Two years after launch of phase I, Mumbai Monorail loses Rs 8.5 lakh every day as only 16,000 people regularly use Wadala-Chembur service, termed by some as a transit system to nowhere. At 10 am, when Mumbai kicks into a state of hyperactivity and there's a scramble for space on trains, metro and roads clogged with honking lines of cars, autos and buses, the monorail runs near-empty rakes between Wadala and Chembur. The 8.9-km elevated route with seven stations barely registers a bump in passenger traffic as the day progresses. On an average, the transit system, whose phase I alone cost the state around Rs 1,000 crore, transports 16,000 people in a day, less than half the number of spectators the Wankhede accommodates for an IPL match.

Over two years after India's first monorail was launched in the city, it is increasingly being viewed as a symbol of bad planning and wasteful expenditure. Some urban transport experts even describe it as a vehicle for joyrides.

From 2014 to 2015, Mumbai Monorail, which makes over 130 trips every day, managed to increase its daily passenger count by only 2,607, from 14,071 to 16,678. Every day, it loses Rs 8.5 lakh, a gap the operator hopes will shrink next year after the monorail extends services till Jacob Circle near Mahalaxmi under phase II. The work on the 11.2-km line is expected to be completed by December.

Till January this year, Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDRA) had spent over Rs 2,554 crore on the entire project, overshooting the initial estimate of Rs 2,460 crore.