Two monorail trains in Mumbai broke down on Tuesday evening due to the heavy rain, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. All 782 passengers were rescued. In the first incident, a monorail train – which had 582 passengers on board – broke down between Mysore Colony and Bhakti Park in central Mumbai’s Chembur, at 6:38 PM, due to a power supply issue attributed to “overcrowding”, according to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
About an hour later, another monorail train – which had 200 passengers on board – abruptly stopped between Acharya Atre and Wadala MonoRail Station around 7:33 PM. The passengers were rescued once the train was towed back to the nearby Wadala station.
The MMRDA, which runs the monorail, has said the train (which got stuck at 6.38 pm) “exceeded its original design capacity of 104 tonnes” because of too many passengers, which cut off the supply of electricity.
“A preliminary investigation revealed that due to overcrowding, the total weight of the monorail had risen to about 109 metric tons, which exceeded its original design capacity of 104 tons. This excess weight caused a mechanical disconnection between the power rail and the current collector, leading to disruption of the power supply essential for the monorail’s operation. As a result, the monorail came to a halt,” it said in a statement.
Mumbai is the only city to operate a Monorail System which runs at an average speed of 65 kph. Each coach can carry 18 sitting passengers and 124 standing passengers. The MMRDA also stated that another monorail was sent to tow the stalled monorail to the nearest station. “However, because the stalled monorail was overloaded, it could not be pulled. Therefore, the fire brigade had to carry out the rescue operation,” it said. The passengers were rescued in batches in a three-hour-long operation.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stated the train tilted because of overcrowding. “Due to the closure of the Harbour line, many passengers were diverted towards the monorail. Due to the overcrowding, it tilted and there was also a power failure,” he told NDTV.
The MMRDA said the “uncontrolled crowding could not be prevented because of the unusually high passenger numbers”.
It stressed that the Mumbai Monorail is a limited capacity public transport system on set routes and is not designed to accommodate large crowds, like conventional suburban trains or the metro system, that burst in out of nowhere.
Several images shared by onlookers showed terrified passengers trying to force open the windows of the monorail train before fire brigade personnel began the rescue procedure.
Many of the rescued passengers reported that a panic prevailed in the train because a lot of them were struggling to breathe after the cooling system had shut down.
