PM Modi to flag off Vande Bharat to Kashmir ‘very soon’: Northern Railways
The Northern Railways have already conducted successful trial of passenger and freight trains on the 17-km Katra-Banihal track
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Vande Bharat train from Katra to Kashmir ‘very soon’, a top official of the Northern Railways said on Tuesday.
The Northern Railways have already conducted successful trial of passenger and freight trains on the 17-km Katra-Banihal track.
Refuting unconfirmed reports that PM will inaugurate Vande Bharat train to Kashmir on February 17, Northern Railways chief public relations officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyaya said, “There is no official confirmation yet... but it will be inaugurated very soon.”
Officials said the Katra-Reasi section was the toughest in the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.
Meanwhile, director general of police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat on Monday visited Reasi for a security review of the newly laid track.
DGP Prabhat recently inspected the 17-km track and visited world’s highest railway arch bridge over Chenab river in Kauri village. He inspected the country’s first cable stayed rail bridge over Anji river. The DGP took stock of the security arrangements being made for the rail track, tunnels and bridges.
On January 4, USBRL project chief administrative officer Sandeep Gupta and senior officials of the railways conducted the maiden trial run of an electric train from Katra to Banihal.
The length of the rail track from Katra in Reasi district to Banihal in Ramban is 111 km. The section includes 27 tunnels and 37 bridges. The longest rail tunnel in the country, 12.75-km T 49, falls on this section. The work on the project was started in 2005-06.
The 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla rail section was inaugurated in October 2009. The 18-km Banihal-Qazigund and 25-km Udhampur-Katra sections were commissioned in June 2013 and July 2014, respectively.
In February last year, a trial run of an electric train was conducted on 40-km track between Banihal and Sangaldan in Ramban district.