Hubballi:: Railway officials have clarified the confusion over the route the new Vande Bharat between Pune and Hubballi would traverse, which is set to begin trips after Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually flags off it on September 16.
The Vande Bharat train (20669(Hubballi to Pune) and 20670(Pune to Hubballi)) will not, as claimed by the Member of Parliament from Kolhapur and others, travel via Kolhapur to reach its destinations. Instead, the same train with a different train number will connect Pune and Kolhapur.
However, this decision of Railway Board to divert the Vande Bharat to Kholapur is set to deny people of North Karnataka three days of connectivity to Pune as the semi-high speed train would now commute between the two cities only on three days instead of six as proposed earlier.
“There is a huge demand for better train connectivity between Hubballi, Belagavi and Pune. Vande Bharat would have addressed that issue. However, with the train now being run only for three days the purpose is somewhat defeated. It would be a loss to South Western Railway (SWR),” said a senior railway official, who did not wish to be named.
The train would now depart Hubballi on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 5 am and reach Pune the same day at 1:30 pm. In return, the Vande Bharat will leave Pune at 2:15 pm and reach Hubballi at 10:45 pm on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. There will be no train service on Tuesday.
The direct train between Hubballi and Pune will have five commercial stops at Dharwad, Belagavi, Miraj, Sangli and Satara. Elected representatives and a section of the media had created confusion that travel time would be increased by two-and-half to three hours and distance by 100 km as it would commute to Kolhapur from Miraj and return from the temple town of Kolhapur to Miraj.
“Vande Bharat between Pune and Hubballi is a direct train and will not travel via Kolhapur,” said SWR Central Public Relation Officer Manjunath Kanamadi.
Elsewhere, there is palpable anger among the commuters of Belagavi over the non-extension of Dharwad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat to their City. The officials had earlier given “technical reasons”, including curves in the Ghat section in Londa and maintenance of minimum speed by train to deny the connectivity. The residents now question how Pune-Hubballi Vande Bharat, which passes through the same section of Ghat, is being operated.
Senior officials say the decision to terminate/start the Vande Bharat from Dhawrad is more due to time management and not technical. Sources also said that the decision was more political as running trains from Belagavi would have limited availability of seats for twin-cities commuters.
Meanwhile, the train held its first trial run between Hubballi and Miraj on Thursday.