Katra/Jammu: When the Vande Bharat Express left the Katra railway station at 8:10 am Saturday on its first commercial journey to Srinagar, it was 100 percent booked. The return journey is also fully booked, as are the train’s journeys on Sunday.
In fact, according to the IRCTC website, the pairs of trains for Saturday and Sunday were fully booked within hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating them 6 June.
Two passenger trains will run daily from Katra to Srinagar—one at 8:10 am and another at 2:55 pm. The trains were launched on the eve of Eid-ul-Adha.
The 272-km Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) will provide all-weather connectivity. The historic line connects Kashmir not just to Jammu but to the rest of India via a railway line for the first time. On Friday, PM Modi flagged off two train services: one from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) Railway Station in Katra to Srinagar, and the other from Srinagar to Katra.
Alongside, the prime minister also inaugurated the world’s highest railway arch bridge over the Chenab as well as the country’s first cable-stayed bridge of the Indian Railways over Anji Khad.
Within Jammu and Kashmir, trains have so far been operational between Banihal and Baramulla in the Kashmir Valley, and between Jammu, Udhampur, and Katra in the Jammu region. But for the first, a direct train link from Jammu’s Katra to Srinagar has opened.
The launch of this rail link comes just weeks after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. Kashmir has seen a dip in tourism since the 22 April attack, and the new train service is being seen as a move toward restoring normalcy in the Valley.
In his address, PM Modi said the attack on tourists in Pahalgam was an attempt to “engineer communal clashes across the country and deprive the people of Kashmir of their livelihood.”
Also Read: What Indian Railways needs right now—safety more than speed
The inaugural run
On 6 June, the inaugural Vande Bharat Express ran from Katra to Sangaldan in Ramban district, and a second service ran from Srinagar to Sangaldan. To reach the station, the train passed through two key engineering landmarks: the Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge and the towering Chenab rail bridge—the tallest railway bridge in the world.
In its journey to Sangalda, the train goes through breathtaking lush green hills, stretches of pine forest, and a series of tunnels—almost one every half a kilometre—cut through rugged terrain. According to Northern Railway spokesperson Dilip Kumar, the train has been designed using advanced technology to operate in J&K’s tough topographic and climatic conditions.
“The train has been equipped with such technology that it will warm up to provide comfort to the passengers during intense winters the region witnesses,” Kumar told ThePrint.
The most challenging part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project was constructing the Chenab rail bridge—made of steel and concrete. It was a difficult task as the region falls in a high-risk seismic zone and witnesses frequent spells of gusty winds.
After several trial runs, the train was finally launched on 6 June. According to the railway officials, the Chenab bridge can withstand wind speeds up to 260 km/h. It has a projected lifespan of 120 years.
“This is not any general railway line but an engineering marvel. It’s the feather in the cap of Indian Railways and a proud moment for the engineers and everyone involved in building this bridge,” Kumar said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Now Katra to Srinagar in just 3 hrs. PM Modi flags off Vande Bharat linking Kashmir to rest of India