WB gets its first bullet train in the railway budget
The Statesman | 3 February 2026
Poll-bound West Bengal is to get its first bullet train from Varanasi to Siliguri. The second route of the bullet train connecting Varanasi-Patna-Siliguri is one of the most significant parts of the Railway Budget announced by the railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today.
The high-speed corridor would be the second in the country after the Ahmedabad and Mumbai route where work has reached an advanced stage. As informed by Mr Vaishnaw, with the commencement of the commercial services of the train, passengers would be able to travel between Varanasi and Siliguri via Patna and Delhi within two hours and 55 minutes. The route would run on elevated tracks and would later be extended till Guwahati.
The railway budget also includes another crucial announcement of a freight corridor connecting West Bengal to Gujarat. The dedicated corridor would be brought till Dankuni in West Bengal connecting other states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
Notably, West Bengal has received Rs 14,205 crore as total outlay in the railway budget for 2026-2027. Last year, the state had received Rs 13,955 crore for West Bengal under railway budget 2025.
According to the general manager of the Eastern Railway, Milind Deouskar, level crossing gates are posing as one of the major hurdles in train operations and replacement of such LC gates with ROBs or underpasses are faced with hurdles in the state. As informed by the GM, there are around 100 ROBs sanctioned in the Eastern Railway of which about 70 are in West Bengal. However, these projects are pending because of unavailability of land from the state government.
Talking about the installation of Kavach system, Mr Deouskar informed that Eastern Railway is anticipated to complete the installation of the advanced system in a month within its jurisdiction which is till Pradhankhunta.
The total outlay for railways’ modernisation and expansion in Jharkhand is Rs 7,536 crore against the average outlay of Rs 457 crore during 2009 to 2014. For Odisha there has been a total allocation of Rs 10,928 crore for 2026-27 against the average outlay of Rs 1,171 crore during 2009 to 2014.
City Metro eyes extension of Yellow Line
Struggling with land acquisition hurdles, the Kolkata Metro Railway is eying to complete two crucial projects in 2028. The city Metro railway is putting efforts to complete the Yellow Line till Michael Nagar and New Garia and Airport Metro corridor in 2028, informed General Manager of the city Metro, Subhransu Sekhar Mishra today.
According to Mr Mishra, the city Metro has received Rs 705.50 crore for Orange line, Rs 906.60 crore for Purple line and Rs 529 crore for the Green line. As the Yellow Line is hurdled with issues of land acquisition, the city Metro authorities have roped in RITES to carry out a study on exploring options to take the alignment forward via underground.
Addressing a virtual Press conference with the state media on the budgetary allocation today, Mr Vaishnaw claimed that Kolkata Metro Railway that had only a network of 27 km in 40 years expanded by 45 km within the last 11 years. Pointing out the hurdle at Chingrighata, the railway minister said: “Connectivity in West Bengal can progress further but permission from the state government is not being granted Chingrighata despite order from the high court. A by-pass road also has been constructed there and the high court also has given the order still for around one and a half years permission to proceed with the work is not being given by the government of West Bengal.”