In a significant development for Mumbai's urban transport, Power Mech Projects Ltd has clinched the contract to operate and maintain the city's monorail system. The company emerged as the lowest bidder with an offer of Rs 296.4 crore, outbidding rival Adani Infrastructure Management Services Limited, which quoted Rs 308.4 crore.
A Troubled History of Maintenance
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has been striving to find a stable operator for the monorail after a series of failures. Initially, a consortium of Scomi Engineering and Larsen & Toubro managed the system. However, the MMRDA terminated their contract citing poor maintenance.
Subsequent attempts to split operations and maintenance into separate annual contracts also failed to resolve persistent technical glitches and passenger complaints. This led the MMRDA to a decisive move in March 2025: inviting tenders to outsource the entire operations and maintenance (O&M) to a single private entity. The bid-opening process commenced in November.
The Bidding Process and Technical Rejections
The tender saw participation from several firms, but the field narrowed quickly. Apart from Power Mech and Adani, bids from Indwell Constructions Private Limited and Konkan Railway Corporation Limited were rejected on technical grounds.
Indwell failed to meet the tender's qualification criteria, while Konkan Railway did not achieve the minimum required technical score. This left Power Mech and Adani in the final race, with Power Mech's lower bid securing it the position of lowest bidder.
The Long Road Ahead for the Monorail
While appointing a single-point O&M manager is a step forward, the 19.5km monorail line connecting Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk to Chembur faces a steep climb to normalcy. The system has been shut down since September, and its future remains uncertain.
The MMRDA is concurrently tackling other major challenges, including the deployment of new rakes and overhauling the Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling system. There is no clear deadline for completing these critical upgrades.
Furthermore, the monorail is a significant financial drain. Official data reveals it incurred a staggering loss of Rs 524 crore in the 2023-24 fiscal year. The new O&M contract with Power Mech Projects represents a crucial attempt to improve service reliability and stem the losses, but a full revival of the beleaguered transit line is still some distance away.
