BHUBANESWAR: The
East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to make the
Bhubaneswar New railway station operational before
Rath Yatra festival begins from July 14.
The work of the station was started in 2012. Its deadline has been increased for two times in three years due to change of contract agency engaged by the
Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL).
Braj Mohan Agarwal, divisional railway manager of Khurda Road said that three passenger trains will have stoppage initially at the station. Later the ECoR will provide stoppages for the express and super fast trains in future, he added.
The station has nine rail lines and seven platforms along with two foot over bridges. Out of the total nine lines, five rail lines were functioning in the station. The work on passenger amenities like installation of water kiosks, ticket counters, benches and installation of electrical equipment has been completed while the work for station building, staff quarters and approach road was completed last year only.
The new station, around 14km away from the existing main station near Master Canteen, is situated between
Mancheswar station and Barang railway station.
The existing main station witnesses around 140 trains daily. It faces difficulty in handling the heavy traffic as it has only six platforms.
The station will be used as Bhubaneswar main station’s alternate terminal like Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar are used for the New Delhi railway station. Most of the southbound trains will originate from the new station and passengers can also travel from here, ECoR sources said.
For this purpose, this year the Centre has sanctioned a link line (around 3 km) between Mancheswar and Bhubaneswar New stations for originating of trains. The southbound trains will go for maintenance at Mancheswar and come to the station through the link line.
Once the station gets operational, passengers from Barang, Nandankanan, Raghunathpur, Kalarahanga, KIIT area, Patia and nearby areas will board the trains from the new station.
