dna special: Scomi team here to tackle monorail braking issues

If you thought the only problem with the Mumbai Monorail is the constant velocity joint you're wrong, because even the work car manufactured by Scomi has serous braking issues. The problem with the work car has rendered it unavailable for support maintenance activity for months now.

The monorail rakes have electronic systems that are complex and issues have arisen with regard to the parking brakes repeatedly.

"The parking brake gets applied even when the pilot has not given the command or applied the parking brake. In other words, the monorail rakes apply brakes on their own," said a source. This occurs once or twice a week.

"The work car for support maintenance purposes is a very basic vehicle and does not have complex engineering, yet it has issues with brakes. The problem with it is that the brakes do not always function. If the work car is taken out for maintenance work and must halt at a gradient, it doesn't stay at one location, but slides down," the sources explained.

In fact after the Mumbai Monorail was inaugurated on February 1, the work car has been unavailable for long periods. As a result, the staff has been forced to opt for alternate arrangements and vehicles to provide safe access to support track side maintenance works like rail inspection.

Responding to questions on these braking issues, UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), said: "A team from Scomi has come to rectify the issues connected with the work car. It should start functioning by early-October. The team is also looking at the issues related to unnecessary braking in the monorail system."