Monorail work on railway tracks to begin soon

Monorail construction work may commence soon with Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) likely to clear permissions by next week. The nod is needed to construct monorail over railway tracks at Wadala and Currey Road.

"The revised plan and drawing of construction of monorail has been sent to the railways for clearance and we are hopeful that it would come by the first week of October," said a senior official from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The railways wanted MMRDA to re-plan the construction and change the location of the pillars so that the proposed additional two lines can be laid in future, a provision that MMRDA had missed. CRS had also raised concerns over launching of guideway beams or girders over Wadala railway lines, but now even that issue has been sorted out with fresh engineering designs.

Once the permission from CRS is received, the development authority intends to take up the construction work on war footing so that it can throw open the second phase by December 2015. The earlier deadline set by the MMRDA was March 2014.