Mumbai:
Mumbai's monorail is right on track and the first prototype has arrived in the city for a trial run. It will run on an elevated corridor, connecting parts of Mumbai currently ill-connected by buses and local trains.
Most of these locations are in the north-eastern suburbs of the island city.
The construction is already underway and the first monorail is expected to run in November 2010 between Wadala and Jacob Circle. But authorities are concerned about the ticket prices. "The pricing structure will be 1.5 times what the city buses charges," says Ashwini Bhide , Joint Commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
But the pricing has been justified considering the monorail will run on a dedicated track with no traffic, at a higher speed without a break.
It has a station at every kilometer. The first two phases have 18 stations over a network stretching 20 kilometers. Each monorail can carry 500 passengers at a go.
The minimum ticket price will be about Rs 8, considering the fact that travel will be faster and in air-conditioned comfort.
The residents of Mumbai will get the first glimpse of their mono rail on Republic Day, which will be a trial run of half-a-kilometer. After that they will have to wait till the end of the year when they can get on it and get out of traffic bottlenecks in a jiffy.