From trade hub to backwater post-partition, what rail link means to Kashmir

When Vande Bharat from Katra arrived in Srinagar three hours later, it broke physical, psychological barrier that symbolised Kashmir’s isolation after partition

When the Vande Bharat Express chugged from Katra on June 6 and arrived in Srinagar three hours later, crossing the 359-metre bridge over the Chenab river and the 11-km tunnel through the forbidding Pir Panjal range, it broke a physical and psychological barrier that symbolised Kashmir’s isolation after the partition. India’s division in 1947 hit Kashmir the hardest politically and economically, spawning a protracted conflict and reducing it to a backwater from the crossroads of commerce and the blending of cultures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Katra-Srinagar train and inaugurated the world’s highest single-arch rail bridge to mark the project culmination on June 6 (PTI)

The partition severed Kashmir’s long-distance trade links to Central Asia and beyond, ending its significance as an economic hub and stagnating its economy. Overnight, Kashmir became dependent on a cart road to Jammu via the 2,739-metre Banihal Pass, in the Pir Panjal, with the closure of the Jehlum Valley Road to Rawalpindi in what is now Pakistan.

In 1959, the Jawahar Tunnel’s construction through the pass improved the connectivity. But the Jammu highway remains vulnerable to blockages due to landslides and snow. The closure of the tunnel, which was once Asia’s longest, for extended periods would trigger a shortage of essential commodities in winter until a few decades ago.

In 2013, the completion of India’s longest and most challenging 11-km Pir Panjal tunnel marked a major milestone in providing a much-needed all-weather railway connectivity to Kashmir. But it would take another 12 years to realise the over a century old dream of completing the 272-km rail project in treacherous mountainous terrain to connect Kashmir with the national rail network.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Katra-Srinagar train and inaugurated the world’s highest single-arch rail bridge to mark the project culmination on June 6. A marvel envisaged during the British era, the project involved complex engineering and the construction of 38 tunnels and 943 bridges, including India’s first cable-stayed Anji Khad rail bridge, overcoming inhospitable terrain and unstable rock formations in a seismically active zone.

The rail link will cut the Delhi-Srinagar travel time from 24 to 13 hours, without motion sickness, nausea, dizziness, sweating, and vomiting passengers often experience during the long and arduous journey along the curvy accident-prone highway to Jammu with stretches known as khooni (bloody) and shaitaanee (satanic). It is expected to boost Kashmir’s economic growth, especially the horticulture industry, and provide an all-weather transportation alternative to the Jammu highway, the only road link connecting the Valley with the outside world, although challenges remain.

Cherries from Kashmir arriving in Mumbai on a train via Katra on June 1 in just 30 hours, compared to the days it would have taken by road, held out hope. Freight trains would not immediately run from Kashmir without the necessary infrastructure, and passengers face security detours at Katra before their onward journey.

Yet the operationalisation of the rail link is a major boost to the region, which was once connected through a portion of the ancient cross-continental Silk Road and was a trading hub and meeting point of cultures. The Silk Road, one of the world’s largest overland trade routes spanning 6,400km, connected Kashmir to China and Central Asia. Long-distance traders transported their goods on camels, horses, and yaks to and from places like Lhasa (Tibet) and Yarkand (Xinjiang). They traded in Chinese silks, Afghan silver cookware, Persian rugs, Tibetan turquoise, Mongolian saddles, European soaps, and helped transport ideas.

The partition virtually left Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) with practically no road, railway, or air connectivity with the rest of India. The cart road through the Banihal pass remained shut during winter before the tunnel construction. It connected Kashmir to Lahore and Sialkot (now in Pakistan) until 1947.

The award of Punjab’s Gurdaspur to India at the last minute gave access to J&K through a dirt track of bridgeless tributaries and streams. The track allowed India to mobilise resources to drive out Pakistan-backed irregulars who marched to Kashmir in October 1947 with a plan to occupy an airstrip in Srinagar. An Indian Army contingent managed to land and secure the airstrip before the onset of the harsh Himalayan winter.

Hari Singh, J&K’s last king, dithered in acceding to India until October 1947 despite repeated requests, partly because of a lack of connectivity and his state’s dependence on West Punjab (now in Pakistan) for essential commodities.

The Jammu railway station was abandoned in 1947 with the Sialkot line closure. The Pathankot–Jammu broad-gauge line was laid in the 1970s. The new Jammu station was opened in 1972. It remained the closest railway station to Srinagar, around 300km away. The construction of the Jammu-Baramula rail link via Srinagar began in the 1990s. The Jammu-Udhampur-Katra and Baramula-Banihal segments were completed between 2005 and 2013.

The Katra-Banihal segment completion marks a major leap in ensuring Kashmir’s all-weather accessibility. The new wheels of progress promise a better future for a region with a storied past linked, however, to better and more open regional connectivity.

Sameer Arshad Khatlani is the author of The Other Side of the Divide: A Journey Into the Heart of Pakistan. He works with Hindustan Times