Sarma said that while earlier the corridor was supposed to be till Siliguri in West Bengal, approval for the extension to Guwahati will facilitate further economic opportunities for the region. (himantabiswasarma/Instagram)Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday welcomed the Centre’s approval to extend the proposed northern high-speed rail corridor till Guwahati, terming it as a “pivotal moment” for eastern India.Sarma said that once the corridor is operational, travel time between the national capital and Guwahati will reduce to under eight hours.Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for approval of the extension, Sarma, in an X post, said that “this is what a government that listens and delivers looks like.”Sarma said that while earlier the corridor was supposed to be till Siliguri in West Bengal, approval for the extension to Guwahati will facilitate further economic opportunities for the region.“As Assam prepares for a new wave of high-tech industries, fast, affordable flight like connectivity to Delhi and two state capitals, will open up enormous opportunities for businesses and livelihoods,” Sarma said in his post.Further, the chief minister said, “A bullet train to Assam once seemed so far-fetched that it never even became a public demand. Today, what we scarcely dared to dream is becoming reality.”In June this year, Sarma had urged the Centre to consider extending the Delhi-Siliguri High-Speed Rail Corridor to Guwahati.Story continues below this ad“The omission of Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast and the region’s largest economic and transportation hub, from the proposed high-speed rail network is a matter of concern. Extending the corridor to Guwahati would not only bring the entire region onto India’s bullet train map but would also serve as a catalyst for economic growth, tourism, trade and investment across the Northeast,” read the letter dated June 7.Sarma, in his letter to the Centre, had also said that if the extension of the high-speed rail network to Guwahati was approved, it would be a “historic milestone in this transformative journey, further reducing both physical and emotional distances and reinforcing the Northeast’s integration with India’s growth story.”The proposed corridor will connect Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Patna and Siliguri before connecting with Guwahati.