Title - ‘New Bhubaneswar’ in the offing

The satellite passenger terminal is proposed between Mancheswar and Barang The East Coast Railway on Saturday announced a plan to build ‘New Bhubaneswar’ — a satellite passenger terminal — between Mancheswar and Barang in place of the ‘world class station’ earlier proposed for the city.“The New Bhubaneswar station was initially conceptualised to be a world-class station. However, work on all world-class stations throughout Indian Railways had been frozen by the Railway Board. Besides, in the last five years, due to rapid urbanisation, area around New Bhubaneswar has become built up. Adequate land required for constructing a world class station is just not available at present,” said Indra Ghosh, General Manager, here.Mr. Ghosh said it had now been decided to have ‘New Bhubaneswar’ as a satellite passenger terminal for the city.In major Indian cities, satellite terminals had been developed after saturation of main stations, he said, adding that while New Delhi had Anand Vihar and Sarai Rohela, Mumbai had Dadar and Lokamanya Tilak Terminal.In future, there would be two major passenger terminals for the city such as Bhubaneswar and New Bhubaneswar.“Bhubaneswar is located on the south side and New Bhubaneswar on the north side. Logically, most south-bound trains should originate from Bhubaneswar and north-bound trains from New Bhubaneswar. Trains towards north should originate and terminate at Bhubaneswar and have stoppage at New Bhubaneswar,” Mr. Ghosh said.

Asked what extent of land would be required for development of the New Bhubaneswar station, the ECoR GM said the land in possession of the Railways would be adequate. Sources said the new station could be located near Raghunathpur village.

The proposed New Bhubaneswar assumes significance as far as providing train communication to residents of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack is concerned. Since a new bridge is being constructed over Kathajodi river connecting Tirsulia and Cuttack, the New Bhubaneswar station could emerge a central location for train users in twin-cities.

The ECoR has also lined up another major project between Mancheswar and Barang. A new coaching complex between Mancheswar and New Bhubaneswar has been proposed. In the final phase, the coaching complex will have such facilities as double entry from both Mancheswar and New Bhubaneswar, eight maintenance pit lines and nine stabling lines. “This can meet Bhubaneswar’s railway requirement for next 30 to 40 years,” Mr. Ghosh said. According to ECoR sources, a satellite terminal at Naraj was being mooted for Cuttack city .