Many people heading to work along Anna Salai and Parrys Corner from the southern suburbs on Monday took Metro train in the Washermenpet-Chennai Airport stretch after six months.

The first train along this stretch departed from Chennai airport at 7 a.m. On September 9, Chennai Central-St. Thomas Mount will be functional.

From handling over a lakh of passengers before COVID-19, the stations and trains had poor patronage on Monday.

Passengers impressed

H.N.S. Patel walked down to the station around 7.30 a.m. to head to his office in Parrys.

“All these months, I had an office cab picking me up and dropping me. But now that the Metro has begun, I’m going to start using it as it is convenient and safe to travel. I will get off at Madras High Court station and take an auto to my workplace,” he said.

Godwin J., 30, who lives in Tambaram, too travelled to Parrys Corner.

“Earlier, I was taking the suburban train but now that it is not available I decided to use the Chennai Metro now. The stations are clean and well-maintained and I would love to use them regularly to travel to office; but I wish they cut down the fares,” he said.

Another passenger Srivathsan Sridharan, on Twitter, said, “proper social distancing arrangements in Chennai Metro. Hope people follow the same.

Due to COVID-19, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. had taken a host of steps for improving the safety of passengers such as QR code tickets and increasing dwell time of trains in each station (the time a train halts in a station). There are travel card readers installed at stations for commuters to check the details of their smart cards and extend the validity.

Officials optimistic

Officials of the CMRL said the patronage for the services was likely to improve significantly n the coming weeks gradually.

“Commuters will start using it as usual when they know it is safe and comfortable. We are placing additional staff too to make sure there was physical distancing in the trains and stations,” an official said.