Railways to finally run trains from Bengaluru's first AC terminal

The railways will finally begin operations at Bengaluru's first air-conditioned terminal at Byappanahalli, built at a cost of Rs 315 crore, starting from June 6.

The South Western Railway said three pairs of trains will begin and terminate at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru (SMVB), whose construction was completed more than one and a half years ago.

The SMVB - Ernakulam Tri-Weekly Express (12684) wil start from the terminal at 7 pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with effect from June 6. In the return direction, Ernakulam – SMVB Express (12683) will terminate at the terminal at 3.55 am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The SMVB - Kochuveli Bi-Weekly Humsafar Express (16320) will start operations from the terminal at 7 pm on Fridays and Sundays with effect from June 10. In the return direction, the train (16319) will terminate at 10.10 am on Fridays and Sundays.

The SMVB – Patna Weekly Humsafar Express (22354) will starts from the terminal at 1.50 pm on Sundays with effect from June 12. In the return direction, Patna – Banaswadi Weekly Humsafar Express (22353) starting from Patna from June 16, will terminate at 5.10 pm on Saturdays at SMVB.

Over the last two years, the railways has been making preparations to begin operations but wait for an inaugural ceremony led to delays. Recently, Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan had requested the railways to utilise the terminal to increase the number of local trains.

A senior railway official told DH that they will assess the operations before scaling up the number of trains. "The terminal will help us when the stations at Majestic and Yeshwantpur get congested. As of now, we have not returned to pre-Covid operations. Our stations are relatively free," he said, adding that operation of the three pairs of trains from SMVB was akin to a pilot project.