Vande Bharat train to Srinagar steaming ahead with good public response

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

The Vande Bharat trains between Katra and Srinagar inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, which connected Kashmir with the rest of the country, are getting good response from people, officials said.
The train has brought a new level of enthusiasm among the tourist players of Kashmir who have been reeling under a slump after the flight of tourists out of the Valley following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
The train services which started from Saturday, on the Eid festival, recorded increased footfall, including that of tourists. 'The footfall has been good for the past three days since its start. People are happy over the services,' said Saqib Yousuf, Northern Railway's chief area manager in Jammu and Kashmir.
Yousuf didn't specify the number of people but people in know of the things said that hundreds made the journeys in the past three days.
PM Modi inaugurated the train service on Friday paving way for the connection of Himalayan Kashmir valley with the rest of the country through rail after the completion of the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line in January.
While the train is expected to be a boon for locals as well as the traders curtailing the travel time between Katra and Srinagar to just 3 hours (from 6-7 hours) independent of the weather vagaries, the tourists are also finding it easy and exciting to visit the region and enjoy its beauty.
Earlier the train used to run standalone between Baramulla in Kashmir and Sangaldan in Jammu province. But now the Jammu-Katra and Katra-Srinagar services completed the missing link making it the first train between Delhi and Srinagar since railway was introduced in the Indian subcontinent.
The train passes through picturesque destinations and the world's highest bridge on Chenab. The track to Kashmir has 38 tunnels and 927 bridges. The rail link has two engineering marvels —world's highest rail arch bridge at 359m over Chenab River and India's first cable-stayed rail bridge over Anji river.
Abhijeet, who was travelling with his family of four from Haryana, had initially thought to visit Vaisno Devi shrine in Katra and return back. But with the inauguration of Vande Bharat, he decided for a trip to the Srinagar. 'We are very excited for the journey to see Kashmir for the first time in our lives,' the couple said. 'So far, most of the people and tourists would visit the shrine in Katra and return but now everybody will get a chance to visit Kashmir. Whenever we used to come we would not go beyond Patnitop,' Abhijeet said.
The Chenab bridge is drawing admiration from everywhere. People are excitedly clicking pictures with it. Even the flight pilots are making special announcements and passengers are showing eagerness to capture photographs of the Chenab Bridge, the world's highest railway-arch bridge, said the railway ministry.
Every day two Vande Bharat trains make a total of four trips from Katra to Srinagar and back. Passengers have to pay ₹715 for a chair car seat and ₹1,320 for executive class. For the second train the fare prices are ₹660 for a chair car seat and ₹1,270 for executive class.
Secretary general of Kashmir travel agents association Sajad Ahmad Kralyari said tourism has received a boost as the inauguration by the PM has sent a positive signal that things are normal and tourists can come. 'Vande Bharat trains to Kashmir are sending a positive signal and we are now getting queries from even high end tourists,' Kralyari said. 'Around 1.5 crore people visit Vaishno Devi Shrine every year. So far only 10-20% would come to Kashmir by road which was cumbersome and time consuming. Now it is easy for them to come as they are just three hours away,' he said.
He also said that travelling in the train is itself an attraction as it passes through places which one would see once in a lifetime. 'They see tunnels, rivers, forests and feel the Himalayas close enough. They also travel over the world's highest railway bridge which has also become a tourist attraction,' Kralyari said.