The Kashmir valley will be connected to the rest of the country through railways next year. The last project between Katra and Srinagar, the Katra-Riyasi track, has also been completed. The CRS inspection of this route is to be done on January 5.
New Delhi: Direct Rajdhani Express and other trains may start operating between New Delhi and Srinagar in the new year. The work of laying the railway track between Katra and Sangaldan has been completed. This project was being run in two phases, in which the CRS inspection of the track built between Reasi and Sangaldan has also been completed in the first phase. In the second phase, the track has also been laid between Reasi and Katra. CRS inspection of this route is to be done on January 5. After the NOC of CRS, there is every possibility of starting the operation of trains on this route in the new year. With this, Srinagar and New Delhi will be connected by railway track and Rajdhani Express will also start running on this route. Northern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said that the work of laying the track on the 17 km route between Katra and Reasi has been completed. The inspection of Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) is on January 5. The inspection of CRS may go on for about two days. After that the further program will be decided on the basis of his report. If any deficiency is pointed out, it will have to be rectified and after that it will be checked again, only then NOC will be given.
However, Upadhyay said that there is every possibility that trains may start running on this track at the beginning of the new year. In fact, in order to connect the capitals of the states with the capital through trains, the work of the project to connect Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, with New Delhi via railway track has been completed.
There were 6 projects on this entire route-
-Baramula to Qazigund, 118 km track started in 2009
-Qazigund to Banihal, 18 km track started in 2013
-Udhampur to Katra, 25 km track, completed in 2014
-Banihal to Sangaldan, 48 km track, completed in February 2024
-Sangaldan to Reasi, 46 km track, CRS has given green signal in June 2024, but train operations have not started yet
-Reasi to Katra, 17 km track, work has been completed, whose CRS inspection is yet to be done
Flight is the only option for Srinagar right now
Train operations are continuing from New Delhi to Katra. On the other hand, trains are running between Baramula and Sangaldan. Now the work of both the rail projects between Sangaldan and Katra has been completed, on which when the trains start operating, Baramulla and Srinagar will be directly connected to New Delhi. People will be able to go to Srinagar by train. At present, the only better option for people to go to Srinagar is by plane, which is quite expensive.
