BENGALURU: Kannur native R Surendran was the loco pilot when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the maiden journey of the Vande Bharat train in Bengaluru. Although the service is from Mysuru, the first train left for Chennai from Bengaluru at ten o'clock yesterday morning.

Surendran, a native of Peralasseri, has been working as a loco pilot for 33 years. He was assigned to drive the first Vande Bharat Express in South India because of his excellence in service. He received six months of special training in Delhi to drive the Vande Bharat train.

Son of late MK Raghavan and KV Leela, Surendran joined the Railways at the age of 20. After starting with the goods train, he went on to drive passenger trains, Express trains, Rajadhani and Jan Shatabdi. He was assigned to the new task after he became proficient at driving the train at a speed of 110 km per hour.

Vande Bharat takes four and a half hours to travel from Mysore to Chennai. The travel time will be reduced again after the track renovation gets completed.