Mumbai, Sept. 17 -- From September 20, the Mumbai Monorail will not be available until further notice. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Tuesday announced that the 20-km railway network will be temporarily shut to upgrade the system and ensure long-term reliability, following a string of disruptions over the last month due to technical snags. Officials said the upgrade of the monorail network could take two months. Once done, though, services are expected to become more frequent-every 8-10 minutes compared with the current 20-25 minutes, officials added. The decision to temporarily shut the network was taken following at least six incidents of service disruptions over the last month. The latest incident was on Monday morning, when a monorail train stalled on a curve between two stations due to a technical failure during heavy rain. Seventeen passengers on board the train had to be rescued. The incident brought back memories of the evening of August 19, when two monorail trains came to a halt during heavy rain, necessitating the rescue of 1,148 passengers. MMRDA has also constituted a committee to conduct a detailed inquiry into such recurring incidents, officials said. "This temporary block is a carefully thought-out step to rejuvenate the monorail," said Sanjay Mukherjee, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA. The planned upgrade of the monorail network will involve inducting new rakes, deploying an advanced signalling system, and refurbishing the existing fleet. "We are ensuring that the system becomes safer, more dependable, and future-ready. We value the patience of citizens and assure them that when the monorail returns, it will be with renewed strength, reliability, and the confidence to serve Mumbai better," added Mukherjee. To carry out this work, officials said the entire network needs to be temporarily shut down because monorail services are currently operational daily from 6.15 am to 11.30 pm, leaving only a few hours at night for the authorities to install and test new systems. Mumbai Monorail currently operates with a fleet of just eight trains, with only five to six operational at any given point. This is set to change. "Once the advanced signalling works are over, we expect to have a fleet of 14-16 monorail trains and 2-3 spare rakes each day. After the works, we will introduce the new monorail rakes, manufactured by (Hyderabad-based) Medha, that are lying at the Wadala depot. This will enable us to reduce the headway by eight minutes from the present 22 minutes. We shall be taking multiple clearances before resuming the upgraded version of the monorail," said an official from Maha Mumbai Metro Operation Corporation Limited (MMMOCL), an arm of MMRDA that operates the monorail and metro rail....