Mumbai’s monorail service, once hailed as a futuristic transport solution, is again under the spotlight after yet another disruption. On Thursday morning, a four-car rake came to an abrupt halt at Acharya Atre Nagar station in Antop Hill, leaving passengers stranded for nearly 15 minutes. The incident was traced to excess passenger load, with the system detecting a weight of 107 tonnes against its permissible limit of 104 tonnes.
Officials confirmed that the monorail’s automated safety system locked movement until the excess load was brought under control. Nearly 40 to 50 passengers were asked to step out, reducing the weight to 102 tonnes, before the train was allowed to proceed towards Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk. Although staff intervened quickly, the episode exposed not only operational fragility but also a mismatch between design capacity and commuter behaviour. Each monorail rake is designed to carry 562 passengers, yet overcrowding remains a recurring challenge during sudden spikes in ridership. Officials noted that ridership has largely stagnated around 17,000 to 18,000 passengers daily, with occasional surges during heavy rain or peak-hour road congestion. These uneven spikes, they said, often trigger overloading, particularly when passengers cling onto footboards.
The incident came just two days after two consecutive breakdowns forced the evacuation of more than 1,100 commuters. In one case, a power failure halted a rake between Bhakti Park and Mysore Colony for nearly three hours, while in another, a train stalled between Acharya Atre and Wadala stations, later needing to be towed to safety. These disruptions have further dented the public’s confidence in a system that has already struggled to expand its user base. Transport officials insisted that newly introduced standard operating procedures (SOPs) helped contain Thursday’s situation quickly. The SOPs, rolled out earlier this week, mandate strict monitoring of passenger entry to ensure trains remain within safe weight limits, along with security personnel aboard every rake. While the protocols appear to have worked in this instance, experts argue that relying solely on manual control will not address deeper issues of capacity planning, demand forecasting and system resilience.
For a city like Mumbai, where sustainable public transport is critical to reducing road congestion and emissions, the monorail’s persistent reliability concerns remain worrying. Urban planners note that under-utilisation and frequent breakdowns risk undermining the very purpose of investing in mass transit. Commuters, meanwhile, are growing impatient, with many calling for urgent upgrades in infrastructure and technology to restore confidence. As Mumbai charts its path towards greener and more equitable mobility, the monorail must evolve from being a fragile experiment into a dependable service. Without such transformation, its future as part of the city’s integrated transport ecosystem remains uncertain.
Also Read : Cidco Navi Mumbai Faces Water Shortage As Delay Hits Key Supply Project
