Impossible not to be impressed and entranced at the sight of the long, green caterpillar nosing its way along the overhead line, firmly clamped to the rails last weekend. The monorail project seems real at last, though one cannot help but imagine the kind of things the average commuting Mumbaikar would like to try with it. Including travelling on its roof and please don’t say it’s too dangerous, because the average Mumbai has no imagination anyway!
What everyone would like to know is when it will all be ready, so Scomi International saying sometime later this year, doesn’t cut much ice.
For those who came in late, the figures are always impressive. Scomi and its consortium partner Larsen & Toubro secured the Rs.2,460 crore Mumbai Monorail Project in November 2008. For this project, Scomi will deliver a total of 60 cars to make up 15 sets of 4-car trains.
The Mumbai Monorail project is a 19.5-kilometre route between Jacob Circle and Chembur with one central depot and about 18 user-friendly and highly secured stations. Each monorail, which comprises of four coaches, will have a capacity to accommodate about 600 passengers thereby carrying nearly 0.3 million commuters on a daily basis in the proposed route.
We’re waiting. But we are not holding our collective breath yet.