Soon, air passengers may be able to finish their check-in process and drop off their baggage from selected Chennai Metro Rail stations.
To reduce congestion at the airport and save time for air passengers, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has held discussions with Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) and airlines to start this facility on trial basis in some of the stations which has maximum demand from March this year and will be expanded on a full-fledged scale from April.
AAI officials said they are mulling the possibility of having this facility at Chennai Central Metro Rail Station and Egmore Metro Rail station initially and extend to the other stations based on demand.
Passengers can collect their boarding passes at the station itself and leave their baggage. “We held meeting with IndiGo, Air India and Vistara who are keen to help in implementing this facility. There will be a feasibility study initially to see how it can be put into use and we also need to get some approvals and clearances,” an official said.
During peak hours, both domestic and international terminals are bursting and passengers wait for extended period to complete their check-in process.
If this plan is implemented, passengers can take the train directly to the airport to save time and head for security check, officials said.
IndiGo is also looking to add a ‘check-in’ option (Chennai airport or Metro Rail station) so that passengers can choose this in advance and will also help authorities with better planning.
Chennai Central Metro Rail station has the maximum footfall where nearly 20,000 commuters use it everyday while Egmore Metro Rail station has close to 5,000 commuters using it daily.
Thirumangalam, Guindy and Alandur are some of the other stations which have high passenger footfalls.
