‘Chennai to Bengaluru in 73 minutes’: Ashwini Vaishnaw says new high-speed rail corridors to cut travel time massively between major cities

Following the Budget 2026 presentation, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Sunday that the new high-speed rail corridors will sharply reduce travel time between major cities.

Ashwini Vaishnaw announces 7 new high-speed rail corridors

He elaborated that commuting from Chennai to Bengaluru could take just about 1 hour 13 minutes, Bengaluru to Hyderabad around 2 hours, and Chennai to Hyderabad nearly 2 hours 55 minutes.

The Railway Minister claimed that the new corridors are expected to be a game-changer in India’s travel system. 

As part of the government’s long-term mobility plan, seven high-speed rail routes will be introduced as “growth connectors” to promote cleaner and more sustainable travel.

These routes include Mumbai–Pune, Pune–Hyderabad, Hyderabad–Bengaluru, Hyderabad–Chennai, Chennai–Bengaluru, Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri.

With this, the government intends to make inter-city travel much faster and allow easier connections between different modes of transport.

Ashwini Vaishnaw said the travel time between Mumbai and Pune will be reduced to just 48 minutes, while the Pune–Hyderabad journey is expected to take about 1 hour and 55 minutes.

Likewise, the Delhi-Varanasi high-speed corridor is likely to cut down travel time to around 3 hours and 50 minutes. 

Moreover, the proposed Varanasi–Patna–Siliguri line could reduce the journey between Varanasi and Siliguri to roughly 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Vaishnaw also said the under-construction Ahmedabad–Mumbai high-speed rail corridor will be extended to connect Pune and Hyderabad, and later Bengaluru and Chennai.

The seven high-speed corridors together will cover nearly 4,000 kilometres and attract investments of around Rs 16 lakh crore.

Railway's Dedicated Freight Corridor

The Budget also focuses on improving freight movement. The newly Dedicated Freight Corridor has been proposed from Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat, passing through Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

This 2,052-km corridor will connect with the existing Western DFC, allowing goods to move easily to west-coast ports.

The Railway Minister mentioned that the current Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors are already running close to full capacity, handling about 400 freight trains every day.

He added that Indian Railways has laid 35,000 km of new tracks, completed 47,000 km of electrification, and electrified over 99.5% of the broad-gauge network.

The production of Vande Bharat sleeper and chair car trains, Amrit Bharat and Namo Bharat trains, and record additions of freight wagons are going on at a rapid pace.

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