Vande Bharat train between Mangaluru and Bengaluru to start soon: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Feb 8, 2026: Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday announced that a Vande Bharat train service between Mangaluru and Bengaluru will be operational soon.

Addressing reporters at the BJP office in Bengaluru, the Minister said electrification of the Hassan–Mangaluru section has been completed and the project is now undergoing mandatory tests and safety certification. Once cleared, timetables will be finalised, with the service extended along the Karnataka coast up to Karwar, taking inputs from the State Budget.

He said Karnataka already has 12 pairs of Vande Bharat trains in operation and assured that the entire State would be covered in the coming years. “There will be two trains for the coast—one from the coast to Bengaluru and another from Bengaluru to the coast—given the length of the route,” he said.

Vaishnaw also announced that a premium train between Bengaluru and Mumbai would begin operations soon, and that the proposed Pune–Bengaluru rail corridor would be considered.

On high-speed rail projects, he said the Bengaluru–Chennai high-speed corridor would reduce travel time to 73 minutes, effectively bringing the two cities closer. Travel time between Bengaluru and Hyderabad would be around two hours as part of the proposed South India high-speed diamond corridor.

The Minister said seven bullet train projects have been approved in the second phase, and under the Viksit Bharat roadmap, the total length of high-speed rail corridors is planned to reach 7,000 km, of which about 4,000 km has already been announced, including the Mumbai–Ahmedabad corridor.