Varanasi, 21 November. Railways has decided to change the alphabetical station code of Banaras station, one of the major railway stations of the religious city of Kashi. In place of the existing station code BSBS, Banarar station has now been given a new code BNRS. This change will be effective from December 1st.

It is noteworthy that on July 15, 2021, the name of Manduwadih railway station was changed to Banaras. At that time the code was BSBS. Due to this, passengers often got confused about the code BSB of Varanasi Junction and code BSBS of Banaras and rickshaw pullers and auto drivers also took them to Varanari Cantt instead of Banaras. Keeping these problems of passengers in mind, the decision to change the code has been taken.

Public Relations Officer of North Eastern Railway (Varanasi Division) Ashok Kumar said that from December 1, passengers traveling to and from Banaras will have to mention BNRS instead of BSBS to reserve their berths through passenger reservation centres, National Train Inquiry System (NTES) or the website of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

Interestingly, there are four railway stations with similar names in the Varanasi urban area. Apart from Varanasi Cantt and Banaras, Kashi station adjacent to Namo Ghat on the banks of Ganga and Varanasi City station within a radius of two kilometers from it are also included. Among these, the station codes of Kashi and Varanasi city are KEI and BCY respectively.

Station name also written in Sanskrit

To preserve the Indian culture, ‘Banaras:’ was written in Hindi, English, Urdu as well as in Sanskrit on the board installed at NER’s main station Banaras, which gives a feel of the culture of ancient Kashi. This renovated station is of world class. Not only the station building makes Banaras Railway Station different but it also has all the passenger friendly state-of-the-art facilities.