Soon, passengers can get cab on arrival at Central, Egmore

Southern Railway (SR) is contemplating operation of dedicated taxi services in partnership cab-aggregators (like Uber and Ola) from A1 stations, replicating Bengaluru. 

Senior SR officials told DTNext that discussions were on and tender would be floated for opening exclusive taxi aggregation from the two stations in three months. Barely a month ago, Chennai Metro Rail Limited had announced the setting up of kiosks at its seven underground stations for cab-aggregators to operate taxis. “Railway board has advised us to launch services at A1 and A type stations,” said a senior SR official requesting anonymity.

Notably, partnership with cab-aggregators has not discouraged SR from reviving its pre-paid taxi and auto services from the A1 stations. On Friday, SR would open the tenders for reviving pre-paid taxi and auto stand at seven stations (Chennai Central, Egmore, Tambaram, Arakkonam, Katpadi, Chengalpet and Jolarpet). If finalised, pre-paid services would resume at Chennai Central and Egmore after nearly three years. Services were suspended, at least at Central, owing to the ongoing metro rail work. SR had earlier called off a similar tender for want of bidders. 

“We have been receiving a lot of requests from auto and taxi operators to park their vehicles in the station area. We are collecting fees on a bi-annual basis after verifying the individual operator’s credentials,” an official said, adding, that the pre-paid system should be operable in 45 days.

Aggregated cab and pre-paid services were being undertaken despite SR inviting bids for its Rs 350 crore Chennai Central commercial development project, which includes utilisation of land adjoining the station. However, railway officials were confident that the two projects would not overlap. Even if there were some common features in station development and pre-paid projects, they would be integrated in such a way that the comfort of travellers was not compromised.

Chennai Central (stand size)

Chennai Egmore (stand size)

Arakkonam station will have 1,300 sq m taxi stand

SR had opened three parking spaces for taxis and autos recently

A1 stations - Netting Rs 60 crore per annum

A station - Rs 8 crore- 60 crore per annum