Travel woes continue as Srinagar-Delhi train link remains elusive

On Monday, Mubashir Nazir, a resident of North Kashmir’s Baramulla, waited for nearly five hours at the railway station in Nowgam, Srinagar, to catch a train to Banihal. He had reached the railway station in the morning to travel to Delhi for his job at a private company, but realised reaching Jammu by road would have been easier.

“Since there is no direct service with the national capital, I am looking at catching a train first to Banihal, and then would travel to Jammu, and then to Delhi. If not a direct service between Kashmir and Delhi, trains should at least be running from Srinagar to Jammu. Even up to Banihal, trains only operate in the morning and in the late afternoon,” he says.

Over six months, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Katra-Srinagar train service, local Kashmiris feel that it has made little difference. 

Currently, there is no direct Srinagar-Jammu or Srinagar-Delhi train service. As the direct service runs only between Srinagar to Katra, those who travel from Delhi to Srinagar or vice versa have to change trains at Katra.

According to Northern Railways officials, the trains are made to halt at Katra as a part of security arrangement. They note a possibility of running a direct service once the infrastructure facilities were upgraded at Jammu railway station.

A senior Northern Railways official in Srinagar says, “The decision to run the direct Delhi-Srinagar service has to be taken in consultation with the police since it is a security matter.”

For the direct service between Delhi and Srinagar, there was a need to upgrade facilities at the Jammu Railway Station, on which the work is currently going on, he says.

“We need to build more platforms at the railway station in Jammu so that it can accommodate more trains. We are looking at operating sleeper trains from Delhi to Srinagar. The Vande Bharat Express trains will only run between Jammu-Srinagar,” the official says.

Numair Khan, a Kashmir resident who works in Delhi, says that after the Srinagar-Katra service was made operational last year, they had hoped that it would improve connectivity, which has, however, not been the case. “I think a direct Delhi-Kashmir train service will take several years,” he says.

Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railways, Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, however, says that the work on the upgradation of facilities at Jammu Railway Station was currently going on at a fast pace. “The idea behind the inauguration of the Srinagar to Katra train service was to improve the connectivity with Jammu. We are working to achieve that goal,” he says.

Presently, however, the Srinagar-Katra service operates under heavy security arrangements. In Srinagar, railway passengers are allowed inside only after proper frisking and checking of luggage, while the armed police personnel are seen patrolling the tracks.

Local residents say that the Vande Bharat Express train that runs between Katra to Srinagar does not have a halting point anywhere in Kashmir, and due to the reduction in number of trains locally after Covid-19, they have to wait for hours to reach their destinations.

Suhail Ahmad, a local resident, says that none of the trains run locally between 11 am to 4 pm from Srinagar to Anantnag, due to which people are made to wait for hours.

Local residents urge the authorities that the Vande Bharat Express train service should have a halting point in Anantnag, noting further that fares in the service should be reduced to match that of the local trains that costs them only Rs 20 to travel by train from Anantnag to Srinagar, against Rs 200 that they have to spend while travelling by road.

The Northern Railways official acknowledges that there has been a demand from the local people of Anantnag to initiate a halting  point for the Srinagar-Katra Vande Bharat Express service, which was “being considered on priority.”