The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), which suspended its services on March 22 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to resume its operations from September 7, from 8 am to 8 pm with strict social distancing norms.
As prelude to the operations, the CMRL on Wednesday has issued a set of guidelines in line with the Unlock 4 order issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently.
According to the new guidelines, the Metro rail services in Chennai will be operational from 8 am to 8 pm every day. The timings will be expanded gradually.
As per the statement issued by CMRL, the Blue line, which connects Chennai airport to Washermanpet, will resume services from September 7, Monday while the Green line, which connects Dr MG Ramachandran Central Metro to St Thomas Mount, will recommence operations from September 9. The trains will run with a gap of five minutes during the peak hours (8.30 am to 10.30 am and 5 pm to 8 pm) and with a gap of 10 minutes during the non-peak hours.
Passengers are advised to maintain a social distance keeping distance of six ft while waiting in platform and travelling in train. Markings like “X” have been made available on alternate seats both in trains and platforms so that passengers can sit on alternate seats to ensure social distancing.
With regard to ticketing, smart cards will be issued / recharged at Ticket Counters at Metro Stations. Apart from this, contact-less QR code mobile ticketing is also available to Passengers. Travel Card Reader machines shall be installed at all 32 metro stations to avoid crowd for recharge, extension of validity of Smart Cards. Cashless transactions are encouraged to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Single Journey Tokens are discouraged; however, it will be issued to passengers on need basis and those tokens will be sanitized.
Other arrangements include:
Symptomatic passengers or those with high temperature will not be allowed to use metro train services.
Face shields, Gloves and Medical PPEs have been arranged for frontline passenger handling staff.
Two entrances of the Metro Stations will be opened initially. And based on demand, opening of other entrances of Stations shall be explored.
Contactless frisking of passengers will be undertaken.
Lifts shall be shared only with 2 to 3 persons at a time and usage of lifts shall be encouraged for aged and persons with disabilities only.
Passengers are advised to stand on alternate steps in the escalators to maintain social distancing.
Hand sanitizer – Foot press / contactless dispenser with hand sanitizer has been arranged at the entry for all passengers.
Passengers are encouraged to use the Aarogya Setu App at the time of entry into the station.
Passengers are advised to travel with minimum baggage and avoid metallic items.
All human contact areas, lift buttons, escalators, handrails and customer handling points will be disinfected frequently at stations.
ï‚· Special attention will be provided to frequent cleaning and disinfecting of Public toilets at the Metro Stations.
ï‚· Social distancing will also be monitored through CCTV at all stations and inside trains
