A total of 5,033 passengers travelled on the Chennai Metro Train on September 7 — the first day of resumption of service after nearly five months following the Covid pandemic.

The traffic on the first day was nearly ten times lower than the daily average reported before the Covid pandemic spread started in March. However, traffic is expected to pick up in the next few days, feel officials at Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL).

A total of 4,869 passengers travelled in the metro train using Smart Card ticketing system and 164 passengers utilised the QR code ticketing system.

Passengers can avoid queueing at Metro Stations by downloading the CMRL mobile app for using QR code ticketing system, says a release from CMRL.

The service resumed at 7 am between Chennai Airport and Washermenpet. From September 9, the service in the other line — Chennai Central and St Thomas Mount — will be opened.

During peak hours the train service will be for every five minutes and in the non-peak hours, it will be for every ten minutes. In fact, for better ventilation, in every station, the trains halted for 50 seconds as against the usual 20 seconds before the pandemic.

Some of the SOP in place are travel card reader, QR code; contactless ticketing, travel card reader at stations to avoid crowd at counters. Social distanced seating and frequent sanitisation are also in place.