Come November 29 Mumbaikars' dream of smooth commuting will get a major boost with the laying of the foundation stone for India's first Monorail project at the metropolis.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to lay the foundation stone on November 29. The venue will be Mahatma Gandhi Ground in Chembur," said Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director (PR) of Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA).
The 19.54-km-long monorail, which will connect south Mumbai to the eastern suburbs (Jacob Circle to Chembur via Wadala), is expected to be completed by May 2011, Kawathkar told PTI.
Malaysian-based Scomi Engineering in collaboration with Larsen & Toubro will execute the Rs 24b600 crore project.
"The route will have 18 stations and each train will have four bogies. During peak hours, around 10,000 to 15,000 passengers are expected to travel per hour. It will have an average speed of 80 km per hour.
"A car depot facility spread across eight hectares will come up at Wadala," Kawathkar said.
MMRDA has also cleared the proposal for a nine-km monorail connecting Banra-Kurla Complex and Bandra railway station in Central Mumbai in the second week of October.
Chembur-Govandi-Chembur in central Mumbai, Lokhandwala Complex-Oshiware-Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road-Kanjur Marg of central suburbs and Thane-Kalyan-Bhiwandi in Mumbai Metropolitan Region are other routes for which the MMRDA has already started techno-economic study.
The civic body plans to build the monorail lines in such a way that there is connectivity in all parts of Mumbai.
Accordingly, the agency decided to do a comprehensive study, which will be carried out by Canadian firm LEA Associates, to identify congested spots in eastern and western suburbs, Kawathkar said.
The consultancy firm will locate the congested spots, particularly in eastern and western suburbs, and prepare a master plan following which monorail projects would be taken up in future, he said.
Besides monorail, the agency is constructing the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro Rail.
The agency has also proposed to build 50 skywalks across the city in order to improve traffic infrastructure in the city.
Of these, 20 will be built by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.
The MMRDA has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 600 crore for the project. It also proposes to have shopping plaza on some of the skywalks.
