No land acquisition has been initiated for the proposed Hyderabad–Chennai, Hyderabad–Bengaluru and Hyderabad–Pune high-speed rail corridors, Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday, clarifying that alignment studies are still underway and the routes have not been finalised.
Vaishnaw made the clarification during a meeting with Union coal and mines minister G. Kishan Reddy to review the progress of the three proposed corridors. The statement addresses uncertainty over reports or activity suggesting that land acquisition had begun for the projects in the states through which the corridors may pass.
The railway minister said no requisition for land acquisition had been sent to the respective state governments. He further said that any land acquisition being undertaken in the name of the high-speed rail projects at this stage would be illegal because the railway ministry had not initiated the process.
The three corridors are at the alignment-study stage. Their proposed routes have not yet been finalised, meaning the precise locations of stations, track infrastructure and any land parcels required for construction remain undecided. The ministry has not announced a final alignment or a land-acquisition schedule in the information made available.
Vaishnaw said the alignments would be shared with the respective state governments and farmers once they were finalised. This means affected administrations and landowners are expected to receive project details only after the technical studies identify the routes and the land requirements.
For landowners and farmers in areas that could potentially fall along the corridors, the clarification distinguishes between a proposed transport connection and a formally initiated land process. Until a requisition is issued and the relevant state-level procedures begin, claims that land is being acquired for these projects do not represent an authorised railway action, according to the minister’s statement.
The clarification also places the three proposals at an earlier stage than a project with an approved alignment or notified acquisition plan. Alignment studies are necessary to determine the route that the high-speed rail infrastructure could take, but the supplied information does not specify the studies’ completion timelines, the eventual station locations, project costs or construction schedules.
The Hyderabad-linked proposals would connect Telangana’s capital to Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune, creating potential rail links between major southern and western urban centres. However, the current status confirmed by the railway ministry is limited to ongoing alignment studies. No final route or land-acquisition action has been announced for any of the three corridors.
The next formal step is the completion of the alignment studies, followed by sharing the finalised route details with the concerned state governments and farmers. Until that process is completed, the railway ministry has said that no authorised land acquisition is underway for the proposed corridors.
