What is the present situation of the ticket vending machines installed at the metro stations in Chennai?
Posted on: 07/Sep/2022 10:00:22 AM
Are the ticket vending machines installed at various metro stations in Chennai serving the purpose for which they are meant for?
The Chennai Metro Rail Limited or CMRL has spent a lot of money in procuring as many as 140 ticket vending machines or TVM and these machines have been installed in as many as 41 metro stations across Chennai. Now, CMRL is planning to remove as many as 81 ticket vending machines from the metro stations in Chennai in the phase-1 and phase-2 extension project. The reason for this was due to the technical glitches in these ticket vending machines.
It is known that there are a total of 41 metro stations in Chennai that include both elevated as well as underground ones. Each metro station has got 3 to 4 ticket vending machines. To ensure that the commuters do not have to wait for a long time in queues for buying tickets from the operator, CMRL introduced TVM in the metro stations in Chennai.
According to some source from CMRL it was confirmed that there are 140 TVMS in 41 metro stations in Chennai and CMRL has been planning to remove most of the TVM and retain just 60 of them.
The officials belonging to CMRL have mentioned that they have stopped using TVMs during the Coronavirus pandemic for the sake of safety of the commuters. The TVMS started to function when normalcy resumed in the city.
It was stated by an officer belonging to CMRL that a decision was taken to remove most of the ticket vending machines due to technical issues. He added that currently there are smart cards and QR code tickets. He concluded that some of the TVM`s that would be available at the metro stations would be used for recharging of smart cards only.
In the year 2015, phase-1 of CMRL was inaugurated and the commuters have been facing problems in using the TVMs in the metro stations in Chennai. Point is that debit or credit cards cannot be used and many currency notes were rejected by the TVMs. Even on social media platforms, many commuters have flagged this issue repeatedly.
