Title - Tourists love Mysore railway station

The Mysore railway station was recognised as ‘The tourist friendly railway station for the year 2011-12’ by the union ministry of Tourism, and was also awarded the National Tourism Award by the ministry.It is the first station in Karnataka to be bestowed with the title.Speaking with DNA, Vinod Kumar, divisional railway manager, said the station was selected following the assessment of its tourist friendly facilities and infrastructure.Stations were judged on a number of parameters including, the standard of cleanliness and hygiene in the dormitories, waiting halls, seating arrangements, maintenance of eating outlets, general maintenance and upkeep ofstation, availability of tourist facilitation centres, availability of pre-paid taxi services, eco-friendly measures like rain-water harvesting, facilities for differently-abled passengers at the station, and display of proper signage and activities.“We have also synchronised bus timings with the help of KSRTC, which provides feeder transport to other parts of the city. The KSRTC has put electronic signboard in the railway station which gives the last mile connectivity to the passengers arriving at Mysore station,” Kumar said.

Mysore station has also got Bihar connectivity following the services of Dharbhanga Bangalore Express being extended to Mysore. In another effort, the division has also started issuing single ticket to passengers travelling in the Mysore-Hospet-Bagalkot
sector.

“We are also trying to get the Karnataka Express (now running between Bangalore-
Hazarat Nizammuddin via Wadi-Bhopal) extended to Mysore,” Kumar added.
Anup Dayanand Sadhu, senior divisional commercial manager, South Western Railway, said, Mysore was the second station to receive the award, which was previously given to New Delhi station in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Mysore Railway station currently runs about 40 trains chugging to and fro every day, transporting close to 50,000 passengers.

The station rakes in around Rs45 crore in a year.