Bangalore, Sep 25 (IANS): The Malgudi days are here again. And so is the "Malgudi Express" - chugging between Mysore and the Yashwantpur station of Bangalore.

Fiction? No. In a tribute to R.K.Narayan, who created Malgudi in his superfine mind and gave the world the endearing Swamy and his friends from this imagined village in Mysore, the railways have decided to run the "Malgudi Express".

"The Mysore-Yesvantpur-Mysore Express is named with immediate effect 'Malgudi Express' after the fictitious town created by the late writer R.K. Narayan," the railway ministry said in release here.

Yesvantpur is the third major railway station in Bangalore and is about 10 km north of the city centre.

Mysore, the city of palaces where Narayan lived for over 40 years from 1950s and wrote his masterpieces, is about 140 km from Yesvantpur.

Early this month the state government took over the late writer's house and would turn into a heritage building. The building had been sold by Narayan's grandchildren to a private person as they could not maintain it while living in Chennai.

The new owner had begun demolition of the house but the government intervened to stop it and took over the structure after pleas by admirers of Narayan.

Narayan died in Chennai in 2001, aged 95 years.