The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has announced an enhancement in the Monorail service frequency, reducing it to 15 minutes per train starting from Friday. This decision marks a significant improvement from the previous 18-minute interval, offering commuters increased convenience.
“Our monorails will depart every 15 minutes on weekdays, instead of the previous 18 minutes, with a whopping 142 trips available with an increase of 24 services,” Monorail’s official X account posted.
According to TOI, Monorail is expected to incur losses of over Rs 500 crore while Metro 2A and 7 may see a deficit of Rs 275 crore in this financial year. Monorail’s Phase I (Chembur to Wadala) became operational in February 2014 and the entire 20km length till Jacob’s Circle was thrown open for commuters in March 2019.
While there were initial expectations of higher ridership, pre-Covid numbers revealed a daily ridership of only 18,000 passengers. This figure declined further to 12,000 in May 2023. The move to increase Monorail frequency aims to improve commuter convenience and potentially boost ridership.