Going ‘green’ on tracks, Mumbai Monorail eyes on to install solar panels

Mumbai, April 17: Paving way for ‘green future’, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has plans to install solar panels on all the 18 monorail stations and the monorail depot at Wadala in order to bring down the expenditure on electricity consumption. 

The electricity generated from the solar panels will be utilized for non-traction purposes which include lighting on stations, lifts, escalators and water pumps.

A MMRDA official said, “Our consumption of electricity will increase after the entire corridor between Chembur and Mahalaxmi will be made operational. The installations of solar panels will bring down the consumption of electricity by around 20%.”

According to the officials, electricity consumption of the monorail between Chembur and Wadala was around 2-3 MW including traction and non-traction purposes.

The MMRDA official added, “Once the new operator is appointed for operations, we have to finance the cost incurred for electricity consumption. Also, the cost of security was Rs 50 lakh per month but that will go up after the whole corridor is operational.”

The monorail corridor is expected to be made operational from June in 2018. The first phase of Monorail between Chembur and Wadala was made operational in 2014; however, it was shut after an empty coach of Monorail caught fire in November 2017.

Earlier in 2017, the Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) which operates the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1 corridor had also announced the installation of solar panels in Metro stations to bring down the cost. The MMOPL had said that it will save approximately Rs 1.5 Crores due to the same.