The Vande Bharat sleeper train between Bengaluru and Mumbai is scheduled to be flagged off on November 1, coinciding with Kannada Rajyotsava. The premium overnight service will connect Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Mumbai and will be South India’s first Vande Bharat sleeper service.

Regular operations are scheduled to begin on November 2, with the train running six days a week. A formal notification from the Railway Board is awaited. The service will operate on the Guntakal route and is intended to provide a faster rail connection between two major cities that currently do not have a superfast train service.

Under the tentative schedule, the train will depart from Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru at 7.50 pm and reach Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Mumbai at 11.55 am the following day. In the return direction, it will leave Mumbai at 8.10 pm and arrive in Bengaluru at 11.55 am.

The Bengaluru-Mumbai journey will take 16 hours and five minutes, while the return trip will be completed in 15 hours and 45 minutes. Proposed stoppages include Anantapur, Guntakal, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Solapur, Pune and Kalyan.

The route will be served by two 16-coach trainsets manufactured by BEML. The Railways recently conducted a trial run through the Ghat section between Mumbai and Pune. Railway enthusiasts had sought the service’s origination and termination at KSR Bengaluru, the city’s main railway station, instead of Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal Bengaluru.