With the first cargo train carrying 24 tons of cherry ready to roll from Jammu and Kashmir to Mumbai next month, Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for personally overseeing the completion of the railway track connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country.
Modi was supposed to inaugurate the direct train service from Katra in Jammu to Srinagar early this month, but the function was put on hold due to inclement weather.
However, the newly created Jammu railway division has got its first VP indent, a request for allocation of a full parcel van for the shipment of goods, registered from Katra railway station to Bandra (Mumbai) for June 3.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Northern Railway, Jammu, Uchit Singhal, had earlier said that the effort undertaken after extensive consultations with the Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Department and fruit grower associations is a welcome initiative if goes off successfully as it will offload the road traffic burden and will enable perishable goods like cherries reach its intended markets with minimal damage or deterioration in quality.
He said that 24 tons of cargo will be moved in a VP attached to a goods train from Katra station to Bandra station in Mumbai. The cargo will reach its destination in 30 hours.
“It will be a win-win situation for both the railways and fruit growers and in turn the economy of J-K region,” added Singhal.
Reacting to the development, the minister of state in the PMO said the work on Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, sanctioned in 1994-95, was almost stopped given the challenging topography and the cost escalation when Modi took over as the prime minister in 2014.
“The alignment was reestablished and the result is that a railway track was successfully laid to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country today. It also saw the construction of the world’s highest railway bridge (Chenab bridge),” Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He said before the launch of the cargo train to transport cherry from Jammu and Kashmir to Mumbai, a train carrying soldiers from Delhi to Kashmir was also run on the track recently.
The Modi-led government took several important decisions to ensure that the rail link to Kashmir is completed.
First, a division has been established in Jammu, while work on Udhampur and Jammu railway stations is underway to develop them as major stations along with Mata Vaishno Devi Katra station.
Two Vande Bharat trains will be launched from Katra to Kashmir before the service shifts to Jammu once the station is ready later this year, he said.
Meanwhile, the minister expressed hope about revival of tourism, which suffered a major setback following the brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam that left 26 persons, mostly tourists, dead on April 22.
“After the Pahalgam attack, the number of devotees visiting Mata Vaishno Devi shrine also recorded a decline. But I am happy to see the number of people visiting the shrine has increased again. So gradually, people will start coming back once they have faith in you,” he said.
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