Three years after starting its first service, Chennai Metro Rail is now stepping up efforts to provide last-mile connectivity to commuters by beginning shared car rides and share autos in and around its stations from Friday.
Passengers can travel a distance of 3 km in and around each station and pay a fixed amount of ₹10 for a share auto and ₹15 for shared car services.
This will be of great helpful to commuters, given thelack of mini-bus services from Metro Rail stations.
According to officials of the CMRL, they have chosen select stations for both shared car and auto services.
The shared car services will be available in Koyambedu, Alandur, Vadapalani and Anna Nagar East Metro Rail stations and share autos at AG-DMS, Guindy, Alandur, St. Thomas Mount, Ekkatuthangal and Ashok Nagar stations, officials said.
“We have already given this job to a firm, which will carry out these services. We have finalised the 3-km route that they will pass through. The route chart will be posted at the concerned Metro stations for passengers to be aware of which areas these vehicles will cover,” an official said.
For a start, these cars and autos will run every half-hour from each of these stations. Eventually, their frequency will increase, he said.
“We want to first see how passengers take to this service and run it as a trial initially. Subsequently, in a few months, it will be made available in all stations and the frequency will go up to once every 10-15 minutes and match the train timings so that passengers need not wait for long,” he added.
