The launch of the Vande Bharat train service to Kashmir Valley has been postponed, officials announced on Sunday.
Earlier, unsubstantiated reports stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would start the Vande Bharat train service between Udhampur, Srinagar, and Baramulla on February 17.
When announcing the postponement, the authorities did not provide an official date for the train service’s launch.
The ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) is the most difficult railway project ever undertaken by the Indian Railways.
It is also one of the world’s most technically complex railway projects. It is a massive infrastructure project constructed by the Indian Railways.
The project comprises the country’s first cable-stayed Anji Khad Bridge, which features a 331-meter-high pylon.
The Chenab Railway Bridge is the world’s tallest railway bridge, at 359 metres above the riverbed and taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The railway track between Udhampur and Srinagar includes more than a dozen tunnels.
The Vande Bharat train is specially engineered for adverse weather conditions and can operate in temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius.
The train boasts cutting-edge amenities like fully air-conditioned coaches with electric outlets, reading lights, CCTV cameras, automatic doors, bio-vacuum toilets, sensor-based water taps, and a passenger information system.
The carriages have bigger windows with roller shades and overhead luggage racks.
The train’s windscreen has a sophisticated defrost technology that provides for clear visibility in moist and high-humidity conditions.
The 150-kilometer trip between Udhampur and Baramulla may be covered in two and a half hours. The initial train swapping at Katra will end by August 15, when the Jammu railway station will be refurbished.
The USBRL’s commercial trial has already been finished, and this 70-year-old dream of the Kashmiri people is now only awaiting Prime Minister Modi’s ceremonial inauguration.
Read More
President Murmu offers condolences after the horrific incident at New Delhi Railway Station