In Bangalore, the country’s first centralized air-conditioned railway terminal 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 centralized AC railway terminal in Bengaluru is set to become operational soon,” Goyal tweeted.

As per 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,” the Chief Public Relation Officer of South Western Railway said.

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 314 crore, it was supposed to be 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 officer said, adding the terminal would help decongest KSR Bengaluru and Yesvantpur stations in the city.

The station building is of 4,200 square meters 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 Bangalore 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.

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