CMRL keen on providing enough parking space to increase ridership

CHENNAI: On an average, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) receives over 2.50 lakh passengers per day. With the surge in footfall, it is a real task for CMRL to find the required parking space, especially at highly active metro stations.

But, officials have observed that providing enough parking space and efficient feeder services are keys to increasing metro ridership. For the same, CMRL has recently been opening and working on creating additional parking facilities attached to many stations. Likewise, with feeder services.

"More people will ride in the Chennai metro if we create enough parking space. As in, a passenger can park their vehicle at the lot and take the metro for work. This will make travelling in mass transit seamless. Ultimately drawing more people to metro trains and simultaneously removing private vehicles off road, "said a higher official.

Existing parking facility at Mannadi metro station.

The official said, for this purpose, the department is actively on lookout for lands, but most challenging is scouting for them within the city. And besides finding new lands, CMRL is also planning to convert many existing parking lots to multi-level parking facilities.

"To convert parking lots to multi-level, we will have to vacate the existing place, find an alternative for commuters to park the vehicle, " added the official.

As part of offering improved parking facilities, CMRL closed the parking space at Meenambakkam metro station for renovation. Instead, a temporary space was made available at the St. Thomas Mount metro station.

Likewise, owing to renovation, parking at Arignar Anna Alandur metro station has been closed since March.

Further, an additional parking space of 4,656 sqm has been leased at Nanganallur Road metro station for parking two and four-wheelers. This extended parking facility can accommodate 1,000 two-wheelers and 60 four-wheelers.

Additional parking facility opened at Mannadi metro station.

Subsequently, in June 2022, CMRL opened additional parking space at Koyambedu metro station, with separate facilities for women. The station already had 1500 square meters to park 800 vehicles.

According to CMRL officials, more parking facilities have been opened at Nehru Park metro station and Thousand Light metro station in the last six months.

And as officials could not procure land near High Court metro station, added parking facilities have been opened near Mannadi metro station, catering to both the stations.

Understanding the current challenges, the parking space near the stations are given more importance in phase 2 construction.

"If not for all stations, we are ensuring additional parking space is made available for every two metro stations, which we missed in phase 1," the official said.