TNN

Mumbai, Sep 29: Malabar Hill in south Mumbai could well be connected via monorail with Wadala and Bandra-Kurla Complex in two years. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday okayed the construction of four monorail corridors covering 70 km.

Two corridors will be first taken up by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)-a 25-km route running from Malabar Hill to Haji Ali, Jacob Circle, Wadala, Sion Hospital and Dharavi to BKC, and another 25-km route from Thane to Kalyan to Bhiwandi. An estimated Rs 1,500-Rs 1,800 crore will be spent to construct the two stretches.

Two more corridors have been proposed, but these will be taken up subsequently—a 10-km Chembur-Mahul-Govandi route and a 10-km Lokhandwala Complex-Oshiwara-JVLR-Kanjurmarg stretch. The cost of setting up the monorail service is roughly Rs 85 crore per km. The trains are expected to run at a maximum speed of 80 kmph and an average speed of 65 kmph.

No other Indian city has a monorail which, with a 'passengers per direction per hour’ (PPDPH) of 15,000, is not considered a mass transit medium. In comparison, say the railways, Mumbai’s locals have a PPDPH of 1.8 lakh.

"The monorail will work as a feeder for the existing railways and for the proposed Metro lines," said MMRDA joint commissioner Milind Mhaiskar. Places like Mahul and Malabar Hill are served by packed buses only and the monorail will supplement the road transport, he added.

The monorail was initially talked of as a connector between the domestic and international airports on the lines of similar systems in other metros of the world. The government later amended its plan and proposed that the monorail service areas that are not connected by other trains.

The MMRDA will invite global expressions of interest from consultants to study the feasibility, availability of space, cost and source of funding. The process is expected to be over by March 2008, after which construction will start.