While work on Chennai Metro Rail proceeds apace, the poor utilisation of the MRTS service has also come under the spotlight.
Following a directive from CUMTA (Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority), a team of officials from Southern Railway and CMDA, along with consultants, have begun a survey of lacunae in infrastructure near the MRTS stations.
The study will generate additional data with a strong focus on pedestrian facilities. It will address the issues raised by CMRL officials at meetings pointing to the poor civic infrastructure in the vicinity of the MRTS line that connects Chennai Beach and Velachery. The poor civic infrastructure remains a hindrance to optimum use of the facility. Based on the study, physical infrastructure such as ramps that connect existing MRTS stations with nearby bus stops and pedestrian walkways would be in place by the time the work on MRTS and metro rail is completed.
The study is likely to analyse the factors contributing to ridership and also identify the roads that require modification to ease bottlenecks in reaching stations.
As of now, a few of the 21 MRTS stations alone account for a major chunk of the total number of passengers utilising the service.
Minor modifications to a lot of the existing physical infrastructure would boost ridership, said a consultant associated with the survey.
Feeder routes
New feeder routes would also be identified for MRTS network.
The Chennai Corporation had already directed officials of zones such as Anna Nagar, Adyar, Kodambakkam, Teynampet and Royapuram to study the deficiencies in physical infrastructure near metro rail alignment.
Chennai Metro Rail Limited had asked the civic body to speed up work on creating adequate civic infrastructure such as roads, bus shelters, parking lots including multi-level facilities, streetlights, signboards and stormwater drains. The 25-km MRTS corridor transports less than 25 per cent of the projected passenger capacity.
