India's first AC railway terminal to function soon at Baiyappanahalli

Bengaluru: The country's first centralised air-conditioned railway terminal in Bengaluru would be operational soon, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

"Named after one of the foremost civil engineers, Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya, the nation's first centralised AC railway terminal in Bengaluru is set to become operational soon," Goyal tweeted.

According to railway officials, the new coach terminal was planned at Baiyappanahalli in the city to meet the demand to introduce more express trains connecting Bengaluru.

"Byappanahalli is the third coach terminal sanctioned in 2015-16, which has been named after Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya who was an engineer par excellence and contributed tremendously to nation-building," Chief Public Relation Officer of South Western Railway E Vijaya said. Built at an estimated cost of Rs 314 crore, it was supposed to have been opened by February-end but due to certain reasons, it was put on hold.

Once this terminal is operational, more long distance trains from Bengaluru to other metros like Mumbai and Chennai and also trains connecting Bengaluru to all districts within Karnataka can be run, the official said, adding the terminal would help decongest KSR Bengaluru and Yesvantpur stations in the city.

According to her, a modern station building with centralised air-conditioning and airport like facade has been constructed. State-of-the-art passenger amenities are being provided to make journey a pleasant experience. The station building is of 4,200 square metre covered area to cater to daily footfalls of 50,000.

The terminal has seven platforms apart from eight stabling lines and three pit lines enabling the terminal to operate 50 trains daily.

Vijaya said the terminal has a grand canopy over the station building concourse on the lines of Bengaluru International Airport. It has a fully air-conditioned entrance lobby and a well- marked parking space for four-wheelers and two-wheelers with a capacity of 250 and 900 respectively.

The officer said it has an upper-class waiting hall and reserved (VIP) lounge, food court, escalators, lifts connecting all platforms to facilitate passenger movement to all seven platforms, foot-over-bridge connecting all platforms, along with two subways.