Fantastic news!! Commuters getting off at any metro station in Chennai could board MTC buses easily with a single smartcard??
Posted on: 28/Dec/2022 9:51:27 AM
For the first and last mile connectivity of the Chennai residents, CMRL and MTC have been working with Cumta or Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority for re-designing and integrating bus routes with the already existing and upcoming metro stations.
By this, the commuters getting off at any of 41 metro stations in the city would be able to board MTC buses easily with a single smartcard. To come out with an integrated route plan for metro train and bus terminuses at Kilambakkam and Madhavaram, Cumta has initiated a study.
The working has been going on to introduce a common mobility card that could be used for metro trains and for MTC buses. By this, it would be very easy for the commuters to switch transport modes from one to another easily. Use of private vehicles would be avoided totally.
The poor last mile connectivity has led to poor patronage in the metro trains and now an average of 2lakhs people travel daily. This is much less than the estimated 7.75lakhs of average footfalls. It is noteworthy that now the metro stations in places like AG-DMS, Saidapet on Anna Salai and interchanges at Central and Alandur stations have been linked to MTC bus stops near the entry exit points.
It must be noted that the services to suburban places stop here. Truth is that the train and bus timings are not synced and time displaying info boards are also not present. Lack of sign boards has been creating issues for the new commuters as they have been finding it difficult to go to the bus stops nearby.
Many commuters are forced to use private vehicles leading to issues in finding parking space. This is happening mostly in the metro stations in Shenoy Nagar, Nanganallur Road metro, Wimco Nagar etc as these metro stations have not been linked to MTC bus stops.
