Mangaluru:  The South Western Railway (SWR) on Friday issued a notification announcing diversion of Bengaluru-Kannur/Karwar-Bengaluru combined express via the shortest route of Shravanabelagola with effect from February 10, 2018.

With the diversion, new numbers have been given to the services — 16511/16513 for Bengaluru-Kannur/Karwar express and 16512/16514 for Kannur/Karwar-Bengaluru express. Services on the shortest route from Bengaluru would be on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so as to help residents of Bengaluru reach their native places during the weekend. Similarly, services from Kannur/Karwar would be on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays to help people reach Bengaluru for the weekdays to attend office and other works.

Restrictions on the number of trains to be operated on the Ghat section would not allow SWR to introduce an exclusive train via Shravanabelagola to the coast. It had to resort to four days and three days service (via Mysuru) to satisfy both segments of passengers—those who intended to reach the coast and Bengaluru early and those intended to travel to Mysuru.

The travel time between Bengaluru and Mangaluru via Shravanabelagola gets reduced by 45 minutes and between Mangaluru Central and Bengaluru by 1.25 hours. While the Bengaluru-Kannur/Karwar express via Shravanabelagola departs Bengaluru at 7.15 pm instead of 8.30 pm, there is no change in departure timings of the trains in the return journey till Hassan while running via Shravanabelagola.

Combined Tri-Weekly Train No. 16517/16523, Bengaluru-Kannur/Karwar Express via Mysuru would run on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays from February 11.