Jammu: Union minister Jitendra Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday for sanctioning a Vande Bharat train to link the holy towns of Katra and Amritsar, and said the transport infrastructure, particularly in the railways, has witnessed unprecedented growth in the Union Territory over the last 11 years.
In Bengaluru, the prime minister on Sunday flagged off three Vande Bharat Express trains — from Bengaluru to Belagavi, from Punjab’s Amritsar to Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra in Jammu and Kashmir and from Nagpur (Ajni) to Pune.
“This (Katra-Amritsar) is the fourth Vande Bharat Express train gifted to Jammu and Kashmir by Prime Minister Modi, who has given top priority to this region ever since taking the reins of the government in 2014…. I do not know if there is any other railway station in the country where four Vande Bharat trains stop,” Singh told reporters on board the newly-launched train.
He congratulated the people of Jammu for the new train and said when Modi took over as the prime minister in 2014, the railway project to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country was almost abandoned.
“Modi’s election campaign in 2014 started by paying obeisance at the Vaishno Devi shrine. After getting elected, he dedicated the Katra railway station to the nation and when Vande Bharat trains were introduced in the country, the second train was sanctioned for the Katra-Delhi section. In the second phase of the Vande Bharat rollout, another train was gifted to Jammu and Kashmir,” the Union minister said.
He said the prime minister visited Katra in June to flag off two Vande Bharat trains from Katra to Srinagar, marking the completion of the decades-old national railway project to connect Kashmir with Kanyakumari. The trains will later run between Srinagar and Jammu.
“The Vaishno Devi shrine is witness to all this in the last 11 years. The first train reached Jammu and Kashmir in 1972 and it took more than 50 years to connect Kashmir by train.
Addressing the gathering before the flag-off ceremony at the Katra railway station, Deputy Chief Minister Choudhary lauded Modi for making the dream of railway connectivity between Kashmir and the rest of the country a reality.
“We are lucky to witness the dreams that our elders getting fulfilled under the leadership of Modi. Our prime minister and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah flagged off the first train from Katra to Kashmir (on June 6) — a historic moment as many were of the opinion that the train could never reach Kashmir, which was infamous for terror activities. But the region has witnessed fast development,” he said.
He welcomed the launch of the new Vande Bharat train service between Katra and Amritsar and said it is a proud moment for people as the train is going to connect two revered shrines — the Vaishno Devi temple and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
“I am thankful to the prime minister and the railway minister (Ashwini Vaishnaw) for laying a railway network, which will help in employment generation and boost tourism,” Choudhary said, requesting for extending the network to cover Rajouri and Poonch districts.
