New Bhubaneswar railway station opens

BHUBANESWAR:  IN a major boost to city’s rail network and infrastructure, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the new railway station at Barang here on Saturday.
Located approximately 14 km from Bhubaneswar main railway station, the new one will cater to the needs of passengers of the capital, particularly Patia, Barang, Nandankanan and Raghunathpur.

Built at a cost of `28 crore, the station has six platforms and all basic facilities required for the passengers.
Initially, three major trains -- 58001/58002 Puri-Howrah Passenger, 58131/58132 Rourkela-Puri-Rourkela Passenger and 68534/68533 Cuttack-Brahmapur-Cuttack MEMU will have stoppages at the station.While inaugurating the station Pradhan said in the coming days East Coast Railway (ECoR) will also provide stoppages for express and super fast trains at the new station. He urged the State Government to provide land for direct road from Nandankanan road to the new station. 

Notably, construction work for Bhubaneswar New Station had started in 2012-13. It’s completion was delayed by at least three years owing to various reasons.The Union Minister also inaugurated a new foot over bridge (FOB) at Bhubaneswar main railway station which ECoR officials claim to have been built in a record 150 days at a total cost of `4 crore. The FOB is the third such bridge in the main railway station. Moreover, a MEMU shed at Khurda railway station was also inaugurated.

App for Rath Yatra
The Union Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, also launched a new mobile application ‘ECoR YATRA’  for Puri Rath Yatra. The app has been launched for easy and wide dissemination of information pertaining to special trains and ticketing to the pilgrim city of Puri. This year, ECoR has decided to run 184 special trains to during Puri this year Rath Yatra between July 13 and 23.