As part of the agenda to provide a facelift to Bangalore East and Bangalore Cantonment railway stations, Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa inaugurated five new booking counters at the East station and a swanky ‘food plaza' at the Cantonment station on Saturday.
Other works such as raising the height of the platforms, beautification of the premises and switching over to better maintenance techniques to ensure the health and hygiene of the public facilities at the stations were being undertaken, Mr. Muniyappa said.
He announced that from July 1, two new trains will run between Mysore and Bangalore: Rajya Rani Express (it will depart from Bangalore city station at 8.15 a.m. and reach Mysore at 11.15 a.m., and it will depart Mysore at 4.15 p.m. and reach Bangalore at 7.40 p.m.) and the Yeshwanthpur-Mysore Express (it will depart at 10.10 a.m. and reach Mysore at 1.50 p.m.). The train will depart from Mysore at 1.30 p.m. and reach Yeshwanthpur at 5.15 p.m.
He spoke to presspersons after inaugurating the ‘food plaza', the licence for which has been given to the food chain Halli Mane, a popular brand in Bangalore that specialises in authentic regional cuisine.
Slated to officially open by July 10, an area of 2,500 sq ft has been allocated within the station premises.
Large 100-kg capacity baking units have now been installed and the initial investment for this has been put at Rs. 1 crore, Raghavendra Sanjeeva Rao, managing partner of Halli Mane told The Hindu.
He hopes that the unit will draw commuters and also people in the locality as it has a separate entrance facing the main station road. It will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., but they hope to scale it up to a round-the-clock eatery. The city railway station already has a Halli Mane unit; however, this is the first full-fledged baking-cum-production unit being set up completely inside the premises of the railway station.
Mr. Muniyappa congratulated the Railways team on meeting the three-month deadline for opening new counters at the Bangalore East railway station, and said that each team would be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 75,000 for the development and remodelling work being carried out at both stations.
Roshan Baig, MLA, while congratulating the team, alleged that the biggest eyesore at these stations were the huge hoardings. “There is a hoarding mafia that is operational and until you control it the beautification work will not be complete,” he said. However, a senior Railways official clarified that there was no hoarding mafia and that licences were issued for hoardings.
Service to Chennai
Mysore Special Correspondent reports:
A new weekly Superfast Express service to Chennai will commence on July 6, according to Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Anup Dayanand Sadhu.
The service will start on July 6 from Mysore-end and on July 7 from the Chennai-end.
The 22681 Mysore–Chennai Central Express will depart from Mysore at 8.10 p.m. on Wednesdays (five minutes before the departure of the Cauvery Express which departs at 8.15 p.m.) and reach Chennai Central at 5.15 a.m. the next day.
The 22682 Chennai Central–Mysore Express will depart from Chennai at 11.30 p.m. on Thursdays and reach Mysore at 8.35 a.m. on Fridays.
The train will have stops at Mandya, Kengeri, Bangalore City, Bangalore Cantonment, Krishnarajapuram, Bangarpet, Jolarpet, Katpadi, Arakkonam and Perambur.
