New Delhi: With India’s first high-speed rail project, the Ahmedabad–Mumbai Bullet Train, currently under construction, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today announced that seven new high-speed rail corridors will be developed across the country.

Presenting the Union Budget 2026–27 in Parliament, the Finance Minister said the proposed corridors will act as “growth connectors”, promoting environmentally sustainable passenger transport systems.

“In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven High-Speed Rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connectors’, namely i) Mumbai–Pune, ii) Pune–Hyderabad, iii) Hyderabad–Bengaluru, iv) Hyderabad–Chennai, v) Chennai–Bengaluru, vi) Delhi–Varanasi, vii) Varanasi–Siliguri,” Sitharaman said.

During her budget speech, the Finance Minister also announced a new dedicated east–west freight corridor connecting Dankuni in eastern India with Surat in the west.

In addition, the government plans to launch 22 new national waterways over the next five years to strengthen multimodal transport infrastructure and reduce logistics costs.

How Gujarat will benefit

At present, construction is underway on the Ahmedabad–Mumbai High-Speed Rail Corridor, India’s first bullet train project.

Spanning 508 kilometres, the corridor is designed for train operations at speeds of up to 320 kmph. Passing through Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the project is expected to reduce travel time between Ahmedabad and Mumbai to approximately 2 hours and 17 minutes.

With the announcement of the new high-speed rail corridors, passengers from Gujarat will be able to travel from Ahmedabad to Mumbai via the country’s first bullet train and then continue onward to Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai through the upcoming high-speed rail network.

In effect, Gujarat will gain high-speed rail connectivity not only with Maharashtra but also with three southern states Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu significantly strengthening inter-state mobility and economic integration. DeshGujarat