With the surge in Metro Rail passenger traffic, the parking revenue has gone up significantly and crossed the pre-pandemic figures.
With last mile connectivity lacking from most stations, passengers use their personal transport to reach the station and then board the Metro train.
According to CMRL officials, before the pandemic, nearly 1.25 lakh people were commuting daily on weekdays and this number rose to 1.30 lakh recently.
This meant that the number of those bringing their personal vehicle to the station too went up, raking in more parking revenue. “Before COVID-19, we used to get around ₹80 lakh a month but it has now increased to a little over ₹ 1 crore. Like before, we get more number of two-wheelers than four wheelers. This is because we mostly have space only for two-wheelers at several stations,” an official said.
About 14,000 vehicles, including 12,000 two-wheelers, a day were parked at Metro Rail stations. Thirumangalam station houses the maximum number of 2,000 vehicles followed by Alandur with nearly 1,800 vehicles. Vadapalani comes third holding about 1,200 vehicles. These were the only stations to cross 1,000 vehicles; apart from these three, Koyambedu gets about 900 vehicles and Meenambakkam and Egmore about 850 and 600 vehicles respectively.
In the remaining stations, parking occupancy is poor. “In some of the stations like Vadapalani, Mannady and Washermanpet we have noticed that many of the non-Metro passengers too come to park their vehicles for various reasons. At Vadapalani, they leave their vehicles here and head to the Forum Mall. At Mannady and Washermanpet, they just find it safe to park it here and head for purchases closeby,” he said.