Chennai Metro Rail to step up measures for better crowd management in future

Chennai Metro Rail to develop crowd management protocol after chaos during Indian Air Force air show at Marina beach.

Chennai Metro Rail plans a host of measures and will develop a protocol for better crowd management in future.

On October 6, when the Indian Air Force air show was held at the Marina beach, lakhs of people descended on the venue resulting in absolute chaos not just on the roads leading to the venue, but also in the Chennai Metro Rail system.

Nearly 4 lakh passengers used the Chennai Metro Rail services that day and a few of the stations witnessed crowding like never-seen-before. Government Estate Metro Rail station, closest to the venue saw thousands of passengers that day.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), following this incident, plans are afoot to draft a protocol which will have them better prepared in case such large scale events are going to be held in the city and the venue is located close to their stations. 

“Four stations are key for us — Government Estate, Nandanam, LIC and Chennai Central. These are the stations which are likely to see huge crowd due to their proximity to places like YMCA, Chepauk cricket stadium, Marina beach. The protocol will guide us on how to prevent excessive crowding, gradually move passengers right from the entry point, train frequency to be planned and other aspects,” an official said. 

Some of these stations need some additional civil upgradation as well. In the sense, to begin queuing right from the entry point, the parking area has to be altered quite a bit and roofing has to be installed, he added. 

Another important issue that occurred on October 6 was, it was very challenging to clear the crowd at Government Estate station since passengers had to pass through the Automatic Fare Collection gates or ticketing gates to swipe their ticket; but these gates could not function as fast as one would expect. After a few hours, CMRL officials decided to do away with punching the ticket at Government Estate station and informed commuters to do it the destination station.