“Named after one of the foremost civil engineers, Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the nation’s first centralized AC railway terminal in Bengaluru is set to become operational soon,” Mr. Goyal tweeted.

The country's first air-conditioned railway terminal, in Bengaluru, is scheduled to open later this month at a cost of 314 crores.

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday that the country's first centralized air-conditioned railway terminal in Bengaluru will be operational soon. The new coach terminal was planned at Baiyappanahalli in the district, according to railway officials, to meet the demand for more express trains connecting Bengaluru.

“Byappanahalli is the third coach terminal approved in 2015-16, and it has been named after Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya, an engineer par excellence who contributed tremendously to nation-building,” said South Western Railway Chief Public Relations Officer E Vijaya.

More long-distance trains from Bengaluru to other metros such as Mumbai and Chennai, as well as trains linking Bengaluru to all districts within Karnataka, will be able to operate once this terminal is operational, according to the officer, who added that the terminal will help decongest the city's KSR Bengaluru and Yesvantpur stations.

Passengers would have access to cutting-edge passenger services to make their journey more enjoyable. The station building has a covered area of 4,200 square meters to accommodate 50,000 daily visitors. The terminal has seven platforms, eight stabling lines, and three pit lines, allowing it to run 50 trains a day.

It has an upper-class waiting hall and reserved (VIP) lounge, food court, escalators, lifts connecting all platforms to facilitate passenger travel to all seven platforms, and a foot-over-bridge connecting all platforms, as well as two subways, according to the officer.