According to Indian Railway Construction Limited officials, the Kashmir Valley will cross another milestone on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, when Jammu and Kashmir’s first electric train will start running on the 137-km Banihal-Baramulla corridor.
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Railways and Indian Railway Construction Limited have been working together on this project since August 2019.
The project will be inspected on 26 September and the project will be inaugurated on 2 October. An official put the cost of the project at Rs 324 crore, saying that, the Budgam-Baramulla section has already been completed, while the Budgam-Banihal corridor will be inspected and inaugurated on September 26.
The total route length for electrification is 137.73 km with three main sub-stations at Qazigund, Budgam and Baramulla from where electricity will be supplied to the overhead equipment of the rail line.
The aim of this project is to reduce pollution. This will also save 60 percent fuel consumption. Along with this, the work of connecting Banihal with Katra is also going on. When the Katra-Banihal link is completed, Kashmir will be better connected to the rest of the country.
A local named Muhammad Ramzan said that this is an important step which will help J&K to join the ranks of other developed states where modern facilities are available. It may be recalled that Kashmir got its first train service in 2013 when it was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
