The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is banking on the partially operational Metro Line 2B to breathe new life into the city’s loss-making monorail corridor.
With ridership stagnant and annual losses nearing ₹150 crore, officials hope the upcoming metro linkage at Chembur station will turn the tide. Metro Line 2B, currently undergoing trial runs, will connect Mandale in Mankhurd to Diamond Garden in Chembur and eventually extend to DN Nagar in the western suburbs. Once fully operational, the 23.6 km elevated corridor is expected to integrate with Metro Lines 2A, 3, and 4, along with suburban rail and key road networks — and crucially, link directly with the monorail at Chembur. “The integration with Metro 2B is critical. It could finally bring in the kind of footfall the monorail was envisioned for,” a senior MMRDA official said, adding that while there’s some walking distance between systems, functional end-to-end connectivity is being ensured.
Currently, the 17 km monorail between Chembur and Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk sees just 16,000 daily commuters on weekdays and even fewer on weekends. The monorail operates 118 trips a day at 18-minute intervals. However, MMRDA has begun preparing for a surge in users with the order of 10 new rakes from Medha Servo Rail Pvt Ltd, priced at ₹58.9 crore per unit. A prototype is already under trial. But officials are cautious. “Deploying the new rakes now, without confirmed higher ridership, would only escalate operational costs. Each delivery triggers a payment milestone that could push losses up by ₹30 crore annually,” the official noted. The strategy is to time the rake deployment with Metro 2B’s launch, potentially improving monorail frequency from 18 minutes to just five minutes. Trial runs began on April 16 on the 5.4 km segment between Diamond Garden and Mandale. Once fully functional, Metro Line 2B will feature 20 stations, offering extensive connectivity across major road and rail corridors.
While Metro Lines 2B and underground Metro Line 3 are set for partial opening this year, Metro Line 4 is still pending trial runs. The MMRDA’s success hinges on how quickly and seamlessly the metro-monorail integration can convert into real footfall.
