Chennai: The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has upped the ante, aiming to bridge issues of last-mile connectivity, along with a user-friendly app and a means to facilitate the use of the already existent Travel Card for all transactions within a metro station.
The CMRL Mobile app launched last year received a positive response with over 50,000 downloads. An update released on 1st October 2018, aims to simplify the CMRL Travel Card recharge process and provide commuters with live train timings. “Users can register on the app and store up to 5 travel cards for easy recharge up to Rs 1000 per card per transaction,” said the Joint Director of CMRL, S Pandian.
Commuters can now plan their commute down to the minute by checking the exact time of arrival of a train as the train timings are provided on a real-time basis on the updated version of the app. Other major updates on the app include a Feedback section, Travel Planner and Feeder Service information.
A unique feature that the new update has is vital to using the Metro services in the city. Chennai Metro Rail has two lines-blue line and green line, that connect various parts of the city. In the new update, commuters would not have the dilemma of having to identify interchange stations to reach their destination. “The updated travel planner would let the passenger know if the train they are about to board is a direct train or if they need to interchange at Alandur, the point of intersection. It also provides them with the list of stations in between. In other words, the app is now a comprehensive guide to navigate when using the Chennai Metro,” says Pandian.
As part of providing last mile connectivity to Metro Rail passengers, CMRL had taken an initiative of providing feeder services through share auto and share taxi cab services at selected metro stations on trial basis for a period of six months. Eight metro stations in the city were identified and feeders are running on the designated routes with a flat tariff of Rs 10. These stations are- Guindy, Thirumangalam, Alandur, Little Mount, Ekkatuthangal, Koyambedu, St. Thomas Mount and Ashok Nagar. Similarly, the share taxi feeder services are at five selected metro stations, namely AG-DMS, Anna Nagar East, Koyambedu, Alandur and Valapalani. The share taxi feeder services cover an area up to 3 Km radius with a flat tariff of Rs 15.
A regular user of the Chennai Metro commended the measure to improve last-minute connectivity. “ I am a student who gets off at Vadapalani and has to travel to college. An auto usually costs me Rs 50. But, thanks to the new feeder bus, i only have to spend Rs 10 to reach college”.
