The summer season solar shines pleasantly down on the Nowgam railway station in Srinagar, positioned at an altitude of 1,730 metres above sea stage, and simply 9 kilometres from Lal Chowk, town centre. It’s round 7 a.m. on June 10.
India’s railway stations often odor of a heavy mixture of diesel and fried meals. Nowgam doesn’t; it smells of timber as an alternative. The red-brick, double-storey station with a sloped inexperienced tin roof has parts of Kashmiri structure: woodcarving on the home windows and khatamband, parquet on the ceiling. The 2-platform station has the cleanliness of a well-kept hospital and the safety of an airport. Outdoors, the central kerb of the two-lane street is lined with cypresses, and on the roadside are just a few signatory chinars, distinctive to Kashmir.
Outdoors the station is a larger-than-life hoarding with three faces: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha, and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. It broadcasts the inauguration of the Vande Bharat Specific between Srinagar and Katra, opened by the PM on June 6, integrating the road with the remainder of India’s. The hoarding has three daring phrases to name folks’s consideration to it: “Strengthening nationwide integration”, “Boosting commerce and tourism”, “Empowering financial development”.
For Abid Dar, 48, and Khursheed Dar, his father in his late 60s, apple orchardists from Pulwama district’s Newa village, the practice is a journey to hope and restoration. Abid has abdomen most cancers, and the duo will journey to Jammu, from the place they’ll catch one other practice to Delhi.
“We plan to go to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences there. The practice has been an incredible consolation for sufferers like my son,” says Khursheed. Beforehand, the journey from Srinagar to Katra in Jammu, would have taken 24 hours; now it is going to take 13 hours, masking 191 km.
The world’s highest railway arch bridge over the Chenab river, at a top of 359 metres above the riverbed.
| Picture Credit score:
IMRAN NISSAR
The operation to attach Kashmir to the remainder of India was began in 1994, and declared a nationwide challenge in 2008, funded by the Central authorities. Now, the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail hyperlink, of which the Srinagar-Katra stretch has been developed up to now, is the primary practice to hyperlink the Kashmir Valley to Jammu, within the plains. Whereas trains on the broad-gauge tracks plied inside Kashmir, the connection to the remainder of India was solely by way of air and street.
This stretch of the observe that value ₹43,780 crore runs by way of mountains and over deep gorges. It affords a glimpse of India’s engineering energy and the intense Himalayan terrain, with many firsts to the challenge.
Earlier than the practice got here
Till 2009, Kashmir was linked to the remainder of India through street and air, the previous treacherous, the latter costly for many. There was just one main floor hyperlink: the Srinagar-Jammu Nationwide Freeway 44 that stretched down 294 km.
In 2009, the 84-km-long Mughal Street was inaugurated, connecting Shopian district of the Kashmir Valley with Jammu’s Poonch district. Each roads depend upon the climate. Within the rains and snow, components would collapse, or boulders would fall on them from the mountains above, or there could be landslides.
In response to J&Okay authorities knowledge, the freeway remained closed for 20.5 days (488 hours) in 2024 and 58 days (1,392 hours) in 2023. As much as 1,750 folks have died on the freeway between 2010 and 2020, in response to the J&Okay Site visitors Division, with accidents to 12,131. The street is so harmful that folks ask youngsters to recite their prayers or play a recording of the Koran earlier than leaving for Jammu.
Those that don’t personal vehicles have to indicate up on the bus station an hour earlier to get a seat. Cabs are sometimes shared, and by no means punctual, with riders having to attend hours for different passengers to board to make it worthwhile for the motive force.
The freeway has deep gorges on one facet and steep mountain faces on the opposite. Ramban, Reasi, and Udhampur districts have sharp, blind turns. There are few meals and restroom stops alongside the best way, which takes 6-8 hours to traverse.
Whereas the climate stays a risk for the practice too, it’s safety that persons are extra involved about. A traveller, who doesn’t need to be named, says, “The safety of the practice must be reviewed and revised frequently. It stays an space of concern for us.” In 2016, the Indian Railways recorded a lack of over ₹4.5 crore in the course of the turmoil triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in south Kashmir throughout an encounter.
