I’ve always wanted to travel by the Monorail. It’s been running in Mumbai, I only just realized, since 2014. Between Chembur and Wadala. Which is a stretch I rarely visit. So there’s never been an occasion to use the Monorail. Then in 2019, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, or MMRDA,
extended the service to Arthur Road Jail in Jacob’s Circle. Which town planners now say was a badly planned decision. I wonder why nobody opened their mouths at the blueprint stage. When the Monorail had yet to get off the drawing board. Now it’s being described as a white elephant. It ran up losses of Rs. 250 crore in 2022-23. Barely 12,000 people use it daily. Unlike the Metro in suburban Mumbai, which has three operational lines and eight under construction, and which is really a rapid transit system on which to get toe space is like taking the Virar Fast from Churchgate at 6 pm on a weekday. But which, unaccountably, is also in the red.
Now there’s talk about asking the government to shut down the Monorail. That would be the mother of all blunders. Like building Skywalks outside railway stations at great cost and inconvenience
to people and then pulling them down when they are found to be ineffective. I think too many people all at one time and working at cross-purposes are engaged in trying to develop Mumbai. On the
ground, underground, across the sea, and in the air. So now we are stuck with a Monorail that nobody wants to use and which runs empty every day. Sundays when I drive into the old quarters of
Mumbai where I grew up, I see the Monorail silently running above me on its elevated track, its salmon pink coaches slithering like a giant caterpillar between the ancient chawls, old tenements
and modern high-rises of South Central Mumbai. And I wish I was on board. Even if I was the only passenger. Looking into the houses of people along the way.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content have been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. I am interviewing almost every role model in this country and getting stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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