Mumbai: India is set to get its first monorail service today. The 8.9-kilometre long monorail service between Wadala and Chembur in the central-eastern suburbs of the metropolis will become operational after a delay of over two years. The service will today be inaugurated by state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. The commercial operations will begin tomorrow onwards.
The Rs 3,000-crore monorail project is being implemented in two phases. The first phase comprises the 8.9 km long Wadala-Chembur section, while in the second phase the services will be extended to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk in South Mumbai.
The project has been executed by a consortium of engineering major Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) and Malaysian firm Scomi Engineering and owned and operated by MMRDA. The monorail is expected to reduce the travel time between Wadala and Chembur by almost half, from 40 minutes at present to nearly 21 minutes.
MMRDA has already spent Rs 1,900 crore of the Rs 3,000 crore allocated for the project. The civil work on the second phase of the project has also been completed.
Bureau Report
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