Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday elaborated on the Centre’s plan to expand railway infrastructure in Bengal with emphasis on the allocation of funds for carrying out such works in the state.
His elaboration, which comes a day after Union finance minister tabled the budget of the upcoming fiscal (2026-27), hints that the BJP wants to ride on the railway infrastructure card to draw support in Bengal where Assembly elections would be held this year and simultaneously to counter Trinamool’s narrative that the central government is apathetic at the state and has not made any major announcement for it in the budget.
“In the current budget, a sum of ₹14,305 crore has been allocated for railway projects in Bengal for the 2026-27 fiscal, which is almost triple the allocation made from 2009 and 2014 (during UPA’s regime),” Vaishnaw told a news conference.
He also elaborated on the plans for Bengal’s first high-speed corridor connecting Varanasi to Siliguri via Patna, with an eventual extension to Guwahati. On Sunday, the finance minister had announced that a high-speed railway corridor would be built from Varanasi to Siliguri, which is the gateway to the Northeast and is located at the strategic “chicken’s neck” or the slimmest part of the Indian sub-continent perched between Nepal and Bangladesh, with Bhutan and China borders nearby.
“The proposed Varanasi–Siliguri high-speed rail (bullet train) corridor is expected to reduce the travel time to 2 hours and 55 minutes between these two locations, with trains operating at speeds of up to 350km per hour,” said the minister
“The corridor will pass via Patna and there is a plan to extend it to Guwahati. It will significantly boost economic activity and regional connectivity in eastern and northeastern India,” he added.
It takes over 12 hours to 16 hours reach Varanasi or Mughalsarai from Siliguri, which are located around 700km, now.
While speaking on railway infrastructure, he also highlighted the dedicated freight corridor from Dankuni to Gujarat, which will cover states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
The minister also mentioned that 17 railway projects for Bengal were currently in various stages of planning and clearance, and investments would be made for tracks, stations, electrification, and modern rolling stock.
“Recently, 12 new trains have been launched in Bengal and in recent years, over 100 trains have been introduced in the state,” Vaishnaw said in the news conference.
Trinamool leaders, however, continue to push the narrative that the central government is ignorant of Bengal.
“There has been no major announcement for Bengal in the central budget. It shows that the BJP is apathetic at the state and will continue to deprive the people. Barring a proposed railway corridor, there is no mention of the state in the budget. We also have serious doubts as to whether it is a mere announcement before the Assembly polls, or the corridor project would actually be taken up,” said Gautam Deb, a veteran Trinamool leader and the mayor of Siliguri.