Chennai Metro Rail Operated by Young Woman Pilot on Inauguration Day

With a Woman behind Controls, Chennai Metro Rail makes Maiden Journey

Chennai (MAS): It was 12.02 pm on Monday and barely moments remained before Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was to flag off the city’s first Metro train service from Alandur to Koyambedu.

Up on platform two, where the train that would make the first journey lay wait, there was an unusual crowd near the motorman’s cabin. Something curious had caught the eyes of the onlookers. As this scribe took a closer look, it became known that the people were peeking in to see how the control room looked like. But more than that, they were interested in the person who was going to be operating those controls, once the green signal from Secretariat came.

A young woman was behind the wheel today when the Chennai Metro rolled out for the first time on a signal from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

At 12.16 pm, 27-year-old A Preethi, wrote her name into the city’s modern history when she operated the first Metro train service. “In the morning before she left for work, she told me how happy and excited she was to be given this opportunity. But she was not nervous. She kept telling that it was no big achievement,” said Preethi’s mother, A Shanti.

Preethi’s mother and her four-year-old niece were a part of the journey, taking in the experience, as the rakes whizzed out of Alandur amid huge applause from the occupants, and sped into Ekkattuthangal station. “Since her childhood, she had always shown a keen interest in driving vehicles. Be it a two-wheeler or four-wheeler, she has driven it all and now she is operating a train,” said the proud mother.

As early as 9 am, Alandur station was abuzz with activity as camera crews had begun to make their presence felt. By noon, a sizeable crowd – majority of them AIADMK party workers – had arrived to make the inaugural run successful.

Since the first passenger service was only scheduled at 1.30 pm, members of the public who had luckily gained entry by then were busy clicking selfies and taking group shots. Wide open smiles adorned every single one of their faces because those images were going to go up on Facebook, Instagram and other social networking sites.

Curiosity was sky high. People could hardly resist taking a peek into the air-conditioned rakes just to get a feel and touch of it before the initial run. As soon as the service doors opened, people swarmed in to take their seats and in the blink of an eye, the train was at full capacity and the city on the cusp of realising a major achievement.