Free Metro Rides for Chennaites?

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Would Chennaites initially get a free ride on metro rail once the 10km
elevated stretch between Koyambedu to Alandur is thrown open to
people.

Chennai Metro Rail sources told Express that discussions are going on
whether to provide free rides once the Chennai Metro Rail starts
operation between Koyambedu to Alandur, which is likely to be in the
first week of next month.

This could also make Chennai Metro Rail the first in the country to
offer such a scheme for commuters to get themselves familiarise with
the new mode of transport being introduced in the city.

Officials also said that the fares are also being fixed but refused to
provide any details.

Interestingly, the free ride concept will have to be decided by the
state government. “We don’t know whether it will be for a month or a
shorter duration. It depends on the state government to decide,” said
the official.

Interestingly, Metro Rail is planning to put into use nine trains for
its operations between Koyambedu and Alandur. “The frequency would be
a train every 10 minutes and it is likely that the operation would
start from either 5am or 6 am to 11pm,” said the official.

“The train would stop for 30 seconds in each station and the 10km
stretch between Koyambedu and Alandur would be covered in 18 minutes.

“The train speed would be on an average 30kmph and each four rake
train has the capacity to carry 1276 passengers. Of these 176 could be
seated while 1100 can stand throughout the journey,” said the
official.

Initially, the train would be run manually using Auto Train protection
mode. The auto protection mode would minimise the manual errors like
overspeedin etc. It will then slowly graduate to auto train protection
mode, where it can run automatically through the operation control
centre located in Koyambedu.

There are some 25 trains in the depot in Koyambedu and each has a
warranty of two years. Before the warranty process comes to an end,
the operational parameters have to be set in each train, an official
said.

He also said that Chennai Metro Train doors have also been programmed
in such a way that it would provide a time frame of 30 seconds for
commuters to squeeze inside the train during the peak hours and 20
seconds timeframe during the lean hours.