India's first and only monorail project complete

India's first and only monorail project is now complete.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the Phase-II of the monorail project between Wadala to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk— a distance of 11.28 km— on Sunday.

On February 2, 2014, the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan commissioned the Phase-I of the project between Chembur and Wadala depot (8.26 km).

In 2008, the then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh cleared the project and in 2009, his successor Ashok Chavan laid the foundation of the project.

Mumbaikars will be able to ride the entire 19.54-km-long Chembur to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk Monorail corridor, which is devoid of any mass public rapid transit system.

According to officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the monorail will operate daily from 6 am to 10 pm with a 22-minute gap between the two mono trains and will also reduce the travel time from 90 minutes to a mere 30 minutes.

The seventeen stations on the entire corridor are Chembur, V N Purav Marg, Fertilizer Township, Bharat Petroleum, Mysore Colony, Bhakti Park, Wadala Depot (all Phase-I), G T B Nagar, Antop Hill, Acharya Atre Nagar, Wadala Bridge, Dadar-East, Naigaon, Ambedkar Nagar, Mint Colony, Lower Parel and Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (all Phase-II).

The Mumbai monorail has been built by engineering and construction major L&T in association with Scomi Group Bhd of Malaysia.

"This is the first and only monorail project in Mumbai. The government is focusing on metro rail," official sources said.

The entire Mumbai monorail plan had eight lines in two stages, but over the years there has been a rethinking and the other six lines are on hold.

The select countries that have monorail are the United States, Germany, China, Japan, Australia, Thailand and Malaysia.