Additional parking facility for Chennai Airport Metro station to be ready soon

Chennai Metro Rail to open massive parking space near Airport Metro station to ease commuter parking issues.

With thousands of commuters from the southern parts of the city using the Airport Metro station, Chennai Metro Rail will shortly open a massive parking space about a kilometre from the premises.

Commuters from Pallavaram, Pammal, Chromepet, Mudichur, Chitlapakkam and Tambaram, travel to Anna Salai, North Chennai and Anna Nagar, by Metrorail to escape the city traffic and commute faster, while still in comfort. Most of them leave their bikes and cars at the Chennai Airport Metro station.

Currently, the station’s parking area accommodates 475 vehicles a day, but the limited parking space at the facility has been a major issue for commuters, who are compelled to drive till Meenambakkam or Nanganallur stations looking for parking. Even these two stations have no adequate space to meet the demand, and hence are mostly packed with vehicles.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), they have identified a huge piece of land in Pallavaram, about a kilometre from the Chennai Airport Metro station. “The land is about three acres and it will be able to take in nearly 100 cars and 1,500 two-wheelers. We will operate shuttle service, between the parking facility and the station, every 5-10 minutes. Since there was no other land available near the station, we had to execute this alternative arrangement. This space will be ready for parking vehicles by the end of next month. Simultaneously, we will also have the shuttle service in place by then,” an official said.

V. Santhanam, a resident of Chromepet, said that people would use the new parking space only if the shuttle service was operated properly every five minutes. “It is not a very ideal situation when the parking space is far off from the station. But it is better than driving till Meenambakkam or Nanganallur stations looking for parking lots. They should operate at least 10 shuttle vehicles in the peak hours, since hundreds of people will be rushing to the station,” he said.

Mr. Santhanam reiterated that this situation also flagged the need to implement Airport - Kilambakkam bus terminus line soon, without which many are struggling with their daily commute.