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Mumbai Monorail: big excitement from the day first

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MUMBAI: The country's first monorail had a dream debut on Sunday as around 20,000 Mumbaikars—from all classes—converged on the stations right from the crack of dawn to take a ride in the pink-and-blue coaches. Though the commute lasted merely 20 minutes from Wadala to Chembur —almost half the time it takes to cover the stretch by road during peak hours—the wait at the serpentine queues was way longer; but nothing could bother the visitors who seemed to ride a wave of excitement.

"It was a proud moment with ecstatic people waving the tricolour amid joyous roars of Ganapati Bappa Morya! Jai Maharashtra! and Bharat Mata ki Jai! every time the trains rolled into a station. It looked like a festival," said an official from Scomi, the Malaysian company that operates the monorail.

Morning-walkers and college students were among the first ones to reach the stations. By 9am the crowd started burgeoning even as the police and the private security guards grappled to tackle the swelling rush. "At one point, so many people entered a train that an alarm started ringing, indicating overloading. Many of the passengers had to step down before the doors could shut and the train could pull out. The response was more than we expected," said metropolitan commissioner U P S Madan. However, he hurried to add that the crowd never went out of control.

"Though the last train was slated for 3pm, we had to shut the station doors by 2.30pm as the number of visitors turned out to be way more than expected. Even then, to provide a ride to everyone who had bought a ticket, we had to run extra services for another one-and-a-half hours till 4.30pm."

Chembur resident Mayur Gada was among those who boarded the first train that departed from Chembur at 7.10am. "I woke up at 4.30am to ensure that I do not miss the first train. Usually, I do not get up from bed before 8.30 am. On the train, the atmosphere was electric, with everyone smiling and greeting each other." At Wadala, however, the visitors did not get the opportunity to board the first train that pulled put at 7.08am. Finally at 7.25am, the 200 people who had gathered on the platform got their chance to board the four-coached rake that is designed to ferry around 560 commuters. All complaints of delay were immediately forgotten as commuters stepped into the air-conditioned compartments.
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The view of the city, which is otherwise mundane, takes a unique dimension from top, said many. "It's great to catch a bird's eye view of Mumbai. It's a bit like a roller-coaster when the monorail takes a sharp turn after Bhakti Park station," said Supriya Samant, one of the commuters.

For Roopal Jogidasani, it was a special way to celebrate her birthday with her sister, who travelled all the way from Borivli to catch a train from Wadala. Like the Murugan family from Sion Koliwada, many found the ride so thrilling that they bought tickets twice for a second round. "I have travelled on the Delhi Metro too. Here the fares are cheaper for the air-conditioned ride," said Pungodi, a housewife who cancelled her movie plan for the monorail experience. Shejad Parkar, who came all the way from Mumbra, said, "It is a jaw-dropping experience for people who are used to cattle-class travel on locals. My only hope is that the commuters keep the stations and coaches clean so that monorail can be a benchmark."

Even as there was talk of how convenient the first phase of monorail will be, given that it will run only for a short distance and that too, till 3pm, a doctor couple from Bhakti Park said, "The debate for utility can wait as any new mode of transport is good news for the city."

Social media, too, remained abuzz with Mumbai's monorail mania. "Almost everybody on Whatsapp, Twitter and other social networking sites are talking about the monorail. My relatives from Pune are driving down to take a ride," said a visitor, Anuradha Tamhane.



20,000 ride Mumbai's monorail on Day 1 - The Times of India
 
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well It was the first day yesterday so excitement is obvious. Anyway when phase 1 will complete then it will cover around 90KM network while phase2 will add another 90 km along with upcoming metro networks. Great for mumbai.
 
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Awesome!!!!!!!!

Can we attach Some more coaches?

What about other cities? Do we have any plan to extend this to other cities?
 
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levina said:
Definitely India is on the path to progress......

But disparity exists everywhere....this pic is just another reminder...
Click to expand...

In a city like Bombay, the residents of those very slums make up an integral part of the user base of public transportation systems. The monorail is no different. On a side note, the city has fewer slum pockets existing today than ever before, with an apparent rapid decline over the past decade and a half, mainly because of slum rehabilitation and land redevelopment. To give you an example off the top of my head, vast slum pockets used to exist where the Imperial twin Towers, Tardeo, now stand.
 
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