Constructing bridges to Kashmir

The summer season solar shines pleasantly down on the Nowgam railway station in Srinagar, situated 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 scent 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 highway is lined with cypresses, and on the roadside are a number of 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 Categorical 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 individuals’s consideration to it: “Strengthening nationwide integration”, “Boosting commerce and tourism”, “Empowering financial progress”.

For Abid Dar, 48, and Khursheed Dar, his father in his late 60s, apple orchardists from Pulwama district’s Newa village, the prepare is a journey to hope and restoration. Abid has abdomen most cancers, and the duo will journey to Jammu, from the place they may catch one other prepare to Delhi.

“We plan to go to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences there. The prepare has been an important consolation for sufferers like my son,” says Khursheed. Beforehand, the journey from Srinagar to Katra in Jammu, would have taken 24 hours; now it should take 13 hours, protecting 191 km.

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 thus far, is the primary prepare 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 via air and highway.

This stretch of the monitor that value ₹43,780 crore runs via mountains and over deep gorges. It presents a glimpse of India’s engineering power and the acute Himalayan terrain, with many firsts to the challenge.

Earlier than the prepare got here

Till 2009, Kashmir was linked to the remainder of India through highway 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 Highway 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, elements would collapse, or boulders would fall on them from the mountains above, or there can be landslides.

Based on 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 individuals have died on the freeway between 2010 and 2020, in accordance with the J&Okay Site visitors Division, with accidents to 12,131. The highway is so harmful that folks ask kids to recite their prayers or play a recording of the Koran earlier than leaving for Jammu.

Those that don’t personal vehicles have to point out 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 aspect 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 way in which, which takes 6-8 hours to traverse.

Whereas the climate stays a risk for the prepare too, it’s safety that individuals are extra involved about. A traveller, who doesn’t need to be named, says, “The safety of the prepare must be reviewed and revised usually. 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 varieties

It’s 8.10 a.m. Passengers in twos and threes board the prepare, a mixture of native college students, households, businessmen, and vacationers. For a lot of youth, that is the primary time they may journey in a prepare. “I’m excited to see the engineering marvels that made it attainable to attach Kashmir to the skin world via a rail hyperlink,” Ejaz Pandit, a Pc 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 prepare manoeuvres nicely via the mountain passes. For a lot of, the journey proper now’s a joyride.

The Vande Bharat Categorical between Srinagar and Katra at a platform in Srinagar.
| Photograph Credit score:
IMRAN NISSAR

Because the prepare leaves the station, it passes via swathes of rice fields on the periphery of Srinagar, drifting into the apple orchards of Pulwama. The Pir Panjal peaks play cover and search via 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 greater. 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 prepare enters the mouth of a mountain solely to go 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 stand 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 prepare 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 develop into a serious attraction for a lot of to board the prepare. 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 pals to see the bridge, which stands 359 metres above the riverbed. The world’s highest railway arch bridge is 35 metres greater than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

As cell phones battle to document the mighty Chenab that appears like a stream from this peak, individuals shout, “Bharat Mata ki jai”. The journey ends with the Trikuta mountains of Katra, additionally house to the Vaishno Devi temple. Now the mountains diminish in measurement, 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 environment 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 accordance with figures from the J&Okay Horticulture Division.

Izhan Javed, 32, who offers with apples and owns a chilly storage in Pulwama, has combined emotions. “As soon as the refrigerated items trains begin working, it should imply nice connectivity to southern markets. South India is just not simply accessible to our apple sellers, and attributable to its proximity to ports, imported apples dominate the market there. The availability chain for our apples is dear, and the prepare 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.

Nevertheless, Javed says many questions stay unanswered thus far: “How quickly will the refrigerated prepare 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 provide chain be made to small farmers?”

Within the wake of the Pahalgam terror assault, the prepare represents hope for the tourism sector too. “We count on a serious bounce in vacationer footfall within the coming months. The Valley should improve tourism infrastructure to cater to larger 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 come back.

The Abdullahs on the prepare

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 realm is Kashmiri pulao.

On the prepare, Abdullah speaks to reporters, his eyes moist, saying: “Our long-awaited dream has been fulfilled. It would cut back the price of journey for strange Kashmiris, particularly college students and sufferers. Apart from, the prepare can also be step one in the direction of decreasing ‘dil ki doori (gulf of hearts)’. Extra steps are wanted.”

Zamir, who has lived throughout Kashmir and Delhi, says, “Past primary transportation, it’s an financial catalyst for Jammu and Kashmir. We’re already seeing spontaneous tourism progress as pilgrims from Katra are travelling to Kashmir and exploring new routes.” He hopes to see different modifications, like youth exploring schooling and employment alternatives and girls travelling for jobs. His satisfaction is in Kashmir’s “majestic valleys” seen from “this engineering marvel”.

INTERVIEW

‘It would 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.
| Photograph Credit score:
SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

peerzada.ashiq@thehindu.co.in

Edited by Sunalini Mathew