PM approves two high-speed rail corridors linking Bengaluru to Chennai and Hyderabad

Key facts

• Two high-speed rail corridors connecting Bengaluru with Chennai and Hyderabad received approval from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, announced by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on November 1 during the flag-off of the Mumbai-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Sleeper Express.
• The Bengaluru-Chennai high-speed corridor is expected to cut travel time to about 73 minutes, while the Bengaluru-Hyderabad journey is projected at around 2 hours and 10 minutes.
• The Chennai-Bengaluru high-speed corridor will connect Chennai's manufacturing and automobile industries with Bengaluru's technology and business sectors.
• The Chennai-Bengaluru and Bengaluru-Hyderabad routes are among seven high-speed rail corridors announced in the Union Budget 2026-27; the other five include Chennai-Hyderabad (about 2 hours 55 minutes), Mumbai-Pune (about 48 minutes), Pune-Hyderabad (about 1 hour 55 minutes), Delhi-Varanasi (about 3 hours 50 minutes), and Varanasi-Patna-Siliguri (about 2 hours 55 minutes).
• The Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail project, India's first bullet train corridor, is under construction: a 508 km route with an estimated cost of around Rs 1.08 lakh crore, 12 stations (four in Maharashtra, eight in Gujarat) including Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati, passing through Dadra and Nagar Haveli.