Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary walked into the Union Railways Ministry in New Delhi on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, with a list — and it was a long one. From extra trains for Diwali and Chhath Puja to a dedicated Vande Bharat link between Sitamarhi and Ayodhya, Bihar's Chief Minister made the case directly to the minister who controls the tracks.

In a meeting with Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, CM Choudhary pressed for additional special trains ahead of the twin festival rush — a perennial pressure point for Bihar, a state that sees millions of workers and pilgrims travel home and to sacred sites every autumn. He posted on X: 'दीपावली एवं छठ पूजा के लिए अतिरिक्त विशेष ट्रेन चलाने का रेल मंत्री जी से किया आग्रह' ('I urged the Railway Minister to run additional special trains for Diwali and Chhath Puja').

Sitamarhi–Ayodhya Vande Bharat: A Pilgrimage Corridor Takes Shape

The most symbolically charged ask on the table was the proposed Sitamarhi–Ayodhya Vande Bharat Express — a route that would link one of Bihar's key religious towns with the newly consecrated temple city in Uttar Pradesh. Sitamarhi, revered as the birthplace of Goddess Sita, sits at a natural confluence of religious tourism demand; connecting it by a high-speed semi-express service to Ayodhya would create a ready-made pilgrimage corridor with significant passenger potential. Vande Bharat Express services were first launched nationally in 2019 and have since been extended to several Bihar-adjacent routes, but this specific link remains pending formal approval.

A Bridge Over the Ganga — and a Push on Stalled Projects

CM Choudhary also raised the long-pending Ganga rail-cum-road bridge in Bihar — a combined rail-and-road crossing over the river that state planners argue would decisively ease the state's north-south transport bottleneck. Bihar's geography, split by the Ganga, has historically made cross-river movement a choke point for commerce and daily travel alike. The CM pushed for acceleration across multiple pending rail projects, signalling that pace, not just approval, is now the state's demand from the Centre.

Investment and Jobs: The 'Make in Bihar' Dimension

The meeting also carried an economic subtext. Choudhary linked better rail connectivity explicitly to the state's bid to attract investment and generate employment — the driving theme behind campaigns like Make in Bihar and the hashtag #SamriddhBihar (Prosperous Bihar). The argument is straightforward: industries do not come to states where freight and workers cannot move efficiently. Rail infrastructure, in this frame, is not just a transport ask — it is an investment pitch. The Railway Board's decisions on festival specials and formal project tenders will be the real measure of how far Tuesday's meeting travelled.