The Union Government is preparing to launch two new schemes for persons with disabilities, aimed at training them for “dignified livelihood opportunities” and providing them with “timely access” to assistive devices by setting up “modern retail-style” Assistive Technology Marts across the country.

Even as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the two new schemes — the Divyangjan Kaushal Yojana and Divyang Sahara Yojana — as part of the government’s push for empowering persons with disabilities, rights organisation National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) has said the Budget “continues the exclusionary trajectory of the Modi government in its third term”, saying that it “violates disability rights and entrenches inequality”.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her Budget speech, announced seven high-speed rail corridors, which will connect five South Indian states among others, and will be developed at a total cost of ₹16 lakh crore.

Calling them “growth connectors”, the FM said the corridors will link Mumbai- Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Siliguri.

Read: Union Budget 2026 LIVE updates

The corridors will reduce travel time between Chennai to Bengaluru to 1.5 hours, Bengaluru to Hyderabad to 2 hours, Hyderabad to Chennai to 2 hours and 55 minutes. The travel duration between Pune and Hyderabad will reduce to 1 hour 55 minutes; and between Pune to Mumbai it will reduce to 45 minutes.

At a press conference, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explained that with five South Indian States interlinked, the announcement will serve as a growth multiplier for them.

The Delhi-Varanasi corridor will bring down travel time to 3 hour 50 minutes. Varanasi to Siliguri via Patna will be covered in 2 hour 55 minutes.

These corridors will be of 4000 km in length, and be developed at an outlay of ₹16 lakh crore.

The FM also announced a new dedicated freight corridor connecting Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat.

WATCH | Seven high-speed rail corridors to promote environment friendly transport: FM

A total outlay of ₹2,78,030 crore has been set aside for the Ministry of Railways in the Union Budget 2026-27 as compared to ₹2,55,466 lakh in the revised estimate of Financial Year 2025-2026, indicating a hike of 10.8%. The total capital expenditure for railways is at ₹2,93,030 crore.

Rail Minister said a sum of ₹1,20,000 crore has been earmarked on safety related measures such as track maintenance, locomotives, coaches as rapid installation of Kavach ( indigenously developed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system) and overhead electricals.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been granted a total capital expenditure of ₹3.09 lakh crore for financial year 2026-27 as compared to ₹2.87 lakh in the revised estimate of the current fiscal, a hike of 10.7%.

Allocation to state-owned National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been increased to ₹1.87 lakh crore from last year’s ₹1.70 lakh crore.