CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday sought matching funds from the Centre for implementing the Rs 61,843 crore Chennai Metro Rail Phase II project as Chennai Metro Rail has become one of the lifelines for Chennaites. It has catered to 25 crore commuters so far.
Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi again seeking funds in a 50:50 ratio to implement the Phase-II project. Currently, the project is a state-funded project.
More than eight years after commencing its operations, Chennai Metro has catered to 25 crore passengers. In 2023, Chennai Metro found a huge increase in the patronage with 9.11 crore passengers availing the servcies, according to data available from Chennai Metro.
Commencing its operations on June 29, 2015. Chennai Metro catered to only 2.8 crore in the initial three years till December 31, 2018. The patronage increased during the year 2018 as it clocked 3.28 crore passengers annually but then there was a decline in the next two years.
During 2020, a total of 1.18 crore passengers availed the services while in 2021, a total of 2.53 crore passengers took to the metro. However, it was during the calendar years 2022 and 2023, the patronage peaked. In the year 2022, 6.09 crore passengers availed the Metro services while in 2023, a total of 9.11 crore people took to Metro, a release stated