Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express on Saturday in an online event from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The Ernakulam Junction—KSR Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express (06652) left the station here at 8.41 am, slightly delayed from its scheduled time of 8 am, to the sound of drum beats. The latest Vande Bharat train from Kerala, decked with flowers inside and out, carried Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Tourism Suresh Gopi, children from various schools selected based on a drawing competition, and officials from various departments.
Speaking to reporters onboard the train, Minister Gopi said, "It is a revolution on rails. ROR. It should roar," he proclaimed.
The Union Minister further noted that more trains could be introduced in Kerala, but the only current hurdles are the doubling of the tracks and the straightening of the sharp curves on the existing lines.
"If there are more tracks, more trains will come. If the dangerous and sharp curves are straightened, the high-speed trains can come. The speeds of other trains will increase, and smaller trains will have more stops," he explained. "So, every station will have a network connection and we will be able to ensure mobility at each station," he added.
He asserted that the Railways were ready for anything, but the state government would have to provide the land and get the sharp curves straightened. Gopi mentioned hearing the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tell the MPs from Kerala in Parliament several times to request the state government to give more land to the railways and "pull out the sharp curves."
He concluded that straightening the sharp curves would help provide a safer journey to people, reduce fuel consumption, and thereby bring down environmental pollution. The Union Minister later distributed chocolates to the schoolchildren onboard the train.
According to the Railways, the new service will benefit IT professionals, businessmen, and students, among others. The new train will provide seamless connectivity between Ernakulam, the commercial capital of Kerala, and the cosmopolitan city of Bengaluru. The train traverses major cities of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, including Thrissur, Palakkad, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, and Salem, before reaching Krishnarajapuram and KSR Bengaluru.
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