CHENNAI: The city arterial roads and national highways leading to neighbouring districts witnessed increased congestion on Thursday as thousands of commuters left for various parts of the state by trains, buses or their own vehicles ahead of the Lok Sabha election on Friday.

Meanwhile, encashing the huge demand for tickets, a section of omnibuses increased their fare by 100%-200% in the Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Tirunelveli and Chennai-Nagercoil sections, resulting in semi-sleeper seat prices skyrocketing to Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500.

A Anbalagan, the president of the All Omni Bus Owners Association, said, “A total of 1.1 lakh people availed the services of omnibuses on Wednesday and Thursday. About 420 omnibus operators are providing services across the state. Only eight operators have been found to have overcharged commuters. The issue has been taken up to the government and is being looked into.”

According to an official note from the transport department, a total of 1.46 lakh commuters travelled from Chennai on 2,899 SETC and TNSTC buses, including 807 special buses deployed on Tuesday and Wednesday. “An estimated 1.5 lakh travellers are expected to depart on Thursday. As many as 46,503 bus tickets were reserved for travel on Wednesday and Thursday,” statement added.

Similarly, the trains departing from Chennai Central, Egmore, and Tambaram witnessed overcrowding in both general compartments as well as reserved coaches. Despite the introduction of special trains to Coimbatore and Nagercoil, ticket demand remained high for destinations such as Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar, and Thiruchendur.

As a result, the Southern Railway introduced a special train from Tambaram to Tirunelveli via Tiruchy on Thursday evening. The online tickets for the special train were sold out within just a few hours after the booking was opened in the afternoon.

Saturday’s schedule of metro in force today

Chennai: Metro train services will be operated on Friday as per the Saturday schedule on account of the public holiday declared for the Lok Sabha Elections. The metro trains will operate from 5 am to 11 pm. Trains will be available every six minutes from 8 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 8 pm, and in every seven minutes from 5 am to 8 am, 11 am to 6 pm and 8 pm to 10 pm.

The services will be available every 15 minutes from 10 pm to 11 pm, a release stated.

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