Substantial increase in Chennai Metro Rail passengers - 24.31 Lakh passengers in April
Posted on: 13/May/2019 12:55:44 PM
There is cheerful news that there has been a substantial day-to-day increase in the number of Chennai Metro Rail passengers. There had been 24.31 Lakh passengers during the month of this April.
With the Metro Rail Services having started in 2015, this is the 1st ever time such a large number of passengers have made the Chennai Metro Rail trip. Further, on the single day of 26th April alone, there had been more than 1 Lakh passengers in the Chennai Metro Rail.
With the basic and main objective of reducing the heavy traffic congestion in the Chennai Metro City, the Metro Rail Project was conceived, planned and started in the year 2009. The Chennai Metro Rail services started operating in 2 corridors from Central-St. Thomas Mount and Airport-New Washermanpet. Subsequently, there has been a gradual increase in the number of passengers in the Chennai Metro Rail.
In this scenario, during the month of April in the current year 2019, 24.31 Lakhs passengers had travelled in the Chennai Metro Rail. With this, a record has been set that the maximum number of passengers travelled in the Chennai Metro Rail after the services commenced in 2015 till date. Further, for the 1st ever a time in the Chennai Metro Rail Services, a maximum of the number of 1.02 Lakh passengers had travelled on a single day on 26th April.
The 1st Chennai Metro Rail Services commenced on June 2015 between Koyambedu and Alandur. At that time, 15000 to 20000 passengers travelled daily. Subsequently, there was gradual progress in the project and the services were further extended and subsequently, there has been a gradual but substantial increase in the number of passengers.
Especially after the completion of the section New Washermanpet- AG DMS, and the subsequent operation of services, there has been a steady monthly increase of 29% in the passengers utilizing the Chennai Metro Rail.
In the current year 2019, 19.37 Lakhs passengers travelled in January, 23.62 Lakhs in February, and 23.89 Lakhs in March.
Full amenities/facilities are yet to be set up in the Thousand Lights and LIC Metro Rail Stations. Additional entrances are still to be opened. Still, as there are a large number of government offices in this area, there has been a substantial increase in the number of passengers in this section.
A Chennai Metro Rail official shared in this regard:
‘The Chennai Metro Rail has been providing a ‘World Class’ transport services to the Chennai Metro Citizens. The important positive aspects are quality service, proper fares, lesser travel time, and better passenger safety.
Due to these factors, there has been a gradual but t substantial increase in the number of passengers. Once the 1st Phase of the Chennai Metro Rail project was completed, free travel was organised for a few days. On these specific days, there were 7.3 Lakhs passengers. Subsequently, there was an increase in the number of passengers. After a few days, the number of average daily passengers increased to 90000. It approached the 1 Lakh mark on a few days. During the current month of May, on 6th, there have been 92917 passengers.’