Firsts of many sorts
It’s 8.10 a.m. Passengers in twos and threes board the practice, a mixture of native college students, households, businessmen, and vacationers. For a lot of youth, that is the primary time they’ll journey in a practice. “I’m excited to see the engineering marvels that made it attainable to attach Kashmir to the skin world by way of a rail hyperlink,” Ejaz Pandit, a Laptop Science scholar from Srinagar, says. “I can now plan to use for jobs simply and attain my vacation spot in time, not like previously,” he provides.
There are eight coaches, together with an government coach providing chairs that tilt and with wider leg room for consolation. The variety of bogies has been restricted to make sure that the practice manoeuvres properly by way of the mountain passes. For a lot of, the journey proper now could be a joyride.
The Vande Bharat Specific between Srinagar and Katra at a platform in Srinagar.
| Picture Credit score:
IMRAN NISSAR
Because the practice leaves the station, it passes by way of swathes of rice fields on the periphery of Srinagar, drifting into the apple orchards of Pulwama. The Pir Panjal peaks play cover and search by way of the clouds, and the panoramic home windows enable for sweeping views.
Nearer to the Banihal-Qazigund railway tunnel, south of Kashmir, the rice fields develop sparse and the mountain passes larger. Vegetation vanishes because the craggy, jagged floor of the Himalayas emerges with ridges and troughs. Banihal station, nestled in mountain ridges, is the one cease. The practice enters the mouth of a mountain solely to cross into one other inside minutes.
The 36 tunnels flip the journey into an expertise of praxinoscope, with eyes catching mere fleeting photographs. Passengers pull out cell phones and rise up from their seats to catch a glimpse of Anji Khad, India’s first cable-stayed railway bridge. At 331 metres above the riverbed, it stretches 725 metres and is anchored by 96 high-tensile cables. Crossing the deep Anji river valley, the practice heads for the Banihal-Katra part, snow-capped peaks seen within the distance. The Anji is a tributary of the Chenab.
The Chenab Rail Bridge, spanning 1,315 metres, has turn out to be a serious attraction for a lot of to board the practice. It has been constructed to final 120 years and endure wind speeds of as much as 260 km per hour. Khalid Majeed, a civil engineering scholar, is travelling with associates to see the bridge, which stands 359 metres above the riverbed. The world’s highest railway arch bridge is 35 metres larger than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
As cell phones battle to file the mighty Chenab that appears like a stream from this top, folks shout, “Bharat Mata ki jai”. The journey ends with the Trikuta mountains of Katra, additionally dwelling to the Vaishno Devi temple. Now the mountains diminish in dimension, however faraway peaks nonetheless tower over Kashmir.
Jugal Kishore Sharma, Station Superintendent on the Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station, says, “There’s a festive ambiance amongst passengers. Everybody desires to benefit from the expertise. No seats can be found for the following 10 days.”
A future for apples and vacationers
Jammu and Kashmir has seen an upscaling of apple manufacturing previously few years, with 20.56 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) produced in 2024-2025 of which 13.13 LMT was exported as much as February 2025. Apple growers produced 16.9 LMT in 2020-2021, in response to figures from the J&Okay Horticulture Division.
Izhan Javed, 32, who offers with apples and owns a chilly storage in Pulwama, has blended emotions. “As soon as the refrigerated items trains begin operating, it is going to imply nice connectivity to southern markets. South India is just not simply accessible to our apple sellers, and because of its proximity to ports, imported apples dominate the market there. The provision chain for our apples is expensive, and the practice can change that,” says Javed, who can also be a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Fruits and Greens Processing and Built-in Chilly Chain Affiliation.
Nonetheless, Javed says many questions stay unanswered up to now: “How quickly will the refrigerated practice begin? How will the point-to-point provide chain of apples be dealt with? As perishables require a quick and devoted service, how reasonably priced and accessible will that offer chain be made to small farmers?”
