The beleaguered Monorail project being implemented in Mumbai faced a setback on Saturday when the railway track of the monorail slid off the beams supporting it, creating a scare at Currey Road. Though the tracks were balanced precariously on the beam, it did not fall onto the road below.
The incident happened around 1.25 p.m. when the track on the north beam of pier no. 1C1 near Mahadev Palav Marg at BDD Chawl in Currey Road slid off the beams. Panicked residents summoned Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials. A huge crowd gathered at the site creating a huge traffic snarl on Delisle Road.
The incident also sparked a protest by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists, led by MLA Bala Nandgaonkar. The MNS raised slogans against the State government demanding that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should take cognisance of this incident and probe into the construction and safety of Monorail.
“Today, around 1.25 pm, the conductor rail resting on north beam on pier No.1C1 to pier No.1D1 running from Lower Parel to Mint Colony got dislocated. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The conductor rail that provides power to Monorail's second phase will be tightened to the guideway beam by midnight,” said Dilip Kawathkar, Joint Director and spokesperson, MMRDA in an official statement. He also added that the incident will be investigated.
This not the first time the monorail project has faced such technical issues. Earlier, in July 2011, two people were killed when a beam weighing 60 tonnes collapsed on them at RCF Road in Chembur during construction of the Rs 1100 crore first phase of the monorail project from Chembur to Wadala.
A few months after the first phase was made operational in February 2014, the monorail ‘Constant-Velocity Joint’ that connects the traction motor with gear box broke down at Chembur while it was ferrying passengers in July 2014.
On March 15, 2015, in a first major dislocation of services on the monorail network, two trains were struck after a major power failure near Bhakti Park station, leaving passengers stranded mid-air. While passengers were safe, services remained paralysed for over four hours.
In August this year, a technical glitch caused the monorail to become unoperational near Bhakti Park station as the corridor between Wadala Depot-Jacob Circle (Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk) was undergoing trial run.
The writer is an intern with The Hindu
