Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that the Centre has allocated a record railway budget of 14,205 crore rupees for West Bengal in the Union Budget 2026-27. He added that during the UPA regime between 2009 to 2014, the railway budget for the state was only 4,300 crore rupees. Responding to supplementary questions during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Vaishnaw informed that railway projects in West Bengal require 4,662 hectares of land, of which only 27 per cent has been acquired so far. The Minister said that there are several railway projects in the State where the process of land acquisition has not yet begun. Speaking about Maharashtra, the Minister said that railway development work is being carried out in a comprehensive manner, and railway projects worth 1.5 lakh crore rupees are currently underway in the State. He highlighted that the budgetary allocation for railways in Maharashtra is 23,926 crore rupees, which was only 1,100 crore rupees during the UPA government. Mr. Vaishnaw further said that several new projects have also been taken up to connect industrial cities in the State.
