Railways holds trial run in J&K as services set to resume today after three months
An official said there weren’t any plans to restart train services to south Kashmir, a militancy hotbed. “We will resume train services in south Kashmir when we will get a security clearance,” he said.
Railways authorities on Monday conducted a trial run in Jammu and Kashmir, a day before rail services were scheduled to resume in parts of the Valley after three months, officials familiar with the matter said.
Train services in Kashmir were suspended as part of the security restrictions clamped down in the region after the government nullified Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Kashmir and bifurcated J&K into two Union Territories on August 5.
“We held a trial run today [Monday]. In total, four trips were made between Srinagar and Baramulla,” said a railways official on condition of anonymity.
The official said they will first resume train services between central and north Kashmir. “In the first phase, we will be running two trains between Srinagar and Baramulla that will make four trips in total,” the official said.
Union railways minister Piyush Goyal said the resumption of train services will speed up development in the region.
“Rail traffic is being resumed from tomorrow [Tuesday] as the situation in Kashmir Valley is normal… With the commencement of trains operations, the development of tourism and industries in Kashmir will increase at a more rapid pace,” he tweeted in Hindi.
The official quoted earlier in the story added that at present, there weren’t any plans to restart train services to south Kashmir, a militancy hotbed. “We will resume train services in south Kashmir when we will get a security clearance,” he said.