Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagged off the Bengaluru–Mangaluru–Madgaon Vande Bharat Express at Mangaluru Junction on Friday, November 13, creating a new faster rail connection between Bengaluru, coastal Karnataka and Goa.
The train, which will operate from Yeshwantpur, will cover an approximately 850-kilometre route to Madgaon and connect major stations including Hassan, Sakleshpur, Subrahmanya Road, Mangaluru, Udupi, Kundapura, Mookambika Road Byndoor, Murdeshwar, Gokarna Road and Karwar, according to information cited by the railway authorities.
Vaishnaw travelled on the train from Mangaluru to Subrahmanya Road after the flag-off ceremony, accompanied by elected representatives including Dakshina Kannada MP Captain Brijesh Chowta and Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivasa Poojary. The minister said ₹94 crore had been sanctioned to develop Mangaluru Central station as a model station.
The service is expected to improve direct rail access between Bengaluru, the coastal districts of Karnataka and South Goa. The connected districts include Bengaluru, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, while passengers travelling to tourist destinations along the Karnataka coast and in Goa are also expected to benefit from the new service.
At the inauguration, Chowta said the launch followed efforts to address operational complications arising from railway lines in the Mangaluru region being associated with Konkan Railway, Southern Railway and South Western Railway. He said the demand to bring the area under a more unified administrative arrangement had been difficult to implement but had now been addressed.
The event also marked the reopening of the Mangaluru–Subrahmanya Road passenger train service and the commissioning of electrification work between Subrahmanya Road and Sakleshpur. The electrification project was described at the ceremony as having been completed at a cost of about ₹100 crore.
Subrahmanya Road station has also been renovated under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme at a reported cost of ₹25 crore. The station upgrade and the electrification work are intended to support more reliable rail operations along the route connecting the coast with the Hassan–Sakleshpur section.
MLA Vedavyas Kamath said the launch would make travel between Mangaluru, Goa and Bengaluru more accessible. He also said the railway minister had assured the dispatch of a special team from Delhi to examine the problem at the Pandeshwar railway crossing.
The new Vande Bharat service is being positioned as a connectivity link for both daily intercity travel and access to coastal tourism destinations. The next operational milestones will include the regular running of the service, use of the upgraded Subrahmanya Road station and further action on the Pandeshwar railway crossing issue.
