They said that the train service would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to valley next month. While as there has been no confirmation about the timing of Singh’s visit, sources said, he is visiting valley, first time after being re-elected as PM, in first week of the October.
In August this year, CRS carried out inspection of 18-kilometer railway track from Islamabad to Qazigund and expressed content with facilities at station buildings, track alignment, signaling and electrical works.
After the inauguration, the railway in Jammu and Kashmir would cover a distance of 119-km track and will to connect Qazigund in south Kashmir with Baramulla in north Kashmir. The cost of the Baramulla-Qazigund rail network project is estimated at Rs 3,200 crores.
It took almost nine years to complete the Baramulla-Qazigund rail project, which started in 2000. The Islamabad-Qazigund rail link has about 113 minor and major bridges along the route, the sources added.
The first train in Kashmir was made operational in October 2007 when Prime Minister flagged off the 66-km-long rail line from Islamabad to Mazhoma in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
The railway saw its first expansion by 35-kms with the linking of Mazhoma with Baramulla in February this year. The rail track was inaugurated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
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