India, May 21 -- The much-awaited Mumbai-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Sleeper is likely to operate via the Pune-Solapur route, putting to rest weeks of speculation over its alignment. "We have almost finalised the Pune-Solapur alignment for the Mumbai-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Sleeper after evaluating operational and passenger demand factors. The train is expected to be introduced within the next few weeks," a senior railway board official said.

Railway sources said that the alignment was finalised after assessing operational feasibility, passenger demand and route efficiency. In recent weeks, there were discussions within railway circles about routing the train via Miraj and Hubballi, triggering concerns among passengers from Pune and Solapur wh...