Kashmir’s 30-year wait ends, PM Modi to inaugurate train on world’s highest railway arch Chenab bridge-OxBig News Network

Railway stations in the valley have been decked up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flag off the maiden Delhi-Srinagar Vande Bharat Express – the first train connecting the valley to the rest of the country.

The first passenger train will set off from Delhi and reach Srinagar via the pilgrim town Katra, the base for the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.

When Modi flags off the train on Friday, it will be a successful culmination of a project that has two engineering marvels — the world’s highest railway bridge over the Chenab and India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge at Anji.

The project took more than 30 years to complete.

Although the idea of connecting Kashmir valley to the rest of the country by train was floated in the 1970s during the tenure of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, the project was officially sanctioned in a cabinet meeting chaired by her successor, P V Narasimha Rao, in 1994.

The work in earnest on the railway link began in 2002, when Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government sanctioned funds for land acquisition for the project.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he had been hearing about the train to Kashmir since he was in school.

“If I say that I have been waiting for this day for a long time, it won’t be an exaggeration. This project started when I was in school, maybe in class 7 or 8. Today, my children have also completed their education and are now working,” Abdullah told reporters at the Katra Railway Station.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) is one of the most ambitious railway projects undertaken in Independent India, a PIB release said.

Stretching 272 kilometres through the rugged Himalayas, the project has been built for Rs 43,780 crore, it said.

The project includes 36 tunnels that span 119 kilometres and 943 bridges that knit together valleys, ridges, and mountain passes.

Designed to overcome the region’s challenging geography, it connects remote areas to the national rail network and marks a new chapter in mobility, trade and tourism for Jammu and Kashmir, it added.

The railway link will end the break in the surface transport between Kashmir and the rest of the country, which invariably occurs during winter or whenever the weather becomes inclement.

It will also end the hike in air tickets, which shoot up whenever the Srinagar-Jammu highway is closed due to weather vagaries.

The Vande Bharat Express is set to run between Katra and Srinagar, cutting down travel time and setting a new benchmark in comfort for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

with PTI inputs