Giving a boost to passenger services, the Bhubaneswar railway station on Wednesday commissioned its first escalator at Platform No.1.
The escalator under the East Coast Railway was inaugurated by Divisional Railway Manager of Khurda division, S K Mohanty.
The escalator was sanctioned during 2009-10 and the work started in 2012.
Installed at a cost of Rs 79.26 lakh, the vertical height of the escalator is 6.3 m and the width of each path way is 0.75 m. The stairways and the system have water proof covering. There are two path ways having 32 steps in this escalator which can carry 120 passengers per minute with a speed of 0.5 mtr per second.
“After successful trials and inspection, the escalator facility has been opened for Railway passengers today. This is a major achievement in provisioning modern passenger amenities segment at Bhubaneswar station”, Mohanty said.
He also said one more escalator has been sanctioned for Bhubaneswar station. Work on its installation would commence soon and it would be commissioned by the end of this year.