A worthwhile effort is being made by the railway authorities to provide easy access to passengers and to decongest the main entrance of the Visakhapatnam Railway Station.
A new approach road, parallel to the BRTS road, has been laid to provide easy access to motorists to reach the Gnanapuram-entry of the station.
The Gnanapuram entry is convenient for passengers coming from Gajuwaka, Simhachalam, Pendurthy and Kancharapalem.
At present autorickshaws are being allowed right up to the main entrance.
The general booking and reservation counters are comparatively free. Passengers can also avail of reservation facility from this side also.
New plansAmple parking space has been generated with the demolition of some old structures and additional vacant railway land is also available to take up new development works like construction of waiting halls and restaurants on this side of the station.
“A new approach road has been laid from the Convent junction side and this will provide easy access not only to motorists coming from Old Town, Gajuwaka and Kancharapalem side but also those coming from Railway New Colony, Dondaparthy and Dwaraka Nagar areas. Vehicles can reach right up to the station building adjacent to Platform 8,” Senior Divisional Commercial Manager M. Yelvender Yadav said.
The new plans are also designed to decongest the main entrance and provide a solution to the parking problem, particularly during the arrival and departure of originating trains.
Parking of vehicles, especially cars, at the main entrance to the station has become a nightmare during the arrival and departure of important trains like the Godavari Express. The parking space, though vast, is no match for the hundreds of cars that arrive to drop and pick up passengers going by these important originating trains.
“We are planning to improve the amenities on the Gnanapuram side and allot PF-8 to important originating trains to encourage more and more passengers to make use of the alternative entry and thereby decongest the main entrance,” Divisional Railway Manager Anil Kumar told The Hindu . “A couple of waiting halls and some more amenities are also planned. We plan to develop Gnanapuram-entry on the lines of the Bhoiguda entry at Secunderabad Railway Station,” Mr. Yelvender Yadav said.
Though a humble effort was made nearly a decade ago to provide an alternative entry to passengers by providing a new entrance from the Gnanapuram side, the patronage of the new entry was far from satisfactory.
The single approach and exit to the Gnanapuram entry, which provides direct access to Platform-8, coupled with absence of a bus shelter, non-availability of autorickshaws on meter and the congestion on the narrow approach road, especially during arrival and departure of important originating trains such as Garibrath, had been a deterrent all these years.
