MONORAIL MANIA STRIKES MUMBAI!

The city of dreams was thrilled to welcome the first ever Monorail in the country on Sunday, 2nd February 2014. The brand new monorail’s had citizens turning out in huge numbers to experience the first ride in it. The excitement was so high that the last train scheduled at 3pm was cancelled and the stations were shut at 2:30pm as the number of visitors increased more than it was expected. It was a beautiful scene to see everyone from kids to the senior citizens gathering to be a part of this historic moment. The first monorail started at 7:08 am from Wadala.

The thrilled Mumbaikars gathered early morning on the stations and boarded the four coached monorail which can ferry 560 passengers. Everyone at the station was excited and thrilled to start their first journey in country’s first ever Monorail. People were seen with wide smiles on their faces and waving the tricolour, celebrating this historic moment.

Although there were complaints of the trains not running on scheduled timings but the comfortable Ac coaches were praised by all. Many people were so thrilled and excited that they bought the tickets twice to relive the experience.The view of the city as described by many was fantastic, which is otherwise very mundane. The view from top gave a very unique dimension to the city’s view. A very excited and happy commuter, Mrs. Sharda who came all the way from Borivali to Wadala said, “It feels like a roller coaster especially when monorail takes a sharp turn from Bhakti Park station.” There were many people who celebrated this day in unique ways. Roopal, a 33 year old came early morning to Chembur to take a ride to celebrate her birthday by travelling in monorail, making the day more special and memorable for her. Almost everyone was talking about it as some people from Pune also came driving down to take a ride.The MMRDA is also considering to extend the timings and frequency of monorail services on weekends and on holidays to cater to the rush of passengers, which they feel will continue over the next few months. The officials were also happy to see the excitement in the people and seeing excited people with tricolours and shouting the slogans. The credit for steering the first run of the country’s first monorail went to Juilee Bhandare and Sumankumar Yadav, both them stating their happiness as they were happy to be a part of this historic moment.The unique streak of Mr. Abhishek Chopra, the first person to ride on JJ Flyover, Eastern Freeway and Bandra-Worli sea link was broken this time as he was the second person to buy the monorail ticket. His streak was broken by Mr. Sunil Kheda who was the first person to buy the first ticket. Although he had to wait for 5 hours to get the ticket, he expressed his happiness by saying that he was very proud and happy to see the country developing day by day. As this project of monorail finally starts in Mumbai, the citizens seem relived as this might ease off the crowd in the locals. The city of Dreams surely seems flying high on this new installation.

-Riviera Vaz