Monorail sees higher footfall during Ganesh festival

During the 10-day Ganesh festival, Mumbai's monorail saw a higher footfall, with over 25,000 passengers using the system in a single day, the highest ever. The monorail has been a financial burden, with losses of ₹255 crore in 2022-23.

Mumbai: During the 10-day Ganesh festival, the loss-making monorail attracted a higher footfall with 1.85 lakh commuters travelling between September 19 and 28. After the Covid-19 pandemic, for the first time, more than 25,000 passengers used the monorail on the 20-kilometre route on Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle in a single day.

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According to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the highest number of footfalls on the last day of the Ganpati festival (Anant Chaturdashi) on September 28 stood at 25,234 passengers. “Never have we seen so many passengers travelling on a single day. Our daily average has remained around 13,000 passengers. During the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival, the daily average went up to 18,508 passengers,” an official from MMRDA said.

In these 10 days, the lowest number of footfalls were seen on September 19 at 11,650 passengers while the last four days saw more than 21,000 passengers per day, including the highest footfall on September 28. From September 9 to 18, there were 1.58 lakh daily passengers.

“We have implemented several working changes that have significantly improved the proficiencies of the monorail system. These changes have yielded positive results, as evidenced by the ridership during the festival,” Sanjay Mukherjee, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said.

In November 2017, after a series of glitches, including a fire in Monorail, the state government shut it until September 2018. After it restarted, the daily footfall in the monorail was around 10,000 passengers. The monorail has been a financial burden, with losses of ₹255 crore in 2022-23 and has earned ₹7.50 crore from revenue in 2022-23. The monorail currently operates 200 services per day with 10 rakes.