Monorail train stopped for 12 minutes to offload passengers due to overcrowding

A Monorail train came to a halt for 12 minutes at Acharya Atre Chowk station in the city on Thursday morning, with officials stating that it was halted for offloading passengers and not because of any technical issue.

The incident followed Tuesday's crisis situation when two Monorail trains on elevated tracks stalled and the Fire Brigade had to be called in to rescue hundreds of passengers.

A train bound for Sant Gadgebaba Chowk station was stopped at Acharya Atre Chowk station for 12 minutes from 9.28 am onwards on Thursday, said Swati Lokhande, spokesperson of the Maha Mumbai Metro Railway Corporation Limited.

It was not `stuck' due to any technical snag, she said.

"As per the new Standard Operating Procedure introduced a day before, the train was stopped for offloading people as the load had increased to 107 metric tons instead of 104 metric tons," Lokhande said.

As many passengers were reluctant to get down, it took some time, she added.

Mumbai has India's only Monorail corridor.

As many as 582 passengers were stranded in a Monorail train near Mysore Colony station for more than two hours on Tuesday evening before they were rescued using mechanised ladders. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority blamed it on power failure caused by overcrowding.

The Authority on Wednesday introduced some new measures for making Monorail operations safer, officials said.