Commuters want a direct connection to a metro station.
Railway officials at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal are considering a direct connection between the railway station and the Baiyappanahalli Metro Station.
An engineer at the terminal who did not want to be named said: “We are thinking about building a connection to the Baiyappanahalli Metro Station, which is closer compared to Swami Vivekananda Metro Station.” However, he does not have much hope that the idea will bear fruit.
The railway station is connected to Old Madras Road through a flyover that was constructed last year. A road connects the flyover to the entrance of the Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal. Although the interior roads of the station are maintained by the railway authorities, the exterior road is not. Parts of the road do not have a proper footpath and pedestrians have to use the road to avoid piles of garbage thrown on the footpath.
The railway station has a BMTC stand and an auto-rickshaw stand. However, the connectivity is insufficient.
Today, a family of five arrived at Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal only to realise that they were at the wrong station. They had confused SMVB (the station code for Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal) for SBC (the station code for Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna – Bengaluru Station). The quickest way for them to reach their destination would have been the Metro. But reaching a Metro station is also a problem. They have to take a bus or two autos to the nearest Metro station.
The railway official continued that connectivity is a concern right now. “But, we are hoping that the frequency of trains will increase with time and sub-urban trains will come to the station,” said the Station Engineer. Currently, only Chennai-bound trains cross the Baiyappanahalli railway station but even those are express trains that do not make a stop there.
Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal was inaugurated in June 2022. Nawaz, a person who entered the station for the first time said, “They have actually built it like an airport.” The station officials are expecting to make several improvements but they say it will take time as Sir M Visvesvaraya is still a new station right now.
