Bengaluru–Hubballi–Pune bullet train corridor to be part of next phase, says Railway Minister
Ashwini Vaishnaw also flagged off South India's first Vande Bharat Sleeper between Bengaluru and Mumbai and said a Bengaluru–Mangaluru Vande Bharat will start very soon.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday that a high-speed rail corridor linking Bengaluru and Pune via Hubballi will be included in the next phase of the bullet train project, which is expected to span about 3,000 km.
The first phase already includes Bengaluru–Chennai and Bengaluru–Hyderabad corridors, which the minister said would cut travel time to 73 minutes and 2 hours 10 minutes respectively. Those routes cover only parts of Karnataka, and elected representatives had been pressing for a corridor through the state's hinterland towards Pune and Mumbai.
Coinciding with Kannada Rajyotsava, Vaishnaw flagged off India's third and South India's first Vande Bharat Sleeper train, connecting Bengaluru and Mumbai via Kalaburagi. The journey takes about 16 hours each way; the train starts from Mumbai CSMT on November 2 and from SMVT Bengaluru on November 3.
The minister also announced a second Vande Bharat Sleeper between Bengaluru and Mumbai through Hubballi, and said a Vande Bharat seater service between Bengaluru and Mangaluru will begin "very soon" as testing and commissioning on that route are complete.
Source: Deccan Herald. Photo: Sameer2905 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
