Daily on an average around 40 per cent trips of Mumbai Monorail are cancelled ever since it got fully operational between Chembur and Mahalaxmi last month. This also results in decreasing frequency directly increasing waiting time and travel time of Monorail commuters. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), while making the whole corridor starting March 4, had said that they will operate 131 trips daily but it has been able to operate only 79 trips daily on an average. On Tuesday, MMRDA announced performance of Monorail stating that it operates 79 trips daily on an average carrying more than 17,000 passengers. The reason behind lesser trips being operated daily is due to availability of just four trains out of a total of ten. And there have been days in the past one month when only two trains were functional as remaining two were under routine maintenance. Also, MMRDA is struggling to procure spare parts for Mumbai Monorail, and had also informally approached Malaysian Scomi Engineering that was terminated from operating Monorail in December 2018. Scomi is also the manufacturer of the Monorail trains. Due to lesser number of trips being operated, the waiting time of commuters has also increased. Monish Makhija, a daily user of Monorail, said, "Many a times I reach the station and come to know that Monorail is late as not all four trains are functional. This increases my waiting time, and I also get demotivated from travelling in Monorail." The MMRDA has floated bids for appointing a new manufacturer who will supply 10 new Monorail trains. The Mumbai Monorail project for which construction started in 2008 by a consortium of Larsen & Toubro and Scomi Engineering, has been in news ever since its partial operations between Chembur and Wadala started in 2014. It got fully operational between Chembur and Mahalaxmi in March 2019. FAILED PROMISES

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