Katra: Swati Kumari was watching the live stream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the first Vande Bharat Express to Kashmir from her hotel room in Katra. It was the first stop on her honeymoon. Within minutes, she had made up her mind.
“Let’s book the tickets. We should go,” she told her husband, Shubham.
By the afternoon of 7 June, Kumari and Shubham were aboard the gleaming, saffron-colored train—among the first passengers travelling to the Valley on a route that connected Kashmir to the rest of India by rail for the very first time.
“I’m very excited. Now, it feels like a honeymoon and Kashmir feels closer,” said Kumari, who is from Bihar. As the train chugged along, the dry, withered marigold garlands from the inaugural day swayed gently in the breeze. Kumari kept peering out of the window, looking in awe at the lush green landscape.
The couple’s initial itinerary was simple: visit the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra to start the honeymoon, then head to Amritsar. But the video of Prime Minister Modi changed everything for her.
“When Modi ji walked on the Chenab bridge waving the Indian flag, I felt reassured. It gave me confidence,” Kumari said, smiling ear to ear.
The train’s inauguration comes a month after the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 tourists. It triggered panic and mass cancellations, leaving the Valley desolate for the season. But here was Kumari, on the train—her presence a quiet vote for normalcy.
Hours after the inauguration, all 572 seats on the Vande Bharat Express to Kashmir were sold out. Most of the passengers were tourists visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine and were now taking a spontaneous trip to the Valley. A few were residents from the Jammu region — Udhampur, Katra, and Jammu.
The 272-kilometre Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail line was completed 42 years after it was first envisioned. The first 55-kilometre stretch between Jammu and Udhampur was completed in April 2005. But it took two more decades to make the entire route operational. It cuts through a terrain that has defined three decades of conflict in Kashmir. And the rail corridor has reframed the story of conflict to that of convenience and connection.
“Not just tourists, but traders, fruit growers, and the common people of Kashmir will benefit from this rail route. It also holds strategic importance, as it will aid the army in operating across the border areas of the LAC and LoC, which have seen increased activity in recent years. Kashmiris have long been waiting for this facility,” said Noor Baba, political scientist and professor of political science at the University of Kashmir.
Also read: Srinagar train reminds us Kashmir was secured by iron and rock, that’s how soldiers moved in
Everyone was a vlogger
There was a spirit of camaraderie among the passengers during the three-hour journey, all united by a larger cause to keep tourism alive in the valley. The train looked like any other Vande Bharat on the inside, with its signature blue seats. What was different was the atmosphere inside. Strangers became best of friends, bonding over the shared sentiment of being the first passengers. They oohed and aahed as the train chugged through mountains and valleys, and cheered when they saw the world’s tallest railway arch — the Chenab bridge.
As the train approached the bridge, a voice blared through the speakers, “Aap Chenab bridge pahunch rahe hain” (Now the train is approaching the Chenab bridge). The arch bridge is the world’s tallest, standing 359 metres above the riverbed—taller than even the Eiffel Tower. Below, the gusty Chenab River flows across the border into Pakistan.
The train slowed as it chugged along the Chenab bridge. Passengers seated by the aisle and middle seats quickly stood up, uttering high-pitched “wows” and rushing to the windows to take photos and videos. Even the waiters and the housekeeping staff stood by the window to watch the bridge. For those few minutes, everyone became a vlogger.
“This has been made possible because of Modi ji,” said 50-year-old Rajesh Joshi, taking a video of the bridge on his phone.
Joshi, a resident of Pathankot in Punjab, had come with six friends just to see the Chenab bridge.
“Right after the inauguration, my friends and I booked tickets to see the bridge. We’ll stay a night in Kashmir, take a shikara ride, and return the next afternoon,” Joshi said.
Soon after crossing the bridge, passengers broke into chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” “Vande Mataram,” and “Jai Shera Wali Da.”
The excitement was a great ice breaker, conversation flowed across rows. “See the mountains, how do people live here?” said one passenger. “After every two minutes, there is a tunnel. I am not even able to capture the mountains,” said another. To reach Srinagar, the train has to cross 36 tunnels.
