Jammu: The forthcoming Jammu Railway Division is going to be India’s first High Mountainous Railway Division as most of the parts of this division will be on high Himalayan ranges, while the highest point is Qazigund station at the height of 1722 meters (5650-feet).
Starting from Pathankot, the Jammu Railway Division to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually on January 6, will become the largest division in the northern mountains, covering more than 742.1 kilometres.
Sources in the railway on Wednesday that the Jammu Railway Division will begin from Pathankot with a total distance of 742.1 kilometers that includes 423 kilometers from Pathankot to Baramulla, 87.21 kilometers from Pathankot to Bhogpur, 68.17 kilometers from Pathankot to Batala and 163.72 kilometers from Pathankot to Jogindernagar.
“To come up in future, the strategically important Bilaspur-Manali-Leh railway line will also come under the Jammu division,” they said, adding that a new division is being set up with headquarters at Jammu under Northern Railway by reorganisation of Firozpur division.
Official sources revealed that the Prime Minister will inaugurate the Jammu Railway Division on January 6 through video link while the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh will remain present in Jammu.
Notably, the railway network of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh currently falls under the Firozpur division of Northern Railway, which is said to be one of the most profitable railway divisions of North India.
Sources further said, “the total expenditure on the formation of Railway Board is estimated to be around Rs 350 crore but after this, this sector is expected to benefit the railways in terms of revenue.”
This region will get about Rs 10,000 crore annually from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on freight and passenger transport, which currently goes to Firozpur, they revealed.
Sources said that on January 6, the day of the inauguration of the Railway Division, the final test of the railway line between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra and Reasi will also be conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety.
“Soon after the approval of the Railway Safety Commissioner, the rail link from the Kashmir Valley to the rest of India will be completed, and train service will be made operational,” sources said, adding that after the operationalisation, the movement of goods from the Kashmir Valley will also commence, thus giving impetus to the development process in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sharing a brief history of railways in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said that before 1947 there was a direct rail service between Jammu and Sialkot in undivided India, which started in 1890, but the service stopped after the partition in 1947.
After the India and Pakistan war in 1965, work on the rail service from Pathankot in Punjab to Jammu started in 1972, and the first train to Jammu started with the name of Srinagar Express, which now runs with the name of Jhelum Express, and since then the arrival of trains has increased manifold.
The railway project from Jammu to Udhampur was started in the year 1981, and its foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 14, 1983. Nearly 22 years later, on April 13, 2005, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flagged off the rail service to Udhampur, which is also the headquarters of the Army’s Northern Command.
After this, various sections of local rail service were started from October 11, 2009, and on July 4, 2014, rail service was also started for Katra, the base camp of the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
In February last year, the 48-km section from Banihal to Sangaldan in the Kashmir Valley was started, and after this, the approval of the Railway Safety Commissioner was received on the railway line from Sangaldan to Reasi.
“About 17 km long line between Reasi and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra is ready and is likely to get the approval of the Commissioner of Railway Safety soon while the railway officials are also preparing a plan for operating trains between Katra and Srinagar and Baramulla,” sources added.
