Budget 2026-27: Centre Proposes Seven New High-Speed Rail Corridors Linking Major Cities

Presenting the Union Budget 2026 in the Lok Sabha on February 1, 2026, the Finance Minister announced plans to develop seven high-speed rail corridors between major cities as growth connectors.

The proposed corridors are Mumbai–Pune, Pune–Hyderabad, Hyderabad–Bengaluru, Hyderabad–Chennai, Chennai–Bengaluru, Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri.

The Finance Minister said the high-speed rail corridors would be developed to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems.

“In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as growth connectors, namely, Mumbai–Pune, Pune–Hyderabad, Hyderabad–Bengaluru, Hyderabad–Chennai, Chennai–Bengaluru, Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri,” she said.

She said cities are India's engines of growth, innovation, and opportunity, and that the government will now focus on Tier-II and Tier-III cities, and even temple towns, which require modern infrastructure and basic amenities.

To support this approach, the Finance Minister announced that City Economic Regions will be mapped based on their specific growth drivers. She said an allocation of ₹5,000 crore per City Economic Region over five years would be provided through a challenge mode with a reform-cum-results based financing mechanism to implement their plans.