BENGALURU: From Wednesday evening, the IRCTC staffers have undertaken a massive effort to reach out to 431 passengers who will be arriving at Bengaluru to board the first the KSR Bengaluru-Varanasi Bharat Gaurav Kashi Darshan train to alert them that the train will commence from Yesvantpur railway station and not KSR station. The train will be houseful with 600 passengers.
According to the original plan by the State’s Endowment Department, the train was to depart at 1.45 pm from KSR station for its eight-day tour. “Since the PMO showed interest in launching the train, we ensured the train would be made available at KSR Bengaluru on Friday at 10.33am, to be launched a few minutes after Vande Bharat Express. A total of 22 passengers will on board the first train when it is flagged off. The train will be shifted to Yesvantpur after that to start its journey,” said an official.
Asked about the confusion, a top IRCTC official said, “We have called every passenger and alerted them about the change in the last 24 hours.” A top IRCTC official said that the train had to be shifted due to PM’s security protocol.
BM Lokesh, an assistant manager at a private firm in Maddur, who will accompany his elderly parents on the train, said, “We were alerted by Railways on Wednesday evening. We will reach Kengeri by train and take the Metro. A little bit of travel, that’s all,” he said.
Anshuman Ramesh Rao, who will travelling with his family by car from Vijayanagar, said “Instead of being dropped at KSR, it will now be Yesvantpur, just 7 km more. Thankfully, they intimated us in advance.”