India's largest railway terminal planned in Bengaluru's Yelahanka for Rs 5,754 cr

Minister of State for Railways V Somanna said the new hub near Rail Wheel Factory will decongest city stations.

Bengaluru: India's largest mega coaching terminal has been planned in northern Bengaluru's Yelahanka at a cost of Rs 5,754 crore, Minister of State for Railways V Somanna said on Tuesday. 

The terminal is proposed to be built next to the Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) and its Final Location Survey (FLS) has been sanctioned, he added. 

He was speaking to reporters after flagging off the experimental stoppage of four trains at Nayandahalli and inaugurating a railway overbridge in Vijayanagar, both in western Bengaluru. 

The South Western Railway (SWR) had initially proposed the terminal — the city's fifth — in Devanahalli, about 15 km from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). However, a meeting held on June 5, 2025, decided that Devanahalli was unsuitable due to its distance from the city and other factors. 

In August, then SWR General Manager Mukul Saran Mathur had told DH that a new terminal and/or maintenance facility was being explored in Yelahanka. Two conceptual plans — one involving complete relocation of the RWF and another retaining it — had been prepared, he had added. 

An FLS for Rs 1.35 crore was conducted to finalise the exact location of the terminal anywhere on the Yelahanka-Devanahalli-Chikkaballapur line. 

The SWR will now conduct the FLS, which will be followed by a Detailed Project Report (DPR), a senior SWR official said. 

The terminal is expected to have 16 platforms, 12 pit lines and 24 stabling lines among other facilities. 

This will be the second modern terminal for Bengaluru. The first — SMVT Bengaluru — is already operational, and handles 50 trains bound for East and Northeast India. 

In 2024–25, Bengaluru served 212.06 million railway passengers, including 103.72 million originating passengers. 

A total of 210 trains are expected to originate from the city in the near future, and the existing terminals will prove inadequate to handle them. 

Bengaluru's railway network faces multiple operational bottlenecks — fully utilised pit lines, overcrowded platforms, frequent train delays, high empty rake movements due to insufficient stabling lines and no dedicated goods corridor. Urban density has made expansion at existing sites nearly impossible, according to the SWR. 

V Somanna.

At the press conference, Somanna also announced that the masterplan for the Rs 1,370-crore redevelopment of KSR Bengaluru — the city's largest railway station — was ready and would be sent to the cabinet for approval. 

The railways has also completed the DPR for quadrupling the tracks between Bengaluru and Tumakuru, and will conduct a survey for building a direct line from Whitefield to Kolar, he added. 

Speaking about the new railway overbridge (number 431) between Vijayanagar and Padarayanapura constructed for Rs 14.1 crore, Somanna said it would benefit a large number of people from Goripalya, Vijayanagar and the surrounding areas. 

The ROB consists of a 1x42 m bowstring girder with an approach length of 86M on the Mysuru Road side and 110M on the Vijayanagar side, according to the SWR. 

Somanna said that the railways planned to eliminate another 108 level-crossings in Bengaluru by constructing road underbridges and overbridges.