New Delhi-Srinagar Vande Bharat train: Kashmir to get first direct train from Delhi

The proposed 62-km-long track, 45 km of which has been completed, falls between Katra and Sangaldan, with trial runs of the train underway in the stretch between Sangaldan and Reasi. The stretch also has the world’s highest bridge over the Chenab river.

Earlier this year, senior railway officers had conducted a three-day inspection of the railway track between Sangaldan and Reasi on June 26 to 28.

The work on the remaining 17 km, which holds four stations between Reasi and Katra, and on the T33 tunnel, has reached the advanced stage of completion, with the stretch expected to be ready for trial by December 20, as per sources.

“I believe that whenever the Prime Minister gets time in the first month of next year, it will be inaugurated,” sources quoted Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries, Ravneet Singh Bittu, as saying during his inspection of the Reasi-Katra section last month

At present, Kashmir has a truncated railway line as the train runs between Sangaldan-Banihal in the Jammu division to Srinagar-Baramulla in the Valley. From the Jammu side, which is connected with the Indian Railways network across the country, the train runs up to Udhampur and Katra.

The USBRL Project was approved by the PV Narasimha Rao-government in 1995 at the approximate cost of Rs 2,500 crore. However, the work gained momentum after it was declared a national project by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002.

Seven years later, the first phase of the 118-km-long Baramulla-Qazigund section of the project was completed and in 2013, it was extended to Banihal in the Jammu division which was dedicated to the nation by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In 2014, the train started running on the 25-km-long section between Udhampur and Katra and from Banihal to Sangaldan, last in February this year. To be completed at the cost of over Rs 35,000 crore, Kashmir will likely finally have direct Vande Bharat trains to Delhi this January.

The train is expected to benefit the people of Kashmir by facilitating hassle-free transport of goods such as apples, dry fruits, pashmina shawls, and handicrafts to other parts of the country in the shortest possible time and for cheaper. The cost of transporting items of daily use to the Valley from elsewhere in the country is also expected to go down significantly.

Four cargo terminals will be built between Banihal and Baramulla; land has been identified for three of these terminals.