Mumbai: Power failure in one of the monorail rakes on Wednesday morning caused services to come to a standstill for 44 minutes.In a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) statement, joint project director Dilip Kawatkar said:
“Due to the failure of the master control system in the monorail rake it became disfunctional and was pushed back to the Wadala depot with the help of another rake (RST-06). During which the monorail services were completely stopped. The services resumed at 10.45am while the rake which reported power failure was also put back into operation at 10.55 am.”
Annoyed with the disruption, netizens began to vent on Twitter. One Rahul k referred to monorail staffers as ‘shameless’. He claimed passengers were yelling, asking to stop the monorail, even as MMRDA officials informed them only after an hour.
Meanwhile, a picture of two monorail trains face-to-face went viral on social media. Journalist Sameera Khan a Wadala resident, who witnessed this incident from the window of her house, took a picture, posted it on Twitter, tagged Mumbai Monorail, asking the authorities to explain what had happened. Other social media users thought the two rakes, running in opposite directions on the same track, had come face-to-face and a major accident had been averted.
However, the Mumbai Monorail authorities clarified no accident had occurred and there was no need to panic.“Due to failure of Master Control in 1 monorail; another operational Monorail has been coupled. Both Monorails have been brought back to Depot.” Further, they said:
“The coupling of train was a properly planned operation as per the set safety procedures. Safety of passengers is always maintained at Monorail Operations.” The services later resumed with just two rakes. The authorities have apologised for the inconvenience caused to commuters and requested co-operation and to bear with them.
