Mumbai: The Mumbai Monorail has cleared the first of the two safety clearances, mandated by MMRDA, following a spate of technical glitches in 2025. On Friday, the new rolling stock (or trains), manufactured by Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives, was certified safe by an independent safety assessor. Now, a final nod is awaited from the former commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS), a safety regulator.
The earlier fleet was manufactured by a Malaysian company.
On Friday evening, Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL), the agency in-charge of Mumbai Monorail, posted on X: “Mumbai, the wait is almost over. A brand-new, safer, smarter and smoother Monorail will soon be at your service.”
The services of Mumbai monorail were suspended for public on September 20, 2025, after around 800 people were rescued when two monorails halted midway in the midst of a heavy monsoon downpour in August. Later, during a trial run of officials, three employees suffered injuries when one of the coaches of a newly manufactured train derailed on November 5.
The next step will now be the appointment of a CMRS to carry out a comprehensive inspection of the entire 19.54 km Monorail corridor and grant the final statutory clearance to resume passenger operations, which is likely in May, people aware of the development said.
“An approval to appoint a retired CMRS is pending with the state secretariat. Once the nod is given, this process will also commence. The ex-CMRS should take a couple of months to certify the Mumbai Monorail. After this process is completed, the new and improved Monorail will be back in action for Mumbai,” said a senior MMMOCL official.
The ISA certification – part of the first round of clearance — included detailed inspection of the new rolling stock at the manufacturing facility, rigorous testing across sections of the Monorail corridor over two months to assess operational readiness, extensive static and dynamic testing to ensure full compliance with design specifications and the highest safety standards, oscillation trials, installation and interface-level testing of the advanced CBTC-based signalling system.