PM opens first rail link between Jammu and Kashmir
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has inaugurated the train service between Anantnag-Qazigund section, which will connect the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country and is making an important speech on the dialogue his government has promised to the state.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has inaugurated the train service between Anantnag-Qazigund section, which will connect the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country and is making an important speech on the dialogue his government has promised to the state.
Singh, who is undertaking a two-day visit to the state, the first during his second tenure, flagged off the new train service on the 18-km line which will link the valley with Srinagar and other important places.
He is addressing a public meeting in which he may speak on the dialogue with all shades of opinion in the state.
Home Minister P Chidambaram had recently said that the government would hold talks with every section of political opinion in the state through "quiet dialogue, quiet diplomacy" to find a political solution to the Kashmir problem that may be "unique".
Several Union Ministers including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Farooq Abdulah, Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah are attending the inaugural ceremony.
With the opening of the line, the Railways have completed 119 km long Qazigund-Baramulla section of the Kashmir rail project.
