Budget 2026: Poll-Bound Bengal In Focus As Infrastructure, Transport And Tourism Take Centre-Stage

In the run-up to Assembly elections, West Bengal was expected to be in special focus as Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2026-27, for a record ninth time across her stint as the Finance Minister, on Sunday. Outlining government revenue and expenditure, the speech highlighted strategic focus on multiple areas such as manufacturing, rural sectors, creation of jobs, infrastructure and tourism among others. 

To promote environmentally-sustainable movement of cargo, a new dedicated freight corridor connecting Dankuni in the Hooghly district of West Bengal to Surat in the west was proposed. 

At present, work on one high-speed corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is in progress. Two dedicated freight corridors - Eastern and Western are operational presently, covering several states and districts. The corridor is expected to facilitate easier transport of cargo between Gujarat and the eastern region. 

In line with the National Logistics Policy, which aims to bring down logistics costs from the current 14–16 per cent of GDP to single-digits, by assigning transport of goods by freight-only railway lines, logistics costs and pressure on passenger trains are expected to reduce significantly. Analysts believe this project centres Bengal as an industrial hub, which is significant in assessing the Centre’s attitude towards the poll-bound state.

In addition to the freight-corridor, the FM also announced a high-speed rail corridor between Siliguri in North Bengal and Varanasi. “In order to promote an environmentally-sustainable passenger system, we will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as growth connectors,” she said.

A day before, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing a rally in Siliguril, had reiterated the government’s focus on North Bengal, which swayed towards the BJP in the last assembly election in 2021, and was considered a BJP bastion in the state. “I promise the people of north Bengal that we will give at least one rupee more in the Budget than what is due according to its area and population. There will be no injustice to north Bengal,” he had said.

The Budget also proposes a new National Institute of Design (NID) in the eastern region with a focus on boosting design and creative education. 
Emphasising on the Purvodaya states and the North Eastern Regions, Sitharaman proposed the development of an integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor with a well-connected industrial node at Durgapur in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district. This pitches Durgapur as a core industrial hub alongside a bid to improve connectivity, attract investment and create employment opportunities across eastern India.

The Finance Minister also announced the creation of five tourism destinations in five Purvodaya states - Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh,  "I propose the development of an integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor with a well-connected node at Durgapur, creation of 5 tourism destinations in the 5 Purvodaya States". The proposal also included deployment of 4,000 electric buses, contributing to the development of public transport and clean mobility across the region, while focusing on development of tourism in the Eastern region at large.