Marking a historic first, around 800 Indian Army soldiers Tuesday completed the full rail journey from Delhi to Srinagar, via Katra, making it the first such journey since the completion of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL).

This was meant for soldiers who were on leave and stuck at their locations due to cancellations of flights to Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that the train started off from Delhi and made a halt in Katra.

At Katra, the soldiers boarded on to a different train and reached Srinagar.

The journey from Katra to Srinagar was completed in 4 hours.

It was in January that a 22-bogie train travelled between Katra and Srinagar railway station as part of the final trial run on the line to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country via rail.

Authorities have sanctioned a maximum permissible speed of 85 kmph on the main line and 15 kmph on turnout for both passenger and goods trains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to inaugurate the Katra to Srinagar section last month, but his trip got postponed due to bad weather.

The work on the ambitious project to link Kashmir by train began in 1997. However, given geological, topographical and meteorological challenges, it missed several deadlines.

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, PTI had reported.

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.

(Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)