The Bengaluru-Pune high-speed corridor could be among the next projects announced by the Centre, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at an event in Bengaluru, while also announcing that a Bengaluru-Mangaluru Vande Bharat Express would be introduced within the next few weeks.
Vaishnaw said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved 4,000 km of bullet train corridors and that another 3,000 km would be announced in the coming years. He said the proposed Bengaluru-Pune corridor would cover Karnataka from Bengaluru through Hubballi and extend to Pune.
“Another 3,000 kilometres of bullet train corridors will be announced in the coming years, and there will be many more corridors like Bengaluru-Pune, which covers entire Karnataka, from Bengaluru towards Hubballi, all the way to Pune. That corridor will be covered as well,” Vaishnaw said.
The minister was speaking after flagging off the inaugural run of the Vande Bharat Sleeper Express between Bengaluru and Mumbai. The Bengaluru-Pune indication places Karnataka’s internal rail connectivity within a wider high-speed network linking major technology, manufacturing and commercial centres in southern and western India. No construction timeline, alignment, project cost or implementation agency for the corridor was announced in the statement.
Vaishnaw also referred to a separate proposed southern bullet train corridor connecting Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amaravati and Chennai. He said the project had received the Prime Minister’s approval and would bring major economic and technology centres in southern India closer together.
The minister gave indicative travel times for parts of that proposed network. The journey between Bengaluru and Chennai would take 73 minutes, while the Bengaluru-Hyderabad journey would take two hours and 10 minutes, he said. These timings were presented as part of the proposed high-speed rail plan and not as operational services.
The immediate service announcement concerns the Bengaluru-Mangaluru Vande Bharat Express. Vaishnaw said electrification and testing work on the route had been completed and that the service would begin within the next few weeks. The train is expected to improve rail connectivity between Bengaluru and the coastal region, including Mangaluru and Udupi, while the minister also highlighted the importance of rail links towards Karwar and Goa.
“Within the next few weeks, we will have Mangaluru to Bengaluru Vande Bharat. Bengaluru to Mangaluru Vande Bharat, we will very soon have,” he said, describing the service as a high-speed connection for the region.
The announcements were made in the presence of Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and H D Kumaraswamy, Ministers of State V Somanna and Shobha Karandlaje, and Members of Parliament including Tejasvi Surya, P C Mohan and C N Manjunath. The next confirmed milestone is the introduction of the Bengaluru-Mangaluru Vande Bharat service after the completed electrification and testing work.
