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URBAN JUNGLE COLUMNS

MRTS: A wreck of a system

A. Srivathsan
JUNE 25, 2012 02:30 IST
UPDATED: JULY 12, 2016 07:01 IST

MRTS was one of the most ambitious projects in the city when rst conceptualised

If you are new to Chennai or a first time user of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) – an
elevated train connecting Beach and Velachery — the following guide may help:
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If you have entered Thiruvanmiyur station near the TIDEL park junction, do not get lost
looking for the ticket counter. It is at the farthest end, but walk carefully. Do not park your
vehicle in the basement unless you are trained in a circus. Watch out when you step out, the
buzzing roads kiss the exit. Do not mind the cows at the Perungudi station, they never
cause any harm. But do not trust the water coolers. Wait until you reach Mylapore where
you will find the only vending stall. If you want a smooth ride to Marina beach or the
Parthasarathy temple, do not get down in Triplicane – it floats over the Buckingham sewer.
If you are desperate, you can use the toilet at the Kasturba Nagar station, but get out as
quickly as you can.

Beach station is bound to offer you a sense of relief. The platforms are on grade. Though it is
a long walk to the entrance, at least it is safe. There is a coffee vending machine that is
manually operated.

For those who want to travel after seven in the night, only statistics can be comforting.
Guided more by intuition than by bright lights, commuters have been reaching their
respective platforms safely. So far, not many have reported the breaking of legs due to
groping in the dark.

All these tips are for those who are able to and can climb three steep floors. Senior citizens
and the disabled: forget your desire to use the MRTS. Lifts, escalators and other things
mechanical are often under repair. But I have to admit that I do not mind the winding
queue to buy tickets in Velachery nor the long wait for the D70 bus to take me home from
the station. I can endure them since the roads are choked; the 21L bus to the office is
packed; and the office is only a three-minute walk from the Chintadripet station.
Sum and substance of the MRTS: squalor, ruin and wreck. That is if you overlook the fourth
point – its crawling pace of construction.
Forty years on and still incomplete, the MRTS probably holds the dubious record for the
most-delayed infrastructural project in the country. But it was not a bad project when it
started.
In 197I, when it was first conceptualised, the MRTS was one of the most ambitious projects
in the city. It was meant to connect the Beach Station with St. Thomas Mount and then
continue to link Villivakkam and go beyond to complete the circle, by connecting
Tiruvottiyur. Some of the best talents were commissioned to design it.

Delays and changes messed it up; cost escalated and the network shrank to be of less use.
The first phase covering a distance of about 9 km (Beach to Mylapore) estimated to cost Rs.
55 crore in 1984, was finished in 1997 at a cost of Rs. 269 crore. When the second phase
(Mylapore to Velachery) was completed in 2007, construction cost of the 11 km stretch had
phenomenally increased to Rs. 777 crore. The link between Velachery and St. Thomas

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Mount is still being built. None of the stations are complete. The Villivakam-Tiruvottiyur
project is as good as dropped.

The brisk pace of the Metro Rail construction is assuring. But it has not learnt the lessons
from the MRTS — an inadequate network length, poor planning for modal transfers and
lack of integration with the surrounding areas plague the Metro Rail too. But that is
another story.

The State, which is spending thousands of crores on Metro, should spend a few tens to
complete the MRTS tracks and make the stations safe and commuter-friendly. Will the
government do it?

Printable version | Jan 22, 2019 1:23:55 PM |

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