Airport-like lounges at City rly station soon

Railway passengers will soon experience the luxury of airport-like lounges at the Bengaluru City railway, becoming the 19th station in the country to have this facility.

The proposed executive lounges will be managed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which has already floated tenders for setting up the lounges.

Officials say that the idea is to provide airport lounge-like facilities to rail passengers at an affordable cost. The tenders will be finalised by October. The lounges are likely to be functional early next year.

According to officials, the lounge will provide a string of facilities including wash and change, Wi-Fi, Internet, live TV, channel music, buffet services, newspaper/book stand, luggage racks, shoe shiner, train information system and concierge services for pre-departure and post-arrival assistance to passengers. The executive lounge will accept credit and debit cards, apart from cash. It will make travel safer as passengers need not carry cash.

As per the terms, the Railways will identify space at the stations, which will then be handed over to IRCTC for setting up the lounge. The stations where the facility will come up include Jaipur, Vijayawada, Agra Cantonment, New Delhi, Kathgodam, Patna, Sealdah, Howrah, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Puri, Nagpur, Madurai, Bengaluru, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Lucknow and Gorakhpur. The executive lounges at 30 more stations are likely to come up by the end of next year.

IRCTC officials say that once the lounges become operational, it will hugely change the profile of passenger amenities at these stations.