Monorail’s not going anywhere: 9 yrs down the line, losses mount to Rs 1.2k cr | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Monorail, which has been billed as a “white elephant” in the past, is expected to incur a net loss of Rs 529 crore in the current financial year (2023-24), while Metro lines 2A and 7 have reported Rs 280-crore loss for 2022-23.
The Chembur-Wadala Phase 1 of Mono rail became operational in February 2014 and the entire length of 20km till Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (Jacob’s Circle) was thrown open to citizens in March 2019.

The project has been criticised since its planning stages, and the worst fears about losses are coming true as the corridor runs virtually empty throughout the day even on weekdays, experts pointed out. Mono rail sources said, “The loss was around Rs 250 crore in 2022-23 and is pegged at Rs 529 crore for this FY. The earnings from ticketing are estimated to be a paltry Rs 13.6 crore.”
New rakes, travelator push up Mono loss; ‘route ill-planned’
Mono rail is expected to suffer a Rs 529 crore loss in 2023-24 from around Rs 250 crore in 2022-23. The increase in loss is being attributed to the procurement of new rakes and the cost of building a travelator connecting Mahalaxmi and Jacob’s Circle.
The Rs 64 crore travelator will have a length of 335 metres that will provide an interchange facility with the Metro 3 network and the Mahalaxmi station on Western Railway. MMRDA has also placed orders for 10 rakes which will cumulatively cost Rs 590 crore. The rakes are needed as MMRDA at present has only eight, of which seven are in operation.
The new rakes will help the agency run 250 trips a day against 118 now. Maintaining that it would be difficult to cut Mono rail losses as the route itself had been “badly planned”, a former MMRDA official suggested the state government must be requested to shut it. At the inauguration of Phase II in March 2019, then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had estimated that 1 lakh people would travel by the Mono rail network per day.
However, its daily pre-Covid ridership of 18,000 reduced to 12,000 by May 2023. On the other hand, Metro 2A and 7, which cover Gundavli-Dahisar-Andheri West, have a ridership of 2.3 lakh per day. However, the two lines, too, have been incurring about Rs 23 crore loss per month. The revenue earned was Rs 41 crore in the previous financial year as against an expenditure of Rs 322 crore.
A senior MMRDA official said, “We do not see a bleak future for Metro and are hopeful at least the operational costs can be recovered.” The agency hopes commuters will travel in large numbers once Line 7 (Dahisar-Gundavli) is extended till the airport and Line 9 (Dahisar-Bhayander) is commissioned. Also, opening of line 6 (Kanjurmarg-Lokhandwala) will bring more passengers to 2A and 7, the official said. MMRDA is working BEST and transport department for last-mile connectivity.