Bengaluru, 7 Feb

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that a premium train service from Bengaluru to Mumbai will start “very soon”.

He said on Saturday that Karnataka has received a record Rs 7,748 crore in this year's railway Budget -- nine times the allocation during the Congress-led UPA government, and the total railway investment in the State is Rs 52,950 crore.

"Massive investment will cover track creation, station redevelopment, safety, announcements, Bengaluru suburban and many new projects in Karnataka," he told reporters here.

Vaishnaw said, "(Bengaluru South MP) Tejasvi (Surya) had come for that, and many other requests had also come. Many sections are getting doubled, so very soon we'll have many more services."

On the Vande Bharat train from Bengaluru to Mangaluru, he said, "Now, the testing, certifications are going on for electrification.”

On land acquisition, Vaishnaw said the Centre continues to seek the State's support as land is a State subject.

"We continuously pursue the State government for land acquisition in many projects. We believe in cooperative federalism,” he said. “I don't want to get into the blame game.”

On the proposed bullet train corridors linking Bengaluru with Chennai and Hyderabad, announced in the Union Budget, Vaishnaw said that it will “connect the three large economies of South Indian states. They will become the high-speed diamonds of South India”.

He said work on the Bengaluru suburban rail has gained progress after a railway officer was appointed Managing Director of K-RIDE. “We have the tender documents prepared.  We have got the approvals which are required for designing a complex system, like a suburban system, almost more than half is elevated.”

Calling the Yesvantpur-Kolar line important, he claimed that the State government had withdrawn their support. "We will be requesting the State government to support it, because Bengaluru development is very important. We must double the capacity of Bengaluru."