Mobility equates to alternative. The railway line connects locations equivalent to #Sopore, #Anantnag, #Qazigund, and #Banihal to the nationwide financial system. It brings markets nearer, schooling inside attain, and jobs inside chance. Each prepare narrows not simply bodily distance but in addition psychological gaps. This railway line fosters the sentiment that nationwide integration will not be merely about symbolism however sensible entry, funding, and shared improvement. In a area lengthy marked by battle, this railway line gives a quieter story — one in every of shared work, endurance, and regular progress. It gained’t resolve each difficulty, but it surely shifts the dialog in direction of connection and customary function. The prepare carries the message that #Kashmir will not be peripheral to India, however central to its journey ahead.
SPOTLIGHT | Building bridges to #Kashmir
Audacity and achievement
This milestone wouldn’t have been potential with out the undaunted spirit of India’s railway engineers. From the snow-bound tunnels of Pir Panjal to the vertiginous heights of the Chenab bridge, these professionals and employees toiled by means of a few of the harshest pure circumstances possible. They labored by means of deep winters, unpredictable landslides, and safety considerations. Their braveness and dedication deserve the gratitude of a nation.
The #Indian Railways has a proud custom of such resolve. In the nineteenth century, railway engineers constructed a railway by means of the treacherous #Western Ghats and delivered the Bhor Ghat part that connects Mumbai with the Deccan. During the Assam rail-link challenge of 1948, when newly impartial India confronted a logistical disaster in connecting the Northeast, the legendary railway engineer Sardar Karnil Singh (later Chairman of the Railway Board) and his crew constructed 200 kilometres of line in document time, together with greater than 300 bridges.
The Jammu-#Baramulla line now joins this lineage of audacity and achievement. It is a reminder that whereas governments could change and priorities could shift, the railway engineer — nameless and sometimes unsung — continues to be one of many Republic’s most enduring architects. Their work doesn’t merely join locations; it connects lives, aspirations, and identities. It is that they who remodel maps into meanings and blueprints into belonging.
The symbolism of the Jammu-#Baramulla line lies not solely in what it connects but in addition in what it overcomes. The challenge navigated not solely geotechnical obstacles and climatic extremities, but in addition lengthy durations of political uncertainty and civil unrest. Each accomplished tunnel and bridge, due to this fact, is an engineering feat and in addition a marker of perseverance and institutional dedication within the face of adversity.
EDITORIAL | Connecting bridge: On the #Chenab Rail Bridge
Strategic significance
The line’s strategic significance can be price underlining. By linking #Kashmir’s northernmost railhead with the remainder of India’s railway grid, it brings unparalleled logistical benefits for civilian mobility, commerce, and even emergency response. The line additionally reduces dependence on the only Srinagar-Jammu nationwide freeway, which is susceptible to landslides and closures throughout winter. In doing so, it enhances the resilience of #Kashmir’s connectivity and helps make sure the common move of necessities equivalent to meals, gas, and drugs.
For college students and sufferers who earlier endured lengthy highway journeys over mountainous passes, the railway gives consolation, affordability, and dignity. It reduces each the associated fee and the emotional toll of separation, making it simpler for households to remain linked. In time, it can additionally make the area extra engaging to traders and establishments, opening the doorways for industrial parks, talent improvement centres, and agro-logistics hubs to be developed in and round stations equivalent to #Anantnag, Awantipora, and #Baramulla.
Culturally too, the railway turns into a conduit for trade. As trains deliver folks to and from the Valley, additionally they carry tales, reminiscences, and understanding. The rail journey is a gradual however regular social equaliser, permitting a standard expertise to emerge throughout geographies. For many within the Valley who had by no means travelled far past their districts, it opens a brand new window to the remainder of the nation — and vice versa.
The future now will depend on how we construct round this spine. The completion of the Jammu-#Baramulla line should be adopted by cautious planning of last-mile linkages, station space improvement, and repair frequency enhancement. Local entrepreneurs, ladies’s teams, and artisans should be enabled to learn from the entry that this line gives. Government businesses and personal gamers should collectively create ecosystems round these stations, so that they change into not simply halts, however hubs of rural transformation.
This challenge is a testomony to what democratic improvement appears to be like like in motion — affected person, deliberate, and deeply transformational. The tracks could also be fabricated from metal, however the promise they carry is one in every of belief. And which may be essentially the most highly effective basis on which to construct the way forward for Jammu and #Kashmir.
Sarabjit Arjan Singh, former normal supervisor, Indian Railway, and former member of Central Administrative Tribunal.
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