Their conversations were only interrupted by waiters offering them food and water.
Also read: Not a seat left vacant as J&K’s all-new Vande Bharat makes first journey from Katra to Srinagar
Secret journey
Kumari’s journey to Kashmir was marred with ticket cancellation, family opposition and the news of the Pahalgam terror attack.
It was on 11 April that Kumari and her husband Shubham Kumar booked their tickets to Kashmir — a train ride till Katra, and then an on-road journey to the Valley. Kumari, a government primary school teacher in Bihar’s Munger district, met her husband Shubham, a high school teacher in Bhagalpur, nearly 200 km away, on a matrimonial site in January and hit it off almost instantly. Within two months, they were married.
“The wedding date was decided based on the school summer vacations — so we could use the break for our honeymoon,” said Kumari, as she held Shubham’s hand. Being in a long-distance relationship, the honeymoon was the only time they could be together for a long period.
And Kashmir is where they had planned to go. Once the train tickets were confirmed, Shubham booked a honeymoon package with a tour operator. Soon after the booking, Kumari and Shubham spent their days exchanging reels of Kashmir on Instagram.
One such video featured actor Suniel Shetty saying, “We need to show them. Kashmir was ours, and will always be ours.”
But just eleven days after the booking, the news broke: Terrorists had attacked tourists in the Baisaran valley of Pahalgam. Kumari and Shubham were devastated.
“They had attacked couples. It could have been us. It felt like our dream was ripped apart,” said Shubham, as he made tea on board the train.
Shubham didn’t wait long. “Sorry, I can’t come. Please cancel our bookings,” he wrote to the travel agency that same night.
The revised honeymoon plan included Katra, Amritsar, Delhi and Agra. Kashmir was struck off.
Until the news of the train to Srinagar changed everything. It brought convenience and a sense of closeness to the valley. After booking the ticket on the Vande Bharat Express, Shubham wrote to the tour company, “We are coming. Send us options for the stay.”
The couple’s itinerary includes Pahalgam, Sonmarg and Dal Lake. But their families don’t know.
“If our families get to know that we are going to Kashmir. They will panic and call us back,” said Kumari, sindoor spilling onto her forehead.
Still cautious
Before booking his Vande Bharat ticket to Srinagar, 43-year-old Narendra Kumar spent hours on YouTube. One of his searches: “Is Kashmir safe to visit after the Pahalgam attack?”
It was only on the night of 6 June that he finally booked tickets for his family of five.
“We were scared. But after watching YouTube videos and speaking to a few local people in Katra, I felt reassured. The security presence at the railway station was convincing,” said Kumar, a native of Bihar.
As the train began its journey from Katra, Kumar’s wife Pinki folded her hands and quietly recited a few mantras.
The couple call themselves travellers. They have travelled to Meghalaya, Shillong, and Shimla. But this was their first time in Kashmir. But a lingering sense of fear is not letting them stay for long.
“We will stay only for two days. And visit places only in Srinagar. We don’t want to go anywhere far,” said Pinki, her eight-year-old son, clicking photos of the mountain from her phone.
Three rows away, Yogesh Verma from Raipur, Chhattisgarh, sits with his parents and sister, eyes fixed on the passing landscape. For the past two months, he had been closely following the news, waiting for the Vande Bharat Express to be inaugurated.
The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link was initially set to be inaugurated on 19 April, but bad weather forced a delay. Days later, the Pahalgam attack led to another postponement. Verma has become like a walking Google for other passengers, sharing facts about the bridges, the train route, and its history.
His excitement to visit Kashmir ran so high that he left his wife behind in Katra—she wanted to attend a hawan—and boarded the train with his parents and sister.
For Verma, this journey wasn’t just about tourism. “I’ve always been fascinated by Kashmir. But the recent terror attack shook me. I felt this strong urge to come here — almost like a rebellion,” he said.
“They [Pakistan] don’t want us to visit Kashmir. But we will. Kashmir and Kashmiris are ours,” he added.
The coach breaks into a round of applause.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)