English
Bengaluru: Good news for Bengalureans! Over a year after completion, city’s first airport-like train station with centralised air-conditioning is going to start operations from June 6, Monday night. Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal at Byappanahalli, built at a cost of Rs 314 crore, will commence operations without much fanfare with a formal inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected later, reported the Times of India. Initially, the South Western Railway (SWR) has shifted three pairs of long-distance trains from Banaswadi station to Sir MV terminal.
The Banaswadi-Ernakulam tri-weekly Express (no. 12684) will be the first to run from the terminal, at 7 pm on Monday. The Sir MV Terminal was initially scheduled to be India’s first modernised railway terminal, but now, the city terminal will be third such station given that the other two — in Habibganj (Rani Kamlapati), Madhya Pradesh and Gandhinagar, Gujarat — were inaugurated before it although they were completed later.
The work on the terminal was supposed to be completed in December 2018, but it missed several deadlines. Though it was ready in March 2021, a formal inauguration was delayed as the railway did not get a date from the Prime Minister’s office. “This is the first greenfield project where Indian railways constructed a world-class terminal. The other two stations (Habibganj and Gandhinagar) were the existing ones and re-developed by the IRSDC,” E Vijaya, SWR chief PRO (in-charge), was quoted as saying by TOI.
In Bengaluru, this will be the third railway coaching terminal (where trains originate/terminate their trips) after KSR Bengaluru City and Yeshwantpur stations. While KSR, which is part of the Mysuru line, has been operational since 1882, Yeshwantpur station on the Doddaballapur line was built in 1892.
DRM/SBC along with railway officials inspected SMVB Terminal to ensure the readiness, maintenance and smooth functioning of the Station. #SMVB #BengaluruDivision @SWRRLY @RailMinIndia pic.twitter.com/xIwSvQB15l
— DRM Bengaluru (@drmsbc) June 6, 2022
Vijaya said the Bengaluru railway division of SWR came into existence only in 1981. She added that there was, in fact, no demand for trains from Bengaluru till late 1990s as most were limited to southern states. “However, post the IT boom in 2000s, there has been huge demand for more trains especially to the north but tracks/ stations in Bengaluru reached almost a saturation point. This has resulted in the need for more terminals to run additional trains,” she added.
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