Melaka looking for new contractor to revive troubled tourist monorail line

MELAKA: A new management company is being sought to revive the tourist monorail in the city, says Melaka Historic City Council Mayor Datuk Zainal Abu.

“We are in the midst of looking for a new contractor to resuscitate the service, ” he said on Monday (Aug 17).

It was learnt that the previous management company was unable to cope with the cost of maintaining the service especially in view of the low number of tourists using the monorail for sightseeing.

With the start of the movement control order (MCO), the service was halted.

Earlier, Kota Laksamana assemblyman Low Chee Leong said the monorail should be transformed with replacement of train cars with a better system as the current one often faced glitches.

“We have to replace the current train with a more reliable system and also appoint a credible recreational park management company to operate the service, ” he said.

Low said the monorail must not be abandoned as the state government had spent millions of ringgit to install the monorail which circles around the Sungai Melaka area on a 1.6km-long rail line.

“The monorail moves at about 10-20kph but failed to even attract the locals to use the service. The other factor that should be considered is lowering the price of the tickets, ” he said.

The RM16.5mil monorail service was launched in October 2010 and reportedly came to a halt just hours after opening, stranding 20 passengers on board.

In 2011,18 tourists from Hong Kong were stranded on the monorail 300m from the Hang Jebat station, and this led to the line being discontinued after it was discovered that the auto-mode function of the rail was faulty.

The service from 2011 to 2013 was intermittent, culminating in a four-year hiatus. It was subsequently revived in 2017.