BBSR new rly stn to be operational from July 7

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Wednesday announced that the Bhubaneswar New railway station would be made fully functional before the Puri Rath Yatra. It is scheduled to be inaugurated on July 7.

Close to the Patia Halt station, the new station, which is located between Barang and Mancheswar stations, aims to ease the rush at the Bhubaneswar station and also help commuters facing difficulties due to increasing road traffic.

With facilities similar to that of the Bhubaneswar station, initially only three passenger trains would run from the new station that has six platforms. Later, the services would be augmented at the station and express trains too would have stoppages at the new station, ECoR officials said. The new station has been constructed at a cost of Rs 28 crore. “Travelling from one half of the capital city to the other is so difficult nowadays. Our expense will be reduced and we can avioid road traffic. Half of the people can come to the new station and half of them can go to the old one. It’s a good thing,” expressed Vaishnav Ray, a student.

“Like New Delhi, Bhubaneswar should also have three to four railwy stations, said a tourist, Girish Srivastav.

The construction of the Bhubaneswar new railway station had started in 2012. Though the railway authorities had set a target to complete the construction work by May 2015, it was delayed by more than three years.