Getting to IMSc from the Central railway station

• If an IMSc vehicle is to pick you up at Chennai Central, look for the driver in the big hall straight ahead of Platform 11, near the Higginbotham's book stall where the driver should be waiting.

   

• There are pre-paid autorickshaw and pre-paid taxi booths located near the main entrance/exit of the Central station. You have to come all the way out of the station building.

  The person in the booth will give you a token with the fare written on it and assign a driver. You actually pay the fare to the driver after you get to your destination---so the fare is pre-determined rather than pre-paid. (Sometimes they will stop at a petrol pump on the way and ask you to pay for the petrol! You pay the remaining amount at the destination.)

  Give the postal address of IMSc. If asked, specify that the institute is next to the Film Institute, and about half a kilometer before TIDEL Park.

• There are some bus services. And of course there are lots of (non-pre-paid) taxi and autorickshaw drivers offering their vehicles.

   

• The route the taxi or autorickshaw is most likely to take is to come south of the station onto the Beach Road and drive straight down along the Marina beach, past the Light house, across the Adyar bridge to Adyar signal. From here, proceed towards IIT and turn left onto the Taramani Road. To identify this turnoff, see the previous section. The distance along this route is a little over 16km.

  An alternative route (shorter, but with much more traffic) is to come south of the station onto Mount Road (Anna Salai), go over the Anna Flyover, turn left onto Cenotaph Road, cross the Adyar river at Kotturpuram, and reach the Raj Bhavan - Adyar road a little before IIT. Then turn left, drive past IIT and follow the instructions in the previous section. The distance on this route is about 15km.