The Railways ministry is planning to develop seven dedicated high-speed rail corridors across the country. The ambitious project, estimated to cost around Rs 16 lakh crore, aims to drastically reduce travel times between key cities and position train travel as a practical alternative to air transport.
Among the most significant proposals are the Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri bullet train corridors. According to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, these routes could cut travel time between Delhi and Siliguri to nearly six hours, passing through major cities such as Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna. Currently, the fastest train on the route, the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express, takes more than 20 hours to complete the journey.
The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Delhi–Varanasi corridor is currently being reviewed, while work on the DPR for the Varanasi–Siliguri stretch is expected to begin soon, according to a report of Dipak Kumar Dash in the Times of India. Together with the under-construction Ahmedabad–Mumbai bullet train project, these corridors are expected to lay the foundation for a nationwide high-speed rail network connecting western, northern, southern and eastern India.
