RailEnquiry

ANGALORE: Come October, Bangalore City railway station will have a new building at the Okalipuram end of the platforms. South Western Railways (SWR), in its extensive expansion plans for Bangalore division, assured that this facility will be launched soon. Reservation counters, concourse, rest area and rooftop restaurant in a six to seven storeyed building will be the priority.

The building will come up at the back entrance of the City station after platform No. 5, at a cost of Rs 2 crore. Sudhanshu Mani, divisional railway manager (DRM), Bangalore division, said: "We will start with the booking counters and concourse by October, because on Sundays, we notice huge crowd at the booking counters here. Dormitories, lounge and basement parking facilities will be added later."

In its other plans, sanction to have a mini coaching terminal at Byappanahalli is approved at about Rs 12 crore. "At present, coaching, cleaning and maintenance of trains are done between the fourth and the fifth platforms which cause much inconvenience. We plan to get rid of such facilities in the station and instead build four to five more platforms here. We can shift the coaching and cleaning to Byappanahalli and Mysore if required," he said.

About the security plans that the railway ministry has for stations across the country, he said: "Bag scanners to begin with is being thought of. Bangalore City will have two bag scanners and two vehicle scanners apart from 100 more cameras. Yeshwantpur station will also have scanners," said Mani. The City station will also have four more escalators from the platforms and a foot overbridge from the subway.

HOP ON TO BUSES FROM RLY STN

Mani said the railways and BMTC are holding talks to bring the buses closer to the concourse or platforms of the City station, to make it easy for the passengers. "We are also thinking to provide the BMTC a separate bus lane 50 metres close to the concourse and platforms like they have in Chennai Central. Also to let buses enter the station roads near Khoday's Circle," he said.

COMMUTER RAIL STUDY SHOULD BE REVISED

The commuter rail service study conducted by the Rail India Technological and Economic Solution (RITES) and submitted to the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), in June, needs certain corrections and has been sent back for revision. "We had a meeting at the office of the commissioner of DULT V Manjula. The study does not clarify the investment model," Mani explained.

He said Metro works in and around the City railway station are on going unhindered at MG Colony where an underground station is coming up and also the tunnelling process behind the City station towards Leprosy Hospital. "There are some issues pertaining to land acquisition, but all others have been solved with BMRC. Passenger interfaces at City station and at Yeshwantpur and foot overbridge at Byappanahalli are the examples of well co-ordinated work between the two parties," he added.

TOKEN FOR TATKAL

Railway officials will give you a number on the application form you fill to book a tatkal ticket. Token will be issued to passengers who want both tatkal and ordinary tickets. Mani said special officers who will patrol the reservation counters from 10am to Noon, will do the numbering of tatkal applicants. "Tatkal applicants should form a separate queue. We will give them numbers parallel to the token numbers based on first-come-first-served basis," he said.