Bengaluru-Kochi Vande Bharat train to be operational from mid November

Thiruvananthapuram: The proposed Bengaluru - Kochi Vande Bharat train will start operations from November, union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has informed the BJP leaders from Kerala.

BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a statement on Wednesday that the new Vande Bharat service would be a big relief for scores of Malayalis working in Bengaluru, especially in the IT sector.

The train will be operating on Kochi-Thrissur-Palakkad-Bengaluru route. The operations will begin by mid November. 

The union railway minister gave the information regarding the new service at an online meeting with BJP Kerala leaders.

Last year a Vande Bharat was operated on the route temporarily for nearly one month. The travel time was around nine hours. It was receiving good response and since then there was a demand to launch a permanent service in the route.

At present two Vande Bharat trains are operating from Thiruvananthapuram - one up to Mangaluru and the other up to Kasargod. Both are receiving good responses.