Katra-Sangaldan section: PM set to inaugurate final rail stretch to Kashmir on Friday

The Vande Bharat trains to be inaugurated by Modi include one running from Katra to Srinagar, and the other from Srinagar to Katra.

However, the PM will not be travelling to Srinagar for this. Sources said the government wants to inaugurate the line before the celebration of the first anniversary of the Modi-led government’s third term, on June 9.

An official said: “The PM will inaugurate the complete stretch of the USBRL, Chenab Bridge and Anji Bridge. Along with this, he will flag off the two Vande Bharat trains for the route. All the preparations have been completed. Security is being beefed up in the area.”

On Monday, the newly formed Jammu Division, headquartered at Jammu Tawi and operating under Northern Railway, became operational. The 70th division of the Indian Railways will oversee a substantial area, primarily consisting of sections transferred from the existing Firozpur Division, which is as old as the Indian Railways.

Currently, local trains are operational in the USBRL’s 184-km stretch between Sangaldan in Jammu’s Ramban district and Kashmir’s Baramulla, and in the 25-km section between Udhampur and Katra in Jammu. It is the 63-km Katra-Sangaldan section that is awaiting inauguration for the line to be completed.

The estimated cost of the USBRL is over Rs 43,000 crore, of which Rs 35,000 crore was spent on the Katra-Banihal section.

The Vande Bharat trains will run only between Srinagar and Katra for now, senior Railway officials said. Passengers who get onto the Vande Bharat from Srinagar will have to change trains at the Katra Railway Station for their onward journey for the time being. The same goes for passengers travelling in the reverse direction, who would have to catch the Vande Bharat to the Valley from Katra.

Earlier, it had been reported that this was for security reasons, with the trains coming or going to Srinagar subjected to further checks. This had been objected to by political leaders in Kashmir, who said it defeated the whole idea of a train to the Valley.

A railway official told The Indian Express Monday that the trains coming to and from Kashmir would halt or start from Katra as work on the expansion of the Jammu Railway Yard is in progress. The work is expected to be completed by August-September and after that, passengers to and from Srinagar can come up to Jammu directly, before taking trains to other places.

It was in 1983 that the then Indira Gandhi-led Congress government laid the foundation stone for a Udhampur-Srinagar railway line.

However, work on the project only gained momentum after the A B Vajpayee-led NDA government declared it a national project in 2002.