The train covers important cities en route, namely Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai Vasai Road, Kalyan, Pune, Gulbarga, Adoni, Bangalore (Krishnarajapuram), Salem, Karur and Madurai.
It goes via Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Abu Road, Jodhpur, Degana, Churu, Sadulpur, Hisar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chakki Bank, thus bypassing Delhi NCR.
The 22851/22852 Vivek Express links Santragachhi, a town in the vicinity of Howrah, Kolkata in West Bengal to Mangalore Central in Karnataka.
This train passes through the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
Important cities en route are Odisha {Bhubaneswar, Brahmapur}, Andhra Pradesh {Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Vijayawada, Nellore, Tirupati}, Tamil Nadu {Salem, Erode, Tiruppur, Coimbatore}, Kerala {Palakkad, Tirur, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod}.