Mumbai Monorail ridership low, hopes high: Advertisers being sought

With a daily ridership of merely 10,000 commuters between Wadala and Chembur on the Monorail, the MMRDA plans to increase its income through non-fare revenues like advertising. It hopes to lease space for promotions inside Monorail rakes and stations.

An MMRDA official said, "We are already going to have telecom infrastructure like mobile towers set up at the stations to raise income. But now, we are planning to sell advertising rights to private companies." MMRDA started the process to lease space to telcos.

An MMRDA official said, "Though the ridership is less, we are positive that several locations on stations and piers visible to non-commuters can get us good money. We are going to start the bidding process for it."

Services on the Wadala-Chembur stretch restarted in September 2018 after being shut following a fire incident in November 2017. Its average daily ridership has since gone down by over 30 per cent, to 9,000 to 10,000 passengers, from 15,000 before the incident.

MMRDA officials said the operational cost too has since risen more than 100 per cent since September 2018. This means that its Chembur-Wadala-Chembur trip rate is Rs 21,200 now, compared to Rs 9,200 till November 2017.