The Mumbai Monorail, the country's first, is becoming a headache for the authorities. Once again, there have been two back-to-back incidents of the breaking of the Constant Velocity (CV) Joint that is connected to the axle of monorail trains, thereby disrupting operations.
Coming down heavily on Malaysian monorail manufacturer Scomi, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will be penalising them for disruption in services. This is not the first time this has happened along the Wadala Depot-Chembur monorail corridor.
What happened on Saturday?
Sources have informed dna that at around 9.15 am on Saturday, one of the monorail trains, Rolling Stock Number (RST) 06 (pink), piloted by Juilee Bhandare, suffered a serious technical glitch. The part that broke was a CV Joint, which even hit the apron door (which opens to the engine). Fortunately, the door didn't open despite it getting severely damaged. However, the possibility of a chunk of metal falling down on the road cannot be ruled out.
This incident occurred between Bhakti Park and Mysore Colony Monorail Stations in the traction motor number 7 of End Car (ECA) 06. As the unusual sound wasn't heard by the pilot and no drive line failure message flashed on the dashboard. The dog squad of the Maharashtra Security Force which boarded the train alerted the pilot.
Up to 2.30 pm, only a single line was operational and the 8.93 km route of Wadala Depot-Chembur was divided into two for operations, services between Chembur - Bharat Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum to Wadala Depot. Only by 2.30 pm was the affected rake coupled or towed into the depot, where even PRK Murthy, chief of transport and communications of MMRDA was present for inspection.
What happened on Sunday?
Similarly, on Sunday too services came to a standstill when the same problem occurred on RST 05 piloted by Rohan Sawant towards Chembur. The CV Joint gave issues at the same motor number 7-8 of ECA 06. "This happened close to goods railway line off RCF Road at around 3 pm," said the source.
The maintenance staff reached the location by road. Thereafter, power supply was put off for three hours till 6 pm, stopping monorail operations.
Scomi will be penalised: MMRDA
A senior MMRDA official confirmed the two incidents as well as operations getting affected. The official added that Scomi will be heavily penalised for not operating 100% services. As per operations and maintenance rules, penalty will be levied on the basis of percent of services that were in operations. On Sunday, one-third of the services was out of operation.
Senior MMRDA officials on Monday held an emergency meeting at Wadala Depot wherein the private players were at the receiving end. "MMRDA will levy penalty. Whenever the services are reduced below the acceptable level, penalty becomes leviable. In the last two days it has come below the said level. Separate action is being taken to remodel the CV Joint, which has been giving trouble for some time," said UPS Madan, Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA.
Plagued by glitches
April-May 2013: CV Joint broke and apron door opened
Date unknown: Panel door of rake fell off
Date unknown: Oil pump failures, cannibalising of parts from the spare trains
April-May 2014: Doors opened on either sides of monorail at Chembur
May-June 2014: Replacement of UPS System needed at Wadala Depot and Bhakti Park stations
May 23, 2014: Door of RST7 opened midway between two stations
June 11, 2014: CV Joint of RST 8 broke
July 20, 2014: Power tripped at Fertiliser Township station burning power cable
August 16, 2014: CV Joint of RST 9 caused problems at VN Purav Marg station
October 11, 2014: CV Joint of RST 6 broke and damaged apron door near Mysore Colony station
October 12, 2014: CV Joint of RST 5 broke
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