Budget 2026: 7 New High-Speed Rail Corridors Announced

Feb 2, 2026 - Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (February 1), announced the allocation of more than Rs 2.7 lakh crore for the Indian Railways and seven new high-speed rail (HSR) corridors. The corridors will be developed on the lines of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. A new freight corridor from West Bengal to Gujarat was also announced.

The seven HSR corridors will be Mumbai to Pune, Pune to Hyderabad, Chennai to Bengaluru, Chennai to Hyderabad, Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Delhi to Varanasi and Varanasi to Siliguri.

A new 2,052 km East-West freight corridor will be developed from West Bengal through Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra to Surat in Gujarat.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told a press briefing that the Rs 2.7 lakh crore approval for the Railways in Budget 2026 will significantly accelerate work related to railway safety, modernisation and passenger facilities. Of the total budget, nearly Rs1.20 lakh crore will be spent specifically on passenger safety.

The Railway Minister shared that a HSR Diamond corridor will be developed across five southern States — Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—along with the Union Territory of Puducherry. An estimated Rs 16 lakh crore will be invested in these projects. Additionally, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will also be connected through high-speed rail networks.

The Minister informed that production of Vande Bharat sleeper and chair car trains, Amrit Bharat and Namo Bharat trains, along with record-breaking wagon manufacturing, is progressing rapidly. He highlighted that Indian Railways has achieved:

• Construction of 35,000 km of new railway tracks
• Electrification of 47,000 km
• Electrification of over 99.5% of the broad gauge network

The first bullet train project is currently under construction between Ahmedabad and Mumbai and its first phase is likely to be operational by 2027.

Once the HSR corridors have been developed, travel time will reduce significantly and is expected to be as such:

• Mumbai-Pune: 48 minutes
• Pune-Hyderabad: 1 hour 55 minutes
• Hyderabad-Bengaluru: 2 hours
• Hyderabad-Chennai: 2 hours 55 minutes
• Chennai-Bengaluru: 1 hour 13 minutes
• Delhi-Varanasi: 3 hours 50 minutes
• Varanasi-Siliguri: 2 hours 55 minutes

With Media Inputs

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