WAJAHAT SHABIR
SRINAGAR: In another milestone, Railway authorities on Sunday conducted a 22-bogie train trail run on the Katra-Budgam track on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project.
As per the officials the train, comprising 18 AC coaches, two luggage carriers and two engines, left the Katra railway station at around 8 am, successfully reaching its destination within four hours under the watchful eyes of the railway authorities.
A senior official said the trail run was held between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (Katra) to Budgam to check the track, tunnels, lights etc along the route. It was also checked to see how the driver would feel while running the train.
Train ran from Vaishno Devi to Sangaldan at the speed of 85 kilometers per hour, from Sangaldan to Qazigund at a speed of 75 kilometers per hour and from Qazigund to Budgam at 100 kilometers per hour, he said.
The official further said that on Monday the trail will chug back from Budgam to Katra.
The work on the dream project to link Kashmir by train was started in 1997 and it missed several deadlines given geological, topographical and meteorological challenges.
Out of the total 272 km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, 209 km was commissioned in phases with the first phase of the 118 km Qazigund-Baramulla section commissioned in October 2009, followed by 18 km Banihal-Qazigund in June 2013, 25 km Udhampur-Katra in July 2014 and 48.1 km long Banihal-Sangaldan stretch in February, last year.
The work on the 46-km Sangaldan-Reasi section was also completed in June last year, leaving a total of 17 km stretch between Reasi and Katra. And this section was finally completed in December 2024 as announced by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
On January 4, a successful trial run of an electric train was successfully conducted on the Katra-Banihal section. The railways have conducted six trials over the past month on various segments of the track, including the two major milestones of the Anji Khad and Chenab bridges.
