The party on Sunday to celebrate the long-awaited inauguration of Mumbai's jinxed Monorail came to haunt it the next day. A day after CM Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the second phase between Chembur and Mahalaxmi, its services were impacted on Monday as strings from the flower garland used to decorate his inaugural ride got entangled with the lower section of the train and stalled services.
The incident hit the Chembur-bound monorail at around 12.15 pm, after which passengers were asked to de-board and ferried by another train. According to MMRDA officials, the train was sent back to the depot and put back in service by 1 pm. In total, four trains are operational for the entire Chembur-Mahalaxmi corridor.
RA Rajeev, Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA said, "One wire that was used to tie flowers (for CM's ride) got entangled in the lower portion."
The train was taken to depot, the wire removed and then put back into service."
Incidentally, aside from the snag, MMRDA figures on Monday showed that by around 8 pm, around 26,000 passengers had used the monorail services, generating about 5.18 lakh in revenue. The services benefited from it being a bank holiday as many also took joyrides.
On Sunday, Fadnavis along with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had flagged off Monorail's second phase, in which only four of the 10 trains with MMRDA have been made operational. The first phase between Chembur and Wadala was started in 2014.
Udit Mehta, a passenger on the train, "The incident did increase my travel time and such incidents can be avoided. However, I am happy with the corridor being operational. The current frequency of a train every 20 minutes, though, needs improvement. "
Nandlal Chauhan, who also on the ride from Lower Parel to Chembur said, "I travel on this route daily, and now since the complete corridor is functional, I'll use Monorail. But, it seems like the frequency is very low."
