World-class hope? But where is space?

World-class hope? But where is space?

Anil Kumar Sastry

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

No place to sleep: Lack of land and red tape has put a brake on providing better amenities at the Bangalore City railway Station.

BANGALORE: Bangaloreans got elated when Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced in 2006 that Bangalore was one among the 22 railway stations in metros in the country to be developed in to world-class standards, for that they can start and complete their journey in a pleasant way.

However, even after two years, the announcement is still in proposal stage and there are doubts whether the City Railway Station, which is the hub of passenger movement, will be developed as a world-class station.

The South Western Railway (SWR) feels that the City Station cannot be developed further due to congestion and instead proposed to develop Byappanahalli as the third coaching terminal for the City with world-class standards.

SWR General Manager Praveen Kumar was non-committal on the issue. He told The Hindu that the proposal is still in the concept stage and a final decision will be taken only after development works of New Delhi and Patna Railway Stations, which are being undertaken on pilot basis by the Indian Railways, begins.
No space

“There is no space around the City Railway Station and it has become land-locked. Huge buildings have come up in the vicinity of the station making it impossible to develop further.” On the other hand, Byappanahalli, Mr. Kumar claimed, has sufficient space to get world-class amenities and a proposal has been sent to the Railway Board in this regard.

“Redesigning of the City Station requires large amount of displacement of existing buildings, facilities and operation of trains. Hence, we decided to take up Byappanahalli. Trains could be operated to all directions — Chennai, Dharmavaram, Mysore and Tumkur from this terminal,” Mr. Praveen Kumar said. On whether trains being operated from the City station would be shifted to Byappanahalli, Mr. Kumar said it was too premature to comment.
Amenities

According to the draft plan, the City station is to have separate arrival and departure lounges, shopping malls, escalators, ticketed entry to platforms, food courts, automatic ticketing system and a hi-tech electronic queue management system for passengers.

The terminal building comprising three floors, including the ground floor, was to have the potential for further additions. The ground floor is to have passenger concourse, while the first floor to house reservation counters, toilets and food courts.

Apart from refurbishing the second entry, the SWR also intended to open another entry to the station from Magadi Road (between Binny Mill and Old Mysore Road Junction).