Chennai MRTS commuters want more buses from Chintadripet station

As the Southern Railway has commenced the fourth line project from Chennai Beach to Egmore by truncating the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) at Chintadripet, commuters and office-goers bound for Broadway want more shuttle bus services to be operated from Chintadripet railway station. 

As the Southern Railway has commenced work on the fourth line project from Chennai Beach to Egmore and truncated the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) trains at Chintadripet, commuters and office-goers bound for Broadway want more shuttle bus services to be operated from Chintadripet railway station. 

The Chennai division of the Southern Railway, as part of the fourth line project from Beach to Egmore, suspended MRTS services between Beach and Chintadripet station from Sunday. Also the train services from Velachery to various destinations via Beach to Avadi, Pattabhiram, Tiruvallur and Gumidipoondi, have also been suspended from Beach station.

On Monday, commuters bore the brunt of the latest decision. Though the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) operated route No. 32C from Chintadripet to Vallalar Nagar via Broadway as it has proved to inadequate. Commuters want more services during morning and evening peak hours as the buses were overcrowded and alighting at the Chintadripet station had become difficult. 

Pooja, an advocate from Taramani, said the MRTS is patronised by a large number of advocates going to the Madras High Court. As the train services are being stopped at the Chintadripet station instead of the Beach station, a large number commuters, particularly women, were finding it difficult to board the packed MTC buses. It would be helpful if the MTC could operate more bus services that too shuttle services to Broadway via Central station. 

The regular commuters want the MTC to operate more buses from Mylapore as it is one of the multimodal hub for commuters travelling in MRTS, as also increasing the buses to Egmore station - 28B (Ennore to Egmore) and 27B (Anna Square to Koyambedu). The commuters want small buses from Chintadripet to Egmore railway station every 20 minutes which would fetch good revenue.