Within the wake of the Pahalgam terror assault, the practice represents hope for the tourism sector too. “We anticipate a serious leap in vacationer footfall within the coming months. The Valley should improve tourism infrastructure to cater to greater volumes,” says Nasir Shah, managing director of Tradition and Nature Expeditions, which organises journey holidays inside Kashmir. He additionally sees many youth becoming a member of the tourism business in Kashmir within the years to return.
The Abdullahs on the practice
Within the government coach is Nationwide Convention chief Farooq Abdullah, 87. He guides his grandsons Zamir and Zahir, each of their 20s, to their seats. They order meals from one of many 4 menus that cater to north and south Indian tastes. The one factor from the world is Kashmiri pulao.
On the practice, Abdullah speaks to reporters, his eyes moist, saying: “Our long-awaited dream has been fulfilled. It is going to scale back the price of journey for odd Kashmiris, particularly college students and sufferers. In addition to, the practice can also be step one in direction of decreasing ‘dil ki doori (gulf of hearts)’. Extra steps are wanted.”
Zamir, who has lived throughout Kashmir and Delhi, says, “Past fundamental transportation, it’s an financial catalyst for Jammu and Kashmir. We’re already seeing spontaneous tourism development as pilgrims from Katra are travelling to Kashmir and exploring new routes.” He hopes to see different modifications, like youth exploring training and employment alternatives and ladies travelling for jobs. His delight is in Kashmir’s “majestic valleys” seen from “this engineering marvel”.
INTERVIEW
‘It is going to increase journey, commerce, and tourism in Jammu and Kashmir’
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on the significance of the brand new line. Edited excerpts from an e-mail interview:
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
| Picture Credit score:
SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
What was probably the most difficult a part of the challenge?
This dream of a long time has turn out to be a actuality overcoming many challenges, the distinctive Himalayan geology with earthquake-prone zones and tough terrain being a major one. Every of the 943 bridges had its personal hurdles. Inaccessibility of the bridge websites was a typical problem. Building of over 215 km of method roads to those websites was a challenge in itself. The 36 important tunnels and eight escape tunnels had a separate set of challenges, together with landslides, cavity formations, water ingression, and the presence of methane fuel.
How essential is the rail hyperlink for the strategic and navy wants of the area?
Kashmir was, is, and can at all times be an integral a part of India. The rail hyperlink offers all-weather connectivity to frame areas. The important thing distinction in folks’s lives is that they’ll now transfer simply between the Valley and the Jammu area. Folks could have entry to transportation all year long.
How are you caring for security on two counts: excessive climate and the risk from terrorists?
Passenger security is among the topmost priorities of the Indian Railways. The bridges on the rail hyperlink have been designed to resist extraordinarily excessive wind speeds and excessive magnitude earthquakes. For example, Chenab bridge can face up to wind speeds as much as 266 kmph, and earthquakes of as much as 8.0 magnitude on the Richter scale. Sensors put in on the bridge present real-time knowledge on elements like wind velocity, temperature, humidity, and vibrations. Superior tunnel security applied sciences have been employed. The 12.77-km-long Tunnel T-50 is India’s longest transportation tunnel. It’s outfitted with a sequence of CCTV cameras and a central management room for monitoring. Concerning threats from terrorists, the (PM Narendra) Modi doctrine is sort of clear and now well-known to the world. Operation Sindoor has established a brand new regular the place decisive retaliation is a key pillar.
How do you see the rail hyperlink integrating Kashmir into the mainland?
The road will increase journey, commerce, and tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. Journey time from Jammu to Srinagar is halved. The Kashmiri golden apple, cherries, dry fruits, Pashmina scarf, and handicrafts could have faster and simpler entry to international markets. Throughout a current interplay with native Kashmiris, they expressed a agency perception that the rail line will convey again the glory days and vibrancy of tourism. It isn’t solely a dream come true but in addition a rekindling of hope for a Viksit Kashmir as a part of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
peerzada.ashiq@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
Revealed – June 13, 2025 01:53 am IST