Union Minister Jitendra Singh confirmed that Prime Minister Modi will flag off the first Vande Bharat Express to Kashmir from Katra on April 19. “The train services for the inaugural Vande Bharat would start from Katra temporarily since the Jammu railway station remains under construction,” he added.

Pertinently, in the last week of January this year Indian Railways had conducted the trial run of the first Vande Bharat train from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SVDK) railway station to the Srinagar railway station.

The train to Kashmir will chug through Anji Khad Bridge, which is India’s first cablestayed railway bridge and Chenab Bridge, which is the highest railway bridge in the world. This train has been designed keeping in mind the cold climate conditions of Kashmir.

The completion of the Udhampur-Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project will significantly reduce travel time between Katra and Srinagar.

The new Vande Bharat Express will cut down the travel time from the current 6-7 hours by road to just 3 hours.

At present, train services run between Srinagar and Sangaldan in the Valley