Srinagar, June 11 -- National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah accompanied by an entourage of party leaders on Tuesday made their first trip aboard the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat train from Srinagar to Katra. He hoped to leveragethe train for the advantage of the people of Kashmir. The NC patron advocated for increasing the train frequency and hoped for even night trips, for the benefit of common Kashmiris, including fruit farmers, besides helping an easy inflow of tourists. "I am immensely happy today. We were waiting for this moment for many years. That dream has now been realised," said Abdullah. The Vande Bharat trains between Katra and Srinagar, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, which connected Kashmir with the rest of the country, are getting a good response from people, officials said. Earlier, the train used to run standalone between Baramulla in Kashmir and Sangaldan in Jammu province. But now the Jammu-Katra and Katra-Srinagar services have completed the missing link, making it the first train between Delhi and Srinagar sincethe railway was introduced in the Indian subcontinent. Abdullah went into the history of laying of Udhampur-Katra railway line. " When Jaffer Sharief was railway minister, he sanctioned Rs.100 crore for Udhampur-Katra line. Then Atal Bihari Vajpayee (the then PM) also took interest in this, pushing it more forward and today we are travelling on this rail and hope this brings prosperity and blessings for us," he said. Abdullah said that the train will bring more people to the valley and Kashmir farmers will be able to send their produce to each corner of the country. "Tourists will come and our people can easily travel to and fro now. At the same time our fruits will immediately reach other parts of the country, including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata or Lucknow. This will give us a lot of boost," he said. Abdullah wanted the