Security has been stepped up across Jammu and Kashmir ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Jammu province on April 19 to flag off the first Vande Bharat train between Katra and Srinagar, finally making the long awaited dream of many to have Kashmir Valley connected with the Indian railway network come true.
Two Vande Bharat Express trains — one from Srinagar to Katra and another from Katra to Srinagar — will run on the inauguration day.
A special Vande Bharat train’s trial run was successfully conducted on Tuesday on the Katra-Sangaldan section of the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Line (USBRL) which connects Kashmir with the rest of the country.
At present, the train runs between Ramban’s Sangaldaan to Srinagar and Baramulla, but it is only the truncated railway line and the stretch between Sangaldan and Katra will be made operational on April 19.
From the Jammu side, the train runs only up to Katra, which acts as a base camp for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in the Trikuta Hills.
The idea to connect Kashmir with a railway line between Jammu and Srinagar was first conceived by Maharaja Pratap Singh in 1898. In 1905, he approved the construction of a narrow 762 mm gauge railway line via Reasi.
The then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was already connected with the Indian rail grid with a line between Jammu and Sialkot, but with the latter going to Pakistan following the partition in 1947, the then state got disconnected from the Indian railway network.
Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Line
Constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 37,000 crore, the USBRL has been completed in phases over a period of 42 years.
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While the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had laid the foundation stone of Udhampur-Srianagar railway line in 1983, the work on the project gained momentum after the Atal Behari Vajpayee government declared it a national project in 2002.
The 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla section was commissioned in October 2009, followed by 18-km stretch between Qazigund and Banihal in June 2013, Udhampur-Katra (25 kms) in July 2014 and Banihal-Sangaldan (48.1 km) stretch in February 2024.
The remaining 63-km Katra-Sangaldan section is scheduled to be commissioned on April 19.
The railway line passes through the foothills of Himalayas and Pir Panjal range, with many peaks exceeding 15,000 ft. Of the total 272-km long USBRL, nearly 119 kms pass through 38 tunnels and another 13 kms has over 927 bridges.
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With 28,000 metric tonnes of steel used in its construction, the world’s tallest railway bridge over Chenab river – 359 meter high from the river bed and 35 meter taller than the iconic Eiffel Tower– and the country’s first cable-stayed railway bridge falls on the Katra-Sangaldan section.
The country’s longest rail tunnel (12.75 kms) falls on the Katra-Banihal section, which is followed by 11 km long Pir Punjal railway tunnel connecting Jammu’s Banihal with Kashmir’s Qazigund.
The Railways conducted the first trial run of Vande Bharat train from Katra to Srinagar on January 23 this year. High tech cameras have been installed along the railway track especially inside the tunnels and bridges to check any untoward incident.
The fully air conditioned train will have a special defrosting mechanism to avoid accumulation of frost on the driver’s windshield. Its air-brake system has been optimised for maximum efficiency in sub-zero temperatures, sources said. The Vande Bharat train will take 13 hours to reach Srinagar from Delhi and it will cover the journey between Katra and Srinagar in two hours and 10 minutes.
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The train will not only reduce the travel time between Jammu and Srinagar, but also make disruptions in travel by road due to uncertainties of climate a thing of the past. The rail link between Srinagar and Jammu will also ensure smooth passage of Kashmir apple, handicraft and other products to markets across the country, sources said.