 Solution

The central matrices $\pm I$ act identically on the complex upper half-plane, so the effective group is ${\mathrm{PSL}}_2(\mathbb{Z})$. Away from points with nontrivial effective stabilizer, properly discontinuous action supplies ordinary quotient-disc charts. At a fixed point $z_0$, the coordinate $u=(\tau -z_0)/(\tau -{\overline{z}}_0)$ identifies the stabilizer action with a rotation; its invariant coordinate is $u^e$, where $e$ is the effective stabilizer order. These charts give the quotient its Riemann surface structure.

The elliptic stabilizers of the modular group occur only in the orbits of $i$ and $\omega =e^{2\pi i/3}$. They have effective orders two and three. Consequently the analytic ramification indices of the map from the half-plane areThe stabilizers in ${\mathrm{SL}}_2$ have orders four and six, but the central factor does not double these indices.

All rational boundary points, including infinity, lie in one cusp of a modular group: a primitive column $(a,c)$ can be completed to a determinant-one integral matrix taking infinity to $a/c$. The stabilizer of infinity is generated effectively by $T:\tau \mapsto \tau +1$, and the coordinate $q=e^{2\pi i\tau }$ identifies its high horodisc quotient with a punctured disc. Adding $q=0$ fills that disc. This constructs the compactified modular curve from the extended half-plane; it does not use the ordinary subspace topology on the rational boundary.

For compactness use the standard fundamental domain of the modular group. Its part below a fixed height $Y>1$ is compact, since its imaginary part is at least $\sqrt{3}/2$. The part above $Y$, modulo translation and with the modular cusp added, is a closed disc in the $q$-coordinate. Their images cover the quotient, so it is compact. The same argument with finitely many translates proves compactness for every finite-index subgroup.