Jammu: The much-awaited Delhi to Kashmir train service project has achieved a major breakthrough on Friday with the completion of the final track work in the T-33 tunnel on the foothills of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, connecting Katra to Reasi districts.
Union Minister for Railways, Ashwani Vaishnaw, announced the development on X and termed it a “historic milestone.” “Final track work on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link is complete. The ballast-less track work for the 3.2 km-long tunnel T-33, located at the foothills of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine and connecting Katra to Reasi, was successfully completed today at 02:00 hours,” he wrote.
This was the final stumbling block for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line (USBRL) project and the train to reach Kashmir directly from the rest of the country. Following completion of this critical track, a few minor remaining works are planned to be finished by December 20, opening the way for the train's dream voyage to the valley.
The Vande Bharat train is expected to make history on January 26, becoming the first train to reach Kashmir directly from Delhi. After missing several deadlines, the people of Jammu and Kashmir will finally have all-weather train connectivity with the rest of the country next month.
The Northern Railway has already completed the maximum work on the most challenging 111-kilometre stretch of the train link between Udhampur, Srinagar, and Baramulla.
A railways official said that after December 20, the process of trial runs will be conducted as per the standards. “Around December 25 an engine-less trial will be conducted, followed by an engine trial, and thereafter trial runs will be conducted with full trains. We are hopeful to get everything as per the schedule so that by the end of January the train to Kashmir becomes a reality,” he said.
Already, train service has reached Katra in the Reasi district, which became a reality in 2014. Before that, Udhampur was connected in 2005, and before that, in 1972, Jammu was connected with rail from Pathankot in Punjab.
In the Kashmir Valley, local trains are moving from Baramulla to Qazigund, and beyond that, the local train service is up to the Sangaldan area of the Ramban district.
Key Features Of Delhi-Kashmir Rail Route
The track that connects Kashmir to Delhi goes through 38 tunnels and covers 119 km as part of the USBRL project. T-49 is the longest transit tunnel in the country at 12.75 km, while the Anji Khad River's steep slope was also crossed by 927 bridges, including the nation's only cable-stayed rail bridge and the famous Chenab Bridge, which stands at 359 meters high.
At a height of 359 meters (1,178 feet) above the riverbed, the tallest railway bridge across the Chenab, built at a cost of Rs 1,400 crore, is 35 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The project, which was designated as a national project in 2003, intends to connect Kashmir Valley to the Indian Railways network by offering Jammu and Kashmir an alternate and dependable transit option.
Project Cost And History
On November 6, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set 2020 as the completion date for the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 27,949 crores.
Then, on August 23, 2020, the Northern Railways notified Jammu and Kashmir's Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha that they had been instructed to finish building a 148-kilometre line from Katra to Banihal by August 15, 2022, which was a year later than the scheduled deadline.
On October 28, 2009, the 18-kilometre section of the Kashmir Valley between Qazigund and Anantnag was officially flagged off by then-prime minister Manmohan Singh.
After Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi, Inder Kumar Gujral, Deve Gowda, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh was the sixth Indian prime minister to inaugurate railway projects and trains in Jammu and Kashmir. PM Modi also joined the league as the seventh prime minister of India in 2014.
History Of Train Services In J&K
Jammu and Kashmir has seen many ups and downs since the train service started, first up to Udhampur and then up to Katra. Before 1947 there was a direct train service between Jammu and Sialkot in undivided India, which had started in 1890, but after the partition of the country in 1947, the train service snapped. It was after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan that the work on train service from Pathankot in Punjab towards Jammu started, and it opened in 1972.
The first train to Jammu started with the name Srinagar Express (now Jhelum Express), and since then other trains also arrived in the winter capital. The latest among them all is the Vande Bharat Express, which is expected to become the first train to go to Kashmir directly from the national capital, Delhi.
In 1981 the Jammu to Udhampur train project was taken up, but the foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 14, 1983. After missing several deadlines, on April 13, 2005, the then PM Manmohan Singh flagged off the train service to Udhampur, which is also the headquarters of the northern command.
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