Beneficial for Malayalees; Railway Minister says new high-speed rail routes will be powerful growth multiplier for Kerala

NEW DELHI: Five of the seven new rail corridors will connect Southern Indian states, excluding Kerala. They will traverse through Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The northern routes include Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri via Patna.

Travel times for several key routes are set to be significantly reduced:

- The travel time between Chennai and Bengaluru will be cut to 1.5 hours.

- The journey from Bengaluru to Hyderabad will take just 2 hours.

- The Hyderabad to Chennai route will also take only 2 hours.

- Travel between Pune and Hyderabad will be shortened to 1 hour and 55 minutes.

- The route from Pune to Mumbai will now take just 45 minutes.

- The Delhi to Varanasi corridor will see its travel time reduced to 3 hours and 50 minutes.

- Finally, the journey from Varanasi to Siliguri via Patna will take approximately 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Minister says it will benefit Kerala too

Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav said that the route starting in the neighbouring states will be a powerful growth multiplier for Kerala also. He also mentioned that Malayalis frequently travel throughout South India.

Vaishnaw emphasized that the Chennai-Bengaluru-Hyderabad corridor will create a "South High-Speed Diamond." The minister announced that this high-speed rail corridor, spanning a total of 4,000 km, will attract investments of approximately ₹16 lakh crore.