World-Class Railway Station Of Bhubaneswar Remains A Pipe Dream – What We Have Is Squalor & Indecision In Plenty

It remains a mystery that the New Bhubaneswar Railway Station has not yet been put to meaningful use. A full-fledged satellite station for Bhubaneswar is absolutely necessary. The city has expanded towards the north and the New Station should have better access and amenities without further delay. 

World-Class Railway Station Of Bhubaneswar Remains A Pipe Dream – What We Have Is Squalor And Indecision In Plenty

Today Bhubaneswar is perhaps the only state capital in the country where the city’s main Railway Station building is not visible even from a distance of two hundred meters; perhaps it is the only railway station building of any capital city without a concourse. The clock here has moved backwards. The station building when it was built decades ago was a piece of soothing architecture with an open space with a garden that hosted two statues of national leaders. Then came a grotesque looking building in front, that hosted the ticket booking counters and the area went adequately messy but waited for complete defilement till an ugly looking structure housing a Sulabh Sauchalaya was constructed at the most prominent place in front of the station building. The degradation, however, was not yet complete.

The smart city project added further misery to the area. The Railway Station Multimodal Hub Project was initially planned in 2015 and it got government’s in-principle nod in 2016. It stipulated creation of transit-oriented smart development project that was envisaged as trigger for development of planned central business district for Bhubaneswar. There was to be a new terminal building for the Railway Station, a city bus terminal, public car park, dedicated pick up and drop off lanes for taxi, auto-rickshaws and other vehicles, innovative elements like theatre plaza, art plaza and children’s plaza along with food courts. The cost of design by Singapore-based firm Surbana Jurong was Rs 8 crore. While the Railways would lay two additional lines and one platform, the State Government would build the multimodal hub at an estimated Rs 840 crore under the Smart City project.