Siliguri-Varanasi rail link: North Bengal eyes tourism boost

Siliguri: In a major step towards reshaping long-distance rail travel and strengthening regional integration, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2026 in Parliament, announced plans to develop seven high-speed rail corridors connecting key economic and cultural centres across the country. Among them, the proposed Siliguri-Varanasi high-speed rail corridor, with onward connectivity to Delhi, sparked optimism across North Bengal and North East. The corridor is expected to significantly enhance religious tourism and pilgrimage travel by reducing journey time to Varanasi, India's spiritual capital. What currently requires a full day of travel could be reduced to just a few hours, encouraging more frequent pilgrimages and stimulating economic activity linked to tourism, hospitality and allied sectors.
At present, the rail and road distance between Siliguri and Varanasi is approximately 720-760 km. Conventional train services take between 13 and 17 hours to complete the journey. Even the fastest trains, including the Tejas Express, take about 11 hours and 25 minutes, while Rajdhani Express takes around 13 to 13.5 hours from New Jalpaiguri.Welcoming the announcement, Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista said, "The Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri corridors will significantly enhance connectivity across the Indo-Gangetic plains, improving passenger mobility, tourism and business travel across north Bengal, eastern India and the North-East, while unlocking new opportunities for trade, tourism, education and employment."