Here comes a piece of good news for passengers waiting to travel in bullet trains. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday announced a bullet train project for West Bengal, stating that the proposed corridor would connect Delhi and Siliguri via Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna. “A bullet train project will come to West Bengal. It will connect Delhi and Siliguri via Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna. The journey will take only six hours by bullet train,” Vaishnaw said.
While addressing a gathering at the state Secretariat Nabanna in Kolkata, Vaishnaw stated once the bullet train is commissioned, travel time from Siliguri to the national capital will be reduced to six hours.
He stated that the under the UPA government, the previous CM (Mamata Banerjee), who also held the post of Railway minister, the Railways used to get only Rs 4,000 crore for West Bengal. However, now under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, West Bengal received Rs Rs 14,205 crore for the 2026-27 financial year.
60 next-generation trains would be introduced for the Kolkata Metro
The Railway Minister further announced that 60 next-generation trains would be introduced for the Kolkata Metro in the next five years and hoped the railway projects in West Bengal would get a fresh impetus under the double-engine government.
The Railway Minister also added that West Bengal received Vande Bharat Sleeper and Amrit Bharat trains before many other states and added that more projects would be announced in the future He further added that 45 km of metro lines have been completed in Kolkata under the Modi government.
In November last year, Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that India’s first bullet train will now cover a 100 km distance between Surat and Vapi in Gujarat during its inaugural run in August 2027. Earlier, he had said that the inaugural run would happen on a 50 km stretch between Surat and Billimore.
India first 508-km rail corridor being constructed between Sabarmati and Mumbai
The country’s first 508-km long high-speed rail corridor is being constructed between Sabarmati (Ahmedabad) and Mumbai to operate a bullet train at 320 kmph, covering the entire distance in 2 hours and 17 minutes.
Its foundation stone was laid in 2017 and the entire project was initially proposed to be ready by December 2023. However, land acquisition and other issues delayed the ambitious project.
“The bullet train, in its inaugural run, will now cover 100 km between Surat and Vapi in August 2027. Earlier, the inaugural run was planned on a 50 km stretch between Surat and Billimora within the same deadline,” Vaishnaw told reporters at the Rail Bhawan.
“The bullet train will cover the distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in 1 hour 58 minutes while stopping at four stations. However, if it stops at all 12 stations, the entire distance will be covered in 2 hours and 17 minutes,” he added.
While the Railway Ministry has awarded a contract to a Siemens-led consortium to install the signalling system on the corridor, industry experts say that this system might not support the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train. The ministry has also asked Bharat Earth Movers Limited to indigenously develop a high speed train capable of running up to 250 kmph.
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