Is travelling in the Mumbai Monorail unsafe?

Is travelling in Mumbai Monorail safe enough? There are serious doubts after there have been back-to-back adverse incidents — some within the train and some on the road below.

Just over a fortnight ago one of monorail's load wheel fell on Ramakrishna Chemburkar Road (RC Road). Fortunately, there weren't any casualties.

"This incident occurred sometime in June. It was a wheel from monorail, which was in motion, that fell on the road outside the police station," confirmed Dilip Vishnu Raut, senior police inspector of RCF police station.

This wheel belonged to Rolling Stock Train (RST) Number 11, a recently inducted monorail train for passenger operations. This train, after a series of safety and technical tests, was commissioned into service sometime after May. The train was put into service as Scomi Engineering and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) struggled to put other monorail trains on track since they were not 'fit for passenger operations'.

This is not the only mishap that has occurred. The other incident in June was bursting of tyre (guide wheel) of RST 9 and its parts falling down below next to VN Purav Marg-RC Marg monorail station.

Sources shared that the operation team, particularly the control room, was apprised of the problem with the wheel, but no measure was taken to keep the train inside the car depot. As a result, the train is now stationary for almost a month at Chembur monorail station with the team brainstorming on how to take it back to Wadala car depot. "If the train is plied with the current damages, it will only mean damaging the guideway beam (on which the train plies). As a temporary measure, rollers were also tried but that fell on the viaduct at Chembur station," said a source.

The bogie of RST 6 had cracked in April, but it is still being utilised for passenger services. In common man's parlance, bogie is the trolley with wheels on which the coach is positioned. As per international and Indian Railway safety standards, any damage to it is usually considered as 'unfit for passenger operations'.

Sources shared that despite such a serious damage and safety lapse to the train's bogie, all that was done by the operation and maintenance firm – Scomi Engineering – was to apply silicon to fix the 'crack'.

Since May, there have been repeated system failures with regards to Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system in RST 5. As the term suggests, ATP is a device that helps the train captain to prevent collisions or observe a signal or speed restriction.

Clarifying about the series of incidents, UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said: "There was a problem with tyres and one of it had burst. It needs to be replaced." He agreed that there were problems "off and on" with the trains due to which only two trains were in operation. But now there are three trains put into service.

"A special crane will be needed to take the affected train at Chembur back to Wadala Car Depot," added Madan.

Issues with air-conditioning system

In other trains too issues continue abound with the air-conditioning system. "Out of the ten monorail trains, there are just two that are servicing the passengers daily. It is a daily struggle," shared a source.

Even before the Mumbai Monorail was commissioned there have been several glitches. The technical errors vary from breaking of an apron door as well as constant velocity joint, panel door of a train falling off, power tripping, doors opening mid-section, cannibalising parts due to non-availability of spares from Malaysian factory of Scomi Engineering.

As several parts continue to fall down on the road, there are plans to put up a net or a mesh attached with the trains. This will ensure whatever falls from the trains doesn't go down on the road.