For the financial year 2026-27, Tamil Nadu has been allotted Rs 7,611 crore for railway development projects, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced during a media interaction from New Delhi via video conferencing on Monday. This allocation, he noted, is significantly higher — about nine times — than the average outlay of Rs 879 crore allocated between 2009 and 2014. The allocation for the 2025-26 financial year was Rs 6,626 crore.At the Southern Railway press meet on Monday, officials including Southern Railway Additional General Manager Vipin Kumar, Chennai DRM Shailendra Singh, and Chief Administrative Officer Sushil Kumar Maurya were present.
Vaishnaw pointed out that the Athipattu-Puttur (88 km) and Mannargudi-Pattukottai (41 km) new line projects are still awaiting action by the Tamil Nadu government on land acquisition — saying that while these projects are ready, “the State government has to start the land acquisition, and the government has taken zero land till now.”
Officials added that a combined Rs 35,701 crore worth of projects are currently underway across the state, covering new track creation, station redevelopment, and safety enhancement works.
Of the seven high-speed rail corridors identified nationally, two corridors — Chennai-Bengaluru and Chennai-Hyderabad — will pass through Tamil Nadu as part of the South Indian Diamond high-speed rail project. According to the minister, the high-speed corridor between Chennai and Bengaluru is expected to reduce travel time to just 1 hour 13 minutes, while the Chennai-Hyderabad corridor could cut travel to 2 hours 55 minutes.
Southern Railway officials also spoke about local infrastructure projects:
MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) works between Velachery and St Thomas Mount have been completed and are now awaiting safety inspection, with inauguration scheduled in March.
Plans for bullet trains operating at speeds of up to 350 kmph on the Hyderabad-Chennai-Bengaluru corridor were highlighted, with works to begin soon.
Under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, a total of 77 railway stations in Tamil Nadu are being redeveloped with an investment of Rs 3,147 crore. Nine pairs of Vande Bharat Express and Amrit Bharat Express trains (including passing trains) are currently operational in the state.
Since 2014, approximately 1,350 km of new railway tracks have been constructed in Tamil Nadu, and the state has achieved about 97% electrification with roughly 2,386 km of rail lines electrified. Additionally, 769 flyovers/underpasses have been completed and work is in progress on the Kavach automatic train protection system across 427 route kilometres.
Sushil Kumar Maurya added that projects such as Sriperumbudur-Guduvanchery-