Among the thousands of people taking Chennai Metro Rail trains, a significant number from the southern and western suburbs commute to the core areas of the city through this mass rapid transit because it saves time. Many of those who travel from these areas usually take their two-wheelers or four-wheelers, park them in the stations, and hop onto a train. But of late, it is a struggle for these commuters to find a parking space in some of the stations in the Phase I network.
Commuters say the proportion of those travelling versus the parking provided is grossly insufficient. While about 2.7 lakh to 2.8 lakh people travel a day across the 54 km network of Chennai Metro Rail, it has become a race for commuters to get a parking slot in some of the stations like Thirumangalam, Chennai airport, Nanganallur, Meenambakkam, Thousand Lights, Government Estate, Anna Nagar Tower, and Alandur. These stations have a high demand because they cater to commuters from several areas.
While people from areas like Retteri, Thirumangalam, Mogappair, Padi, Kolathur, and even Ambattur use Thirumangalam station, those from Tambaram, Chromepet, Pallavaram, and Chitlapakkam come to the airport station, Meenambakkam station, or even Nanganallur station. Hundreds of these travellers use their two-wheelers to reach either of these two stations.
Though urban planning experts reiterate the need to either walk to the station or use last-mile connectivity, the lack of mini-buses or shared autos has forced commuters to resort to travelling by their bikes or cars.
S. Balasubramanian, a resident of Nanganallur who often travels by metro says he takes his bike to the nearest station, Meenambakkam, after which he boards the train. “The parking space in Meenambakkam is very limited. Hence, if I go during the peak hours, I won’t find any space to park my vehicle. I have to reach before 9 a.m. if I need to get a slot for my two-wheeler. Sometimes, I end up going to St. Thomas Mount station because there is a lot of parking space there,” he adds.
Waterlogging issue
While St. Thomas Mount station has a huge parking space, it suffers from a peculiar problem wherein during rain, commuters have to wade through water to park their vehicles and walk to the concourse. When heavy rain hit the city, the parking lot gets heavily waterlogged. During the recent floods, the station couldn’t be used by commuters as the parking lot was severely inundated.
Another commuter, K. Sathish Kannan, who goes from Kaladipet to Thousand Lights or Meenambakkam, says commuters prefer metro because it’s faster and fairly affordable, but if they have to hunt for parking spaces in stations, they end up wasting their time. “Stations like Government Estate and Thousand Lights are used by hundreds of officer-goers. But the parking lots here are small and get filled up quickly. Commuters can’t keep searching for vacant space when they have to rush to work,” he adds.
R. Krishnan, a resident of Retteri who travels from Thirumangalam to Alandur, says he takes his two-wheeler to Thirumangalam station and then takes a train. f you go a little later than 9.30 a.m., they put up a board saying the parking lot is full. So, I hurry to get to the station before that,” he adds.
Expensive auto fares
He notes that since there aren’t too many mini buses with a good frequency, people have to rely on taking their bikes to the station. “If commuters have to take an auto from places like Retteri to Thirumangalam, they would end up paying more for the auto than the fares of the metro ride,” he adds.
Sources said that when the project was planned, last-mile connectivity options had to be in place in addition to providing parking lots for commuters. Though eight years have passed since the first train service was launched, Chennai Metro has failed to put in place a uniform system to either have sufficient mini buses or shared autos in all stations. This is why commuters say there is a pressing need to expand the parking capacity at stations.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), in the past couple of months, they have taken steps to expand the parking lots in some of the stations.
“We are conscious of the issue that passengers are in need of additional parking space. If this happens, we can see a sustained growth in ridership (the number of people who travel). In stations like Meenambakkam, the airport, Thirumangalam, Nanganallur, Anna Nagar Tower, and Anna Nagar East, we are trying to acquire additional pieces of land. This is likely to increase the capacity of stations by 30-40 percent. We want to finish this process by mid-next year,” an official says.
COMMents
SHARE