Chennai Metro seeks to know last mile connectivity requirements of passengers

CMRL needs to have exclusive feeder service, say officials

To understand how passengers travel between stations and their residences or offices, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) has begun a short survey in select stations.

A three-day survey has been started at four terminal stations of Wimco Nagar, Chennai airport, Alandur and St. Thomas Mount. At least 2,000 passengers are likely to be covered.

“Though we have started providing last mile connectivity and there are minibuses running in some of the stations, we have to increase it further in future to attract more passengers. First, we have to understand where the passengers are coming from to these stations and where they are headed; we want to know how they commute to and from the stations,” an official of the CMRL said.

“If we understand the need of commuters for first and last mile connectivity in these key stations, we will be able to address the gap,” the official said. Each of these stations get a good footfall. While Wimco Nagar and St. Thomas Mount receive nearly 4,000 passengers a day, Chennai airport and Alandur get a ridership of nearly 9,000 and 6,000 respectively.

At present, minibuses have been plying from some of the stations like Alandur, Koyambedu, Tiruvottiyur, Government Estate, Guindy, Little Mount, Shenoy Nagar and Chennai airport.

CMRL officials say that instead of focusing on terminal stations alone, it is essential to look at the issues in all stations. “There are 41 stations and apart from a handful of them, the remaining do not have feeder service options for commuters. At a time when the number of passengers travelling is touching about 2 lakh a day, if we have to improve further, a full-fledged planning and an exclusive feeder service options are needed,” another official said.