Ernakulam-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express flagged off by PM Narendra Modi

Kochi: 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, though the scheduled time was 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 on the basis of a drawing competition, and officials from various departments.

Speaking to reporters onboard the train, Gopi said, "It is a revolution on rails. ROR. It should roar," he said.

The union minister further said that more trains can come to Kerala and the only hurdle is the doubling of the tracks and straightening of the sharp curves on the existing ones.

"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.

"So, every station will have a network connection and we will be able to ensure mobility at each station," he said.

He said that the Railways was ready for anything, but the state government will have to provide the land and get the sharp curves straightened.

Gopi said that he has heard the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tell the MPs from Kerala in the Parliament several times to request the state government to give more land to the railways and "pull out the sharp curves".

He said that straightening the sharp curves will help to provide a safer journey to people, reduce fuel consumption and thereby, bring down environmental pollution.

The union minister later distributed chocolates to the school children 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, it has said.

The train traverses major cities of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, including Thrissur, Palakkad, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, and Salem, before reaching Krishnarajapuram and KSR Bengaluru.