Finally, green signal to rail link

Sanctioned in 1981, the Rs 510-crore line was completed only last year in April, after many hiccups, including terrorist threats. The prestigious line has been awaiting inauguration since.

Sources said Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and J-K Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma had been requesting the PM to inaugurate the line as it would send a positive signal to the people of the state. ‘‘So, even though the PM is visiting the state on April 7 to flag off the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, he agreed to inaugurate the line less than a week later,’’ a senior officer said. The PM is expected to go to Jammu and then Udhampur during his second visit to the state.

The Railways had requested the PM to inaugurate the line during his visit to the state in November last but it could not be worked out. There had been some test runs of freight trains on the track but the railways wanted it to be formally inaugurated by the PM before running passenger trains on it, and start earning some revenue in return.

The showpiece track faced several problems, throwing up a variety of challenges to railway engineers and experts. ‘‘There were geo-technical problems with the 308m-long bridge on the Gambhir river. The task of laying down the steel bridge — the highest in the railways at 80 m — was a big challenge. The other landmarks on the line include ballast-free tracks. Moreover, reinforced hollow concrete piers have been constructed on all viaducts and bridges, in view of the seismological activity in the area,’’ a railway engineer said.

The Jammu-Udhampur line is the first phase of the proposed Rs 3,500- crore, 344-km line up to Baramulla. The remaining 290 km is proposed to run across Udhampur-Katra-Qazigund-Srinagar.