With an aim to open the Wadala Depot-Jacob Circle leg of Mumbai Monorail in December, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has started the process of appointing a private agency to conduct safety assessment of the transportation system.

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The agency will be responsible for monitoring and inspection of the tests that will be conducted on the Monorail system.

Currently, the MMRDA is in the process of installing electrical systems as well as civil works among other things. Once more Monorail rakes reach Mumbai, more tests will be conducted. At the moment there are 10 Monorail trains in Mumbai.

"There will be three levels of tests, starting from level 3, followed by 2 and then 1. Under level 1 tests, the entire system will be integrated to check all the systems at one go when all of them are functional, like daily operations," said an official.

After finalising the private agency, an independent engineer too will be appointed to verify and certify the Monorail system fit for passenger use. The agency is likely to be appointed after a month and will remain on board for 12 months at a fee of around Rs3.6 crore.

Before the project's first phase between Chembur and Wadala Depot was inaugurated, SMRT, a Singapore-based public transport operator, was appointed to assess the safety of the Monorail system. Thereafter, retired Commissioner of Railway Safety GP Garg was appointed to certify the system.

"The tests are likely to commence from September-end or at the start of October. In November, system integration tests will be conducted and, thereafter, the second phase will be opened this December, thereby making the entire 19.5km-long route operational," said the MMRDA official.