CHENNAI: A total of 1.56 lakh passengers travelled on the Chennai Metro Rail on Saturday and Sunday alone, the last two days of the week, according to a Chennai Metro Rail spokesman generating ticket sales worth Rs 48.6 lakh.
“We had a total ridership of 3.26 lakh passengers during the whole week with ticket collections worth Rs 1.08 crore,” the official said.
The ticket sales also include sale of smart cards with deposit of Rs 50. The ridership on Sunday alone was 80,000, said the spokesman. During the inaugural day, the ridership was 40,000 only.
The inaugural week was not without some technical glitches that affected the service on Sunday. “There were issues with the software, which was being supplied by Siemens which was resolved by that evening,” said a Metro Rail spokesman.
“We have taken up this issue with Siemens who assured us that they will look into it,” he said.
A Siemens spokesman said that “it is taking all the necessary steps to ensure the smooth operation of this prestigious project. Our teams are present on ground and are providing all the necessary support.”
Siemens is responsible for managing the central operations control centre, ATP (Automatic Train Protection), ATS (Automatic Train Supervision), electronic interlocking (Sicas ECC), ATO (Automatic Train Operation) as well as the line electrification (25 kV AC overhead line).
Tilak Raj Seth, Executive Vice-President, Mobility Division, Siemens said that Siemens had to face a few delays due to civil and related work.
“This is understandable in a project of this nature where construction has to happen alongside the daily business of the city and its related services. But our project teams put in significant effort and also provided support in fast-tracking the clearances related to RDSO (Research Design and Standards Organisation) and safety approvals,” he said.
“Installation and testing were carried out under challenging conditions, but the Siemens teams worked very closely together with all system contractors to ensure timely completion,” he added. He said that Chennai Metro’s entire operations can be controlled from the operation control centre (OCC) at Koyambedu.
The functioning is automatic and there is minimal human intervention.