IAF air show: Allowing entry sans punching at Govt Estate Metro helped in crowd control, says CMRL

CHENNAI: While the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is keen on encouraging the public to use its transit service, it turned into a disappointment for the public on Sunday morning.

However, the department was quick to sense the anxiousness and huge inflow of passengers in the afternoon, and revised the timetable where the services were operated every 3.5 minutes.

As per data from CMRL, on Sunday till 10:20 pm, as many as 3.13 lakh passengers had travelled on Metro trains. But, CMRL’s higher officials noted that there was a surge in ridership as most were let in without punching at the entry of Government Estate Metro station and only charged at their respective exit stations.

Though Chennaiites were overjoyed to witness the air show, little did they anticipate the trouble they would endure on the road and commuting on public transportation. Speaking to DT Next, several passengers said that on Sunday morning, they had to wait for a long time for the Metro trains.

“At 11 am on Sunday, I had to wait for 15 minutes for the train at Alandur Metro station. By then, the crowd began gathering in huge numbers. The train did not halt at AG DMS, Thousand Lights and LIC stations,” lamented a regular Metro Rail commuter.

Another passenger who embarked from the Tondiarpet Metro station at 11:30 am said she had opted for the service to reach Marina as the roads would be crowded. “We did not anticipate the extent of crowd on Metro trains. The overall mismanagement at the Marina beach and in public transit services exposed the lack of planning by the government,” said Vanitha.

However, the CMRL announced a change in the train timings after the show ended. In the short loop service, trains were operated every 3.5 minutes between the sections of Washermanpet and AG DMS Metro stations. To accommodate the crowd at the Government Estate Metro station, staff opened the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system at the entry and exit of the station.

Explaining the decision, a CMRL official said, “This was the ideal thing to do – to open the AFC at the entry and charge them for the ride at the respective exit, where the passenger crowd would be relatively less. Besides that, we also took measures to prevent panic and stampede.”

The CMRL had deployed 10 pink squad members, 55 police personnel, 30 CMRL security staff and 70 regular staff for crowd management. MA Siddique, MD, said, “We pre-planned for the event by arranging 10 additional train sets and had drivers on standby. When we sensed a huge inflow, we operated the trains. Also, opening AFC at Government Estate station eased the crowd and the department worked together in it. This is surely a take away for us for future events.”

300 special buses help commuters

On Sunday, the MTC came through and operated 300 special services to transport the public from the beach to the nearest public transport hub. Although they also got caught up in the temporary traffic congestion, all the roads are clear now.