Ahead of the opening of phase I extension line, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. plans to increase the frequency of trains from seven minutes to five minutes.
CMRL officials said this was in anticipation of higher footfall when the Washermenpet-Wimco Nagar stretch is commissioned on Sunday.
“We expect the patronage to go up marginally. Five months ago, when we resumed services, trains carried just 10,000 passengers a day. But now, it has touched 55,000 passengers a day. This figure may rise to 60,000-65,000 after the extension becomes operational. It is important to ensure that there is physical distancing inside the trains. So, we want to run trains every five minutes [during peak hours],” an official said.
Officials said while they expect a small section of people to use the Metro to travel from north Chennai to the rest of the city, a larger number of people may take the Metro from central and south Chennai to go to the northern areas.
