Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday announced that 60 next-generation trains would be introduced for the Kolkata Metro in the next five years and hoped the railway projects in Bengal would get a fresh impetus under the double-engine government.

During a meeting with chief minister Suvendu Adhikari at the state secretariat Nabanna, the railway minister said only 28 km of the Kolkata Metro network was completed in 42 years, while 45 km of metro lines have been added since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014.

"In the next five years, 60 next-generation trains will be introduced for Kolkata Metro. Today, I took the Kolkata Metro. We will revamp it," he said.

He said that railway projects worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore are currently under implementation in Bengal and alleged that several key infrastructure initiatives had faced delays due to a lack of cooperation from the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.

"You may recall the case of the Kolkata Metro project at Chingrighata, where the state government pursued legal challenges all the way to the Supreme Court. Earlier, the High Court had directed that work at Chingrighata should proceed, but the matter was taken further to the Supreme Court, which also ruled that the project should move ahead. Their attitude was not to allow any development works," he said.

The minister also said that the proposed bullet train services between Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri were aimed at sharply reducing travel time.

"These high-speed corridors will connect Siliguri with New Delhi in six hours," he said.