Monorail work gathers steam

Ashley D'Mello, TNN Sep 20, 2009, 05.31am IST

MUMBAI: Work on the Rs 2,460-crore monorail project is steaming ahead. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials said that work along most of the route- Jacobs Circle-Wadala-Chembur-will now begin as the traffic police have given the go ahead.

"Permissions are needed from the traffic cops as work on the ground entails blocking off parts of the road and this in turn causes jams. So far, work had been in progress only along a 5-km route as the permissions had not been obtained for the rest of the track. Now, work will begin on 19 km of the track,'' said an MMRDA official.

Head of the transport planning division of the MMRDA, P R K Murthy, said the project is developing well and should be complete by its December 2010 deadline.

"Unlike the Metro rail project, the monorail project is much smaller and its implementation will not mean large scale dislocation of people and structures,' said joint project director of MMRDA, Dilip Kawathkar." The monorail project aims to benefit the section of the populace that is not being served effectively by existing modes of transport, said Kawathkar. The monorail route will supplement the suburban rail and the new Metro rail network.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-09-20/mumbai/28080220_1_monorail-project-monorail-route-metro-rail-project