Of India's first Monorail....

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan flagged off the country’s first monorail at Wadala. From Sunday, Mumbaikars will be able to commute in the swanky air-conditioned coaches on the 8.93-km route between Chembur and Wadala.
The first trip will begin from Chembur and Wadala simultaneously at 7 am. The frequency of train, thereafter, is 15 minutes till 3 pm everyday.
Chavan said, “Monorail will become a new landmark in Mumbai. We will begin the work on the Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz project) soon.” He said that other projects such as Sahar Elevated Corridor and Santa Cruz-Chembur Link road would be thrown open to the public in couple of months.
Chavan conceded that there had been delay in work execution, but he attributed this to brownfield nature of project. He explained, “In Mumbai, work has to be carried out in congested areas with the probability of changing the design of the project mid-way due to presence of underground utilities. However, there is enough expertise and we are now well prepared.”
He said that the state government opened the monorail service within two days of receiving the safety certificate. Chavan said, “We wanted to have the prime minister but his unavailability did not prevent us from opening the monorail as soon as all formalities were complete.” He also announced that Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro would be called Metro corridor, not Reliance Metro.

Chavan further said the government would soon take a decision to regularize slums that have come up before January 1, 2000.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who was also present on the occasion, said, “Efforts are on to get the Metro I (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar) corridor inaugurated before the code of conduct of Lok sabha comes into effect, subject to obtaining of safety clearance.” He said the state government and Centre were making efforts to initiate project worth Rs.2 lakh crore in Mumbai city. Pawar said that MMRDA had spent nearly Rs.20,000 crore on infrastructure projects.“The monorail project cost is Rs 3,000 crore, of which Rs 1,100 crore is only on for phase I, between Chembur and Wadala,” he added. Both Chavan and Pawar appealed to commuters to keep the stations and coaches clean. Commuters will have to buy token or smart cards to travel by monorail.