Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway line set to be inaugurated in February, trial runs successful

Srinagar: After successful trial runs of passenger and freight trains, Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project is set for its much awaited official inauguration in the first week of February 2025.

In preparation for the inauguration, Northern Railways has scheduled trial runs of the new Vande Bharat rakes, which will be moved from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SSB) station to the Baramulla (BDGM) station on January 24 and January 25.

The announcement was made through an official communiqué by Northern Railways North Circle, instructing the Firozpur division to oversee the trial operations between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Katra (SVDK) and Baramulla.

Earlier this month, on January 4, Sandeep Gupta, the chief administrative officer of the USBRL project, conducted the first trial run of an electric train on the challenging Katra-Banihal section, part of the 272-km USBRL broad-gauge project.

The trial included inspecting tunnels and bridges along the route, such as India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge over the Anji River, and a speed trial on the 111-km stretch from Katra to Banihal.

The USBRL project, which began in 2005-06, has been phased into sections. The 118-km Qazigund-Baramulla stretch in Kashmir was inaugurated in October 2009, followed by the 18-km Banihal-Qazigund and 25-km Udhampur-Katra sections, which were completed in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

However, in a recent update, Indian Railways announced a major change in its train services to Kashmir due to “security reasons”. Passengers travelling to Kashmir will have to change trains at Katra station in Jammu.  The security check at Katra is expected to take around an hour.

As a result, passengers traveling from Kashmir will need to de-board at Katra before continuing their journey to other parts of India, including Delhi, on a separate train.

This new directive has dampened the enthusiasm many locals had felt about the completed rail network, as the long-awaited connection to the national rail grid now includes added travel complexities. Despite this setback, the completion of the USBRL remains a significant achievement, promising improved connectivity for the region.