Bullet trains between Bengaluru and Chennai, Hyderabad to be game changers: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday described the Union Budget 2026-27 as a ‘record budget’ for Karnataka, announcing a railway allocation of ₹7,748 crore and ongoing projects worth ₹52,950 crore in the State.

Addressing a virtual press conference from New Delhi on Monday, a day after the presentation of the Union Budget, the Minister outlined State-wise allocations and key railway projects, highlighting two proposed high-speed rail corridors linking Bengaluru with Hyderabad and Chennai as major game changers.

Mr. Vaishnaw said that the high-speed rail projects announced in the Budget would significantly transform inter-city travel in South India. He explained that the Bengaluru-Chennai-Hyderabad high-speed rail corridor would be developed as a “diamond” project, positioning Bengaluru as a central hub connecting the two other major southern metros.

Calling the bullet train proposals one of the most significant gains for Karnataka in this Budget, the Minister said that the Bengaluru-Chennai corridor would reduce travel time to just about one hour and 13 minutes.

“Bengaluru and Chennai will, in a sense, become two merged cities. One can start at any time of the day, finish work in Chennai and return to Bengaluru the same day. Similarly, the proposed Bengaluru-Hyderabad high-speed rail line would cut travel time to nearly two hours,” he added.

According to Mr. Vaishnaw, the faster connectivity is expected to provide a major boost to manufacturing, design, and IT services, particularly benefiting Bengaluru’s role as a technology and innovation hub.

The announcements had followed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech on Sunday, in which she proposed seven high-speed rail corridors across the country, describing them as “growth connectors”. Among these, the Hyderabad-Bengaluru and Chennai-Bengaluru corridors are expected to directly link Bengaluru with the capitals of Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

The other proposed high-speed rail routes include Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Chennai, Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri. “In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven High-Speed Rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connectors’,” Ms. Sitharaman said during her Budget speech.