By Bureau, Agence India Press,
New Delhi: India’s highest broad guage rail station at Qazigund, about 80 km from Srinagar, at an altitude of 1,722 metres would become operational on October 28 when the Prime Minister inaugurates the Anantnag-Qazigund section of the prestigious Kashmir rail link project.
With the opening of the 18-km line, the valley will be linked to its capital Srinagar and other important places, and the trains are expected to chug at a speed of 100 km per hour.
“Earlier trains through the region were running at the speed of 80 km per hour. Now they would run at 100 km with the enhancement of technology,” a senior Railway Ministry official associated with the project said.
Besides Prime Minister, who will flag off the new train service and the new section at Anantnag station, several Union Ministers including Gulam Nabi Azad, Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister Omar Farooq will attend the inaugural ceremony.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is also expected to attend the function, said the official.
With the opening of the line, the Railways have completed 119 km long Qazigund-Baramulla section of the Kashmir rail project.
The section has about 113 minor and major bridges of which the 435-metre-long Veith river bridge is the longest.
It took almost nine years to complete the Baramulla-Qazigund rail project, which started in 2000.
Work on other two sections from Udhampur to Katra and Katra to Qazigund are under progress.
“The Qazigund-Banihal section has a 11-km long tunnel of which we have completed tunneling of 7.8 km,” the official added.
The train service through the section is expected to improve connectivity in the region.