Mumbai

Monorail: Ridership to increase by 300 % but no reserved seats for women

Published

5 years ago

February 25, 2019

Nisha

Read Time: 2 minutes

While ridership of Monorail is expected to increase by around 300 per cent after starting services between Wadala and Jacob Circle in Mahalaxmi from Wednesday, separate coach for women passengers is not on the cards of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the initial days.

Currently, the daily ridership for the first phase between Chembur and Wadala is around 15,000. Once the second phase between Wadala and Jacob Circle starts, MMRDA anticipates ridership to increase to 1 lakh.

“During the initial days, we won’t have separate coaches for women. We want to understand the response pattern first for the 15 days. If the response is good, at least half of the first coach of Monorail will be kept reserved for women passengers,” said an MMRDA official.

In Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1, half coach of the total four coaches is kept reserved for women passengers. Daily ridership of Metro is around 4 lakh passengers.

Construction work of Monorail began in 2008. The first phase was operational since February 2014 while the second phase is expected to be made open for public on Wednesday. “We are looking at a soft start. Currently, no promotional offer or discount will be given to commuters. We do not want to make the Monorail crowded. Our operational hours also currently will be 6 am to 10 pm,” said the MMRDA official.

The frequency of Monorail is expected to be of around 20 minutes, and MMRDA is ready to undertake operations for the whole corridor with four trains out of the total 10 trains. Of the remaining six trains, five require repair work, and one had caught fire in November 2017 incident.

Meanwhile, Archie Vora, a daily commuter who uses Metro-1 said, “If the ridership is expected to increase by a huge number, separate at least half coach should be reserved for women passengers. It helps women commuters during morning and evening peak hours.”