Mumbai (Metro Rail News): Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has taken some key decisions recently and have decided to involve Indian manufacturers to develop new rakes. MMRDA is now looking for a consultant who will review the design of new rakes and will take care of other ancillary services such as the timeline of manufacturing, supply, testing and commissioning.
According to the sources, ‘Medha Servo Drives Private Limited’ is at the designing stage. They have already appointed a consultant from their end to look after the work. Meanwhile, the Mumbai monorail team learning from its past mistakes has asked the manufacturer to provide a checklist of components that will be required to be repaired and replaced, in case, after the defect liability period. The source also said that the previous operator SCOMI had not given the checklist of components therefore, the officials were not aware of what components were required. Now in new rakes, they don’t want to face this issue as they already have a list of it. Besides, the manufacturer will also provide a different vendors list from which these components can be procured and added that there are nearly 2500 components in a single monorail rake.
The MMRDA provided two years six months’ time to Medha Servo Drives Private Limited to finish the design, manufacturing, supply testing and commissioning work and six months have already passed. As per MMRDA, in January 2023 first prototype new monorail rake will arrive at its Depot and then the testing and commissioning work will begin. After safety clearance is obtained the rake will be put for commercial operations while the other remaining nine rakes will be provided in the next nine months’ time.
The MMRDA has given the contract for 10 new rake procurement to this Indian manufacturer at a value of over Rs 500 cr and is promoting the Make in India initiative of the Central Government, which is largely appreciable. Currently, the Mumbai monorail services on the track from Chembur to Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk run at a frequency of 22 minutes with limited rakes in operation; therefore with new rakes in service, the frequency of monorail will improve offering more trips to the commuters.
