Metro patronage goes up by 45 per cent, records highest at 28.17 lakh in July

After the inauguration of the last leg of the AGS-Washermenpet stretch of phase-I on February 10, the patronage of the Metro Rail went up by 45 per cent.

A Metro official said that the opening of the full stretch of Metro phase-I has increased the patronage as it offers connectivity to the Central station via Anna Salai. Many of the office goers prefer Metro Rail along Anna Salai to avoid traffic on the arterial road, the official said.

In January, the patronage stood at 19.37 lakh. After the opening of the last leg of the phase-I, the patronage went up by 21 per cent to touch 23.62 lakh. The patronage grew marginally in the months of April, May and June, too. From 24.95 lakh in June, it touched a record high of 28.17 lakh in July.

“The daily patronage has been touching one lakh in July. It touched the highest of 1.07 lakh on July 13,” the official said, adding that with the improved feeder services like MTC small bus, share autos and taxis, the patronage would go up further in the coming months.

Airport Metro station is the favourite amongst passengers and nearly 9,000 people use it every day, followed by Chennai Central station used by about 8,000-8,500 passengers and Tirumangalam used by 7,300-7,500 commuters on a daily basis.

Since 2015, the 45km network has been opened on six stretches, with the first one being Koyambedu to Alandur (June 2015). Then Little Mount to Chennai airport (September 2016), Alandur to St Thomas Mount (October 2016), Koyambedu to Nehru Park (May 2017), Nehru Park to Chennai Central (May 2018) and Little Mount to AG-DMS (May 2018) were opened. The last section to be commissioned was AG-DMS to Washermenpet via Central in February this year.

The patronage went up after commissioning the new section. The official added that 26 lakh people used Metro services between June and December 2015 while 36 lakh travelled on it the next year. In 2017, 73 lakh people travelled.

The patronage doubled in 2018 to reach 1.43 crore. With the commissioning of the entire phase-I this year, the ridership touched a new high of 1.68 crore from January 1 to July 31.