, many services had to be cancelled while some were delayed.
Then, around 4 pm, services came to a halt for another 30 minutes following a fault in the power supply system.
MMRDA didn't provide the exact number of trips cancelled or delayed.
Monorail operates around 131 trips on daily basis.
Monish Makhija, who travels daily between Chembur and Lower Parel via Monorail, said, "On Tuesday, I had to take the local after the Monorail service was suspended. I had to change the crowded local at Kurla, in this heat, to get to my detination."
Currently, only four of the total 10 Monorail trains are operational. Of these four, only two trains are functional at times as the other two undergo maintenance.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is currently running the modern rail itself, after it sacked the train's previous operator, LTSE, over delivery issues.
As reported in DNA on Monday, LTSE — that is Larsen & Toubro and Scomi Engineering — had alleged that MMRDA put the train system's safety at risk by terminating its contract abruptly.
But MMRDA, struggling as it is to find train spares to ensure smooth operations, hit back on Tuesday saying passenger safety came first for it.
While ending LTSE's contract in December, MMRDA had cited a host of issues including flouting of instructions by the the private operator, its inability to start the second phase, and its failure to supply another five trains as had been agreed upon.
Ever since the Monorail first began functioning in 2014, it has been in the news for breakdowns and non-profitability.
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