Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday proposed seven high-speed rail corridors and allocated ₹2,77,830 crore to the railways ministry for capital expenditure in 2026-27, an 10.25% increase from ₹2,52,000 crore in 2025-26.
Presenting the Union Budget, Sitharaman said, “In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as growth connectors..Mumbai to Pune, Pune to Hyderabad, Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Hyderabad to Chennai, Chennai to Bengaluru, Delhi to Varanasi, Varanasi to Siliguri.”
The finance minister also proposed a new dedicated freight corridor between Dankuni in West Bengal and Surat in Gujarat to promote environmentally sustainable cargo movement.
Work on high-speed corridors between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is already underway. Similarly, two dedicated freight corridors, the eastern and western corridors, are operational, covering several states and districts.
Union railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said safety will remain a focus.
He said, “ ₹1,20,000 crore will be invested in safety”, adding that “95% accidents have been reduced”.
”There is more focus on track maintenance, loco maintenance, wagon maintenance, coach maintenance, rapid installation of coverage, installation of CCTV cameras, upgrading the overhead electrical system, construction of stations. safety will be improved. Customer care and customer facilities will be improved,” he said after the Budget was delivered.
Commenting on the high-speed corridors announcement,Vaishnaw said, “The world is noticing the progress of Ahmedabad and Mumbai high-speed corridors. It is being done at a fast pace keeping the quality of the work high. After the seven new high-speed corridors that have been announced today, the transportation sector in the country will be completely transformed and changed.”
“Chennai-Bengaluru-Hyderabad will be a south high-speed triangle or south high-speed diamond, which will prove to be a great boon for Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry,” he said.
Vaishnaw said the projects would significantly reduce travel time. The journey between Chennai and Bengaluru will be reduced to 1 hour 13 minutes, Bengaluru and Hyderabad two hours, and Chennai and Hyderabad 2 hours 55 minutes.
“The corridor from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is being made. Next, the corridor from Mumbai to Pune will be made. From the Mumbai-Pune corridor, Mumbai and Pune will practically merge and the travel time between the two cities will be 48 minutes only,” he said, adding that Pune to Hyderabad will be covered in 1 hour 55 minutes.
In north India, the Delhi-Varanasi corridor will enable travel in just 3 hours and 50 minutes, while the stretch from Varanasi to Patna, there is Siliguri in just 2 hours and 55 minutes, the minister said.
“The seven new corridors span about 4,000km and will involve an investment of nearly ₹16 lakh crore,” Vaishnaw said.
“India has to be developed by 2047 so work on these seven corridors will have to be (done) simultaneously.. the capacity of the industry and the team has increased, there is a lot of learning.. we have already climbed the learning curve in the country.. we will move fast,” he said.
Referring to the dedicated freight corridors, Vaishnaw said, “ We all know that there is a very significant progress of the Western Freight Corridor and the Eastern Freight Corridor, in that, we have already reached the saturation level as 400 trains per day are already travelling in these corridors.”
“Eastern Corridor, Western Corridor and the East-West Freight Corridor of 2,052km and seven high-speed corridors together will give a new transformation, a new energy to the railway,” he added.