KOCHI: The Kochi-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, eagerly awaited by lakhs of Malayalees, will start service soon. Operational and mechanical departments have handed a report to Southern Railway, favouring the service.

The proposal is to run the service up to three days a week. Railway, though implicitly, had announced earlier that the Vande Bharat service would start before Onam. It is reported that the Railway Board will take a final decision soon.

The rake brought for this route was lying idle in Kerala for months. Kochi - Bengaluru service is likely to be on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The train is proposed to depart from Kochi at 2 pm and reach Bengaluru at 10:50 pm. The return journey will start at 4:30 am from Bengaluru and will reach Kochi by 1:20 pm.

In addition to Ernakulam in Kerala, the stops will be at Thrissur and Palakkad Junction. Earlier, the officials of Karnataka-Kerala Travelers Forum met Nainisree Ranganath Reddy, Divisional Operations Manager (DOM) at the office of South Western Railway Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and demanded the urgent introduction of a third Vande Bharat train in Kerala on this route.

The Vande Bharat rakes brought in to operate the Ernakulam-Bengaluru route were lying idle in Kollam for months. Railway may resume the temporarily cancelled Yeswantpur-Kochuveli Garibrath Express service and will probably announce the Onam holiday train a month in advance.

The new Vande Bharat train will serve the purpose of Bengaluru Malayalees, who all have been long victims of the exorbitant rates charged by private bus lobbies.