The footfall at Sir M. Visvesvaraya Terminal at Baiyappanahalli (SMVB) will increase further as the Railways have decided to run more trains from this station.
The South Western Railway started commercial operations of the terminal on June 6 with three pairs of trains and a local MEMU train to Bangarapet. Now, it has been decided to operate six pairs of long-distance trains from the Baiyappanahalli terminal by shifting them from Yeshwanthpur.
The six train services are Hatia - SMVB (18637/18638), SMVB - Bhubaneswar (12845/2846), SMVB - Howrah (22887/22888), SMVB - Hatia (12835/12836), SMVB - Tatanagar (12889/12890) and SMVB - Muzaffarpur (15228/15227). The frequency of all the services are weekly, barring SMVB - Hatia (12835/12836), which is bi-weekly.
Divisional Railway Manager (Bengaluru division) Shyam Singh said, “Shifting of train services to SMVB will help in decongesting Yeshwanthpur and Cantonment stations. We will gradually increase the services at SMVB after assessing the feasibility.” The new services from SMVB will be operational from July 16.
The SWR spent ₹314 crore for the terminal that has better facilities than other railway stations. One of the main objectives of constructing this terminal station was to decongest Yeshwanthpur and KSR Bengaluru stations in the city. The SMVB was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister on June 20.
