UP has high-speed trains, rail budget up 18-fold: Sitharaman counters Akhilesh Yadav

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday pushed back against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s claim in the Lok Sabha that Uttar Pradesh lacks high-speed train connectivity, saying the state has seen a sharp rise in railway investment in recent years.

Replying to the debate on the Union Budget 2026–27, Sitharaman said it was “not true” that Uttar Pradesh does not have bullet or high-speed trains, pointing to multiple corridors passing through the state.

“Two high-speed corridors go through Uttar Pradesh. The state was also among the first to get the Vande Bharat Express, which connects Kanpur and Prayagraj,” she said.


The finance minister said the Delhi–Varanasi and Varanasi–Siliguri high-speed rail routes pass through Uttar Pradesh, with Varanasi increasingly emerging as a key rail connectivity hub. “Railways are expanding because Varanasi is being developed as a major hub,” she said.

Sitharaman underlined the scale of investment in the state’s rail infrastructure, noting that the annual railway budget allocation for Uttar Pradesh has risen nearly 18-fold. “Between 2009 and 2014, the allocation was Rs 1,109 crore. This year, it is around Rs 20,000 crore,” she said.

She also said over 92,000 projects are currently underway in Uttar Pradesh across sectors, and urged Yadav to “keep the facts in mind while raising questions” in Parliament.