Title - Terminal duo to add trains to south and west

The city is set to get two additional railway terminals for more trains going to or coming from south and west India.The Santragachhi and Shalimar terminals in Howrah, being set up at a cost of around Rs 400 crore, would facilitate the introduction of 18 trains on southern and western routes from Calcutta, railway officials said.The terminals — two-storeyed buildings to come up where Santragachhi and Shalimar stations stand, around 10km from the city centre — are likely to be opened by 2015. Both will have facilities such as escalators, walkalators, food courts and car parks.The city now has three railway terminals — Howrah, Sealdah and Calcutta (Chitpore) stations.“There is a huge rush for various destinations in the south and the west, mostly comprising people going for treatment, job or education. But we can’t increase the number of trains on these routes in keeping with the demand because of lack of enough space,” said A.K. Verma, general manager, South Eastern Railway, told Metro.“Howrah station is saturated and there is no room for increasing the capacity there. So we are setting up two terminals in Shalimar and Santragachhi on a priority basis.”The infrastructure at Santragachhi and Shalimar stations is inadequate for them to function as full-fledged terminals. Besides, passengers often complain about poor accessibility to the two stations.

The service road connecting Santragachhi to Kona Expressway is narrow and there is no proper space to park taxis or cars. “There is no proper taxi stand and hardly any space for parking private vehicles. Most of the times we have to walk to Kona Expressway with heavy luggage to catch a taxi,” said Sandip Basu, a resident of Lake Road, who often travels to Bangalore. He prefers getting off at Santragachhi on the way home to avoid the snarl around Howrah station.

Santragachhi station has six platforms and will have two more to function as a terminal. The capacity will increase from handling five to 15 trains.

An elevated car park, taxi stand and bus terminals will be built adjacent to the terminal. “We will ensure that the upgrade does not eat into or harm two water bodies on either side of the service road,” said general manager Verma.

A flyover from Kona Expressway will allow easy access for small vehicles from the city to the first floor of the terminal.

According to the plan, passengers after entering the terminal building will take escalators to the ground-floor departure level.

As for Shalimar, the plan is to increase the number of platforms from three to five.

“There are two level crossings on the approach to Shalimar from Vidyasagar Setu. These will be closed and road overbridges built over them,” said Verma. “The station hardly has any passenger amenities now. Food courts, foot overbridges and subways will be built.”

The South Eastern Railway runs around 50 mail and express trains on the southern and western routes from the city. Trains to Chennai, Yeshwantpur (Bangalore), Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Puri have waiting lists of more than 200 names each.

“Often people, especially those who have fixed a trip in a hurry to tackle a medical emergency, are forced to buy expensive flight tickets for failing to get a berth on trains,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman (east), Travel Agents Federation of India.

The situation is likely to improve once the two new terminals start functioning and the number of trains is increased.