Chennai Metro Rail came to the rescue of several thousand people when the city was brought to its knees on the evening of Monday, which witnessed heavy rain in a short span of time.
On an average, 10,000-12,000 people travel by the Chennai Metro Rail on a weekday; but on Monday at least 10,000 people took the train in just about four hours.
According to officials of CMRL, there was a 100 per cent increase in the number of people who travelled by Metro Rail on Monday alone. “From 7 p.m. onwards, the trains were running full. Hence, we decided to extend the services till about 11.30 p.m. There was an exceptional response from people on that day,” an official said. While the traffic recorded on Monday was the highest in the last three months, it has been quite high during the last two weeks when the rains wreaked havoc.
“On many days, we noticed several people wanted to use Metro Rail. So, we extended the services as much as possible,” an official said.
People took to social media to praise Metro Rail. When people were venting their anger on Twitter, some suggested commuters use Chennai Metro to escape traffic.
On Monday, @milified posted: “Thank you Chennai Metro. Without you I’d have never made it home today” and @ShivalChauhan posted: “1 time I saw so many passengers in #ChennaiMetro #ChennaiFloods”
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