Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has temporarily suspended the metro route from Chennai Central railway station to the Chennai airport due to technical issues on Saturday, January 21. This route passes through Koyambedu. A press release from CMRL stated that the metro technical experts are trying to identify the problem and rectify it. Until then, the route would be temporarily suspended, the press release said.
Meanwhile, the frequency of the metro trains between Wimco Nagar to the Chennai airport and Central railway station to St Thomas Mount station has been reduced to six minutes. This is also due to technical glitches. Earlier, metro trains used to run every 4.5 minutes from 4:30 am to 11:00 pm and every 15 minutes during leaner hours. Inter-corridor metro services from the Chennai airport have also been suspended.
Earlier this week, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) announced that passengers traveling to the Chennai airport will be able to finish their check-in process and drop off their luggage at select metro stations across the city. The AAI had held discussions with the CMRL and several airlines to introduce this facility in metro stations that have the maximum passengers. This feature is expected to start from March and will be implemented in a full-fledged manner from April 14 onwards. This feature is first expected to be introduced at the Chennai Central Metro Rail Station and the Egmore Metro station and will be extended to other stations based on demand and feasibility. AAI also said that there will be a feasibility study at the introduction of the facility to see how it can be implemented on a larger scale.