Some Metro Rail stations still lack working ticketing gates, counters

Chennai Metro Rail commuters face inconvenience due to lack of ticketing gates and counters at multiple stations.

Of late, Sandhya Vedulapalli, 59, has been leaving home a little early to board a Chennai Metro Rail train from her residence at Anna Nagar to Alandur. This is because if she steps into the entry point at the Anna Nagar East Metro Rail station, which doesn’t have a functional ticketing gate and counter, she would end up taking a long walk all the way to the opposite end of the station to buy a ticket, swipe it at the ticketing gate, and board a train.

While this station has four entry/exit points and is supposed to have ticketing counters and ticketing gates at the two ends, counters and gates are operational only at one end.

“I waste about five minutes walking to the other end, and it is a pretty tiring exercise. When people use the Metro Rail and pay quite a high fare for its efficiency, it is disappointing to see that even after all these years, only one ticket counter is functional. It is high time that they set up ticketing gates and opened counters at both the ends,” she says.

Nine years ago, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) initiated the first train service between Koyambedu and Alandur, and over the next four years, the network expanded and different stretches became operational. Today, the system transports 2.90 lakh-3 lakh passengers daily on a 54-km network.

But, even today, of the 41 stations in the Phase I and Phase I extension network, ticketing counters and gates are open at only one end of 13 stations. These stations are Guindy, Washermanpet, Sir Theagaraya College, New Washermanpet, Toll Gate, Mannady, Anna Nagar East, Nehru Park, Pachaiyappa’s College, KMC, Egmore, Shenoy Nagar, and Saidapet.

Commuters say that since the stations are massive in the Phase I network, it is imperative that all ticketing counters be manned and the ticketing gates be usable. This will ensure that they needn’t endure a long walk. Some of them say that if they don’t leave their residence in advance, they may miss the train and have to wait for the next one.

Jayabharathi, another regular traveller, says she faces this issue at the Egmore station. “I had to leave town and had a train to catch from the Egmore railway station sometime ago. That day, I had a tough time walking with my baggage in this station from one end to the other,” she says. She often travels between Alandur and Koyambedu and this issue doesn’t exist at these stations. “When most stations have it, why should some stations alone be deprived of these facilities” she asks.