The year is 2025. A snazzy pillar of public transport, the Chennai Metro Rail network, has completely refurbished the concept of hardwired city commute. It's an era where time is money, and for residents on the city's periphery, the Metro is proving to be a mighty boon.
Picture this. A travel time of 1 hour 45 minutes from Chemmenchery to Ambattur can now be cruised in about 40 minutes aboard the Metro Rail. For many, Metro Rail has turned the entire concept of laggard pace of travel upside down.
That will be when Metro Rail will be a force to contend with in addition to the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS), some 10 years from now
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The noveau network will be a novelty for daily commuters like Balaji Chandarasikharan, whose day currently is spent commuting to work and back. Every day, he covers a wearisome 35 kilometres, each way, between his house in Chemmenchery and workplace in Ambattur.
Besides the time consumed in travelling 70 km every day, he also spends a bomb on fuel — about Rs. 10,000 a month.
“I don’t have much of a choice but to travel by car. If I have to take a bus, I have to change three buses and at every point I have to wait for at least 15-20 minutes. The city badly needs to make mobility better for people living in the suburbs,” he laments.
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He is not alone. There are many others undertaking such arduous journeys every day from one corner of the city to another, for lack of a robust transport system that is seamlessly integrated.
It is for these people and others that the Phase II of Chennai Metro Rail holds a lot of promise and pomp.
For one, it connects several parts of the central and north Chennai to the southern fringes. The Phase II network covering 88 km has over 70 stations, a factor that could enable easy integration with other modes of transport.
Mr. Chandarasikharan says that when the Phase II gets operational, he would be able to board a train at New Kumaran Nagar to reach Anna Nagar and then take a bus to Ambattur.
“It will substantially reduce time and money spent for me,” he adds. It does sound like a great plan, except that he has ignored a vital component.
By the time the Metro reaches his neck of the woods, the city is likely to have a robust Bus Rapid Transit System too and he could hop on to a BRTS line and land at a Metro station.
Going by the proposed BRTS network for the city, there will be a BRTS line from Thirumangalam to Ambattur. If this corridor is integrated with the Metro, residents like Mr. Chandarasikharan would not be taking the regular bus to Ambattur, but one on the BRTS line.
Calling for seamless integration of the Metrorail network and BRTS lines, Raj Cherubal of Chennai City Connect, an NGO, says it may not be enough to just have a Metrorail network, the proposed BRTS should be integrated with the Metro Rail to make travel easier for commuters.
For instance, Metro Rail will go up to Shollinganallur where it will connect to BRTS. The BRTS will continue beyond and go up to Siruseri. So, if this integration is effected, thousands of software professionals travelling from the city will be benefitted, he says.
“In some places, they can be integrated with MRTS too. Metro Rail cannot serve independently; there has to be integration and last-mile connectivity,” he says.
People should be able to travel comfortably by switching between various modes of public transport, that is how meticulous the planning should be, says Mr. Cherubal.