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New Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma on Sunday inspected the centralized air-conditioned terminal at Baiyyappanahalli in the city's eastern suburb ahead of its formal inauguration.

"The country's first air-conditioned terminal is the best station, as it has come up well. As the third terminal in this tech city, it is essential to meet the demand, which is set to grow in the post-Covid phase," Sharma said on the occasion.

Built at an escalated cost of Rs 314 crore, the terminal, christened after Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya (1861-1962), a civil engineer par excellence, is set to decongest the Krantiveera Sangoli Rayanna (KSR) main station in the city centre and Yesvantpur station in the city's northern suburb.

"With hi-tech facilities and user-friendly amenities, the sprawling terminal has seven platforms, lifts, escalators and ramps for safe movement of passengers," said Sharma, who is also the Indian Railways chief executive.

The Chairman lauded the South Western Railway (SWR) zone in Karnataka for building the terminal on the lines airport terminals for greater mobility.

As the Bengaluru metro rail stations are located adjacent to Bengaluru city, Yeshvantpur and Byappanahalli railway stations, long-distance train passengers will be able to commute to their destinations across the city conveniently and faster.

The zonal railway is waiting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the terminal through virtual mode to commence commercial operations, which will be scaled when normal services are resumed in the post-pandemic period.

Though the railways suspended services of all passenger, mail and express trains since an year ago due to Covid spread, it has been operating some special trains to other cities on need basis.

Later, Sharma also visited the state-run Rail Wheel factory at Yelahanka in the city's northwest suburb and held a meeting with the zonal officials.

SWR general manager Ajay Kumar Singh made a presentation on its operations and works completed in the zone.