The central government has made a key announcement regarding the three high-speed rail corridors planned to be built with Hyderabad as its center. It has clarified that only alignment studies are currently being conducted for these projects and no proposals have been sent to the state governments for land acquisition. It has clarified that if anyone engages in land acquisition in the name of high-speed rail at this stage, it will be illegal.

Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy met Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnav in Delhi on Saturday. In this meeting, the progress of the Hyderabad-Chennai, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, and Hyderabad-Pune high-speed rail corridors was discussed. After the meeting, Kishan Reddy shared these details on the 'X' (Twitter) platform.

"As per what the Railway Minister has clarified.. no land acquisition requests have been sent to the respective state governments. Any land acquisition taking place in the name of high-speed rail at this stage is illegal," Kishan Reddy said in his post. The minister said that the details of the projects will be shared with the state governments and farmers only after the alignment is finalized.

This announcement by the Center assumes significance in the wake of reports that the Telangana government is already making efforts to acquire land for rail corridors and other projects in the suburbs of Hyderabad. It is noteworthy that this clarification has come at a time when some farmers are opposing the government's land acquisition efforts.

On the other hand, the South Central Railway has also responded to the meeting with Kishan Reddy. It was stated on social media that high-level discussions were held between the two ministers on the proposed alignment for high-speed rail connectivity connecting Hyderabad with three major cities.

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways has previously disclosed that the government has made a capital expenditure of over Rs 1.14 lakh crore in the budget allocations for the financial year 2026-27 till July. Also, the Railway Minister told the Lok Sabha that the 'Kavach' Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, designed with indigenous technology, has been installed along 2,633 route kilometers.