Deadline nears but work on stations far from complete

Even as the latest deadline for commissioning of the already-delayed Monorail is just six months away, the seven stations are still far from complete, with a majority not even structurally ready.

Of the seven stations on the 8.3-km Chembur-Wadala corridor, the structural work at three stations — Bhakti Park, Mysore Colony and Wadala — is nearly done.

However, quite a bit of work is left at the Chembur, V N Purav Marg, Fertilizer Colony, and R C Marg stations.

"Completing the stations is the most critical activity for the completion of the line now. Except for one or two stations, work at most others is nearly complete and the others should also be completed soon," said Rahul Asthana, Metropolitan Commissioner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

However, an MMRDA engineer, who is closely associated with the project, said the internal deadline for the structural completion of the stations is October 1 but the work may drag on for two or three weeks more.

After the structural completion, it will take almost three months to finish work related to the interiors of the stations. The finishing work involves tiling, painting, installing railings, the automatic ticketing system and so on.

"This is only if everything goes as per schedule and there are no unforeseen disruptions, such as heavy rain or other obstacles that prevent us from working, the engineer said.

"Four stations are yet to get a roof and we are still in the process of fabrication of beams, steel and another material at a lot of places," he said, adding that the signalling and telecommunication works are going on simultaneously.

Near the Chembur station, there is a changeover of tracks for which casting process of the beams on which the Monorail runs is still going on, the engineer said.

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