CHENNAI: For the financial year 2026-27, Tamil Nadu will get Rs 7,611 crore for rail development projects, according to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The amount is nine times the average outlay of Rs 879 crores allocated for 2009-2014, claimed Vaishnaw, during a media interaction from Delhi through video conferencing on Monday. Allocation for 2025-26 was Rs 6,626 crore.
Present at the Southern Railway press meet on Monday were Southern Railway Additional General Manager Vipin Kumar, Chennai DRM Shailendra Singh, and Chief Administrative Officer Sushil Kumar Maurya.
"Athipattu-Puttur (88 km) and Mannargudi-Pattukottai (41km) new line project is with the Tamil Nadu government. The State government has to start the land acquisition, and the government has taken zero land till now,” Vaishnaw alleged.
Projects costing a total of Rs 35,701 crores are under progress in Tamil Nadu covering track creation, station redevelopment, and safety enhancements across the entire state.
Of the seven high-speed rail corridors (growth connectors) identified, two rail corridors, Chennai-Bengaluru and Chennai-Hyderabad will be in Tamil Nadu forming the South Indian Diamond hi-speed project.
"The high-speed rail corridor between Chennai-Bengaluru would reduce the travel time to 1 hour 13 minutes and Chennai-Hyderabad to 2 hours 55 minutes," said the Union railway minister.
MRTS works between Velachery and St Thomas Mount have been completed and are awaiting safety inspection, and the inauguration will be in March-- Vipin Kumar, Additional GM of Southern Railway
“Bullet trains will be operated with a speed of 350kmph and the works will begin soon. The corridor between Hyderabad- Chennai-Bengaluru will be known as high speed diamond corridor," Vaishnaw added.
A total of 77 railway stations in Tamil Nadu are being redeveloped under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme for Rs 3,147 Crores. Presently, nine pairs of Vande Bharat Express trains and Amrit Bharat Express trains (including passing trains) are operational in Tamil Nadu.
Since 2014, approximately 1,350 Km of tracks have been constructed in the state. The state has achieved 97 per cent electrification with 2,386 km of rail lines electrified since 2014. A total of 769 flyovers and underpasses have been constructed. Of the total 481 route kilometres of Kavach (Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system) sanctioned, work/tender process is in progress for a distance spanning 427 route kilometres.
"Certain projects like Sriperumbudur-Guduvanchery-Irungattukottai and Tindivanam-Tiruvannamalai are under consideration for defrozing. Egmore redevelopment works would be completed by December end," said Sushil Kumar Maurya, Chief Administrative Officer, Construction Organisation/Egmore of Southern Railway here in Chennai.
"MRTS works between Velachery and St Thomas Mount have been completed and are awaiting the Commissioner of Railway's safety inspection and would be inaugurated by March. Amrit Bharat Station developments have been completed in a total of 18 stations out of the 77 stations. In most of the stations, 90 per cent works are completed and rest will be completed by May or June," said Vipin Kumar, additional general manager of Southern Railway.