Chennai: Lush green Tirusulam hills on one side, the sprawling airports on other, runways, flights taking off and landing, beautifully manicured trees at Officers Training Academy, serene blue sky, and traffic near Kathipara junction, these are some of the soothing sights that greet one’s eyes as one takes off on a Metro rail from the newly inaugurated Chennai airport CMRL station bound for Little Mount.
This correspondent got on a train from Airport to see the reactions on the faces of commuters, who wanted to partake in Chennai’s latest moment of pride.
“Let’s take a selfie,” was the most common reaction of them all while some admired the serene views near the airport, where one could see flights landing on one side.
As soon as the rail entered a tunnel after Meenambakkam station for half a minute underground ride before Nanganallur Road station, commuters, like Nishanth, were filled with joy.
“I took the metro just to experience this tunnel,” he exclaimed. A Rajasekharan, who was riding to Vadapalani with his wife, was not used to the Metro being a resident of Bengaluru. “From my home in Bengaluru, in Vijayanagar, to Majestic bus stand, it costs just '17. Here, it is double that amount,” he said.
While many were agog over the sight of the sprawling Airport station, and a new means of transport that drives above all the traffic, quite figuratively, many commuters were not aware that the there is no direct connection between CMBT and the airport.
“I was not aware that I have to change trains at Alandur,” said a person who took the metro service after having landed at Chennai airport from Mumbai, and was echoing the confusion of many others who did not know whether or not to believe the correspondent who was asking them to alight and go to the next level to get on a CMBT Metro.
The ride, which started from airport at 3.34pm reached CMBT at 4.10pm including a 15-minute wait at Alandur for the next train to CMBT. CMBT station lies on the green line, and airport station that lies on the Blueline, have a common station at Alandur, which has services to and from CMBT from the second floor and services to and from Little Mount and airport on the first floor.
While the new stretch makes 20 km of the Phase 1 of metro rail in operation, people are voicing concerns of the inaccessibility due to high pricing.
“Metro rail is a transport service, not a luxury. By charging such high fares, which you and I may afford, people from lower strata are being stopped from using such necessities,” said V. Rama Rao of Traffic and Transportation Forum.
He also pointed out that at Nanganallur Road station the path leading from station to the main road is very narrow. This could cause a problem when commuters are large in numbers.
“The parking also has space only 50 odd vehicles, which is very less considering the demand that would be there. Also, the pavements should be kept clear of dwellers and vendors so that people walking out could use them,” he added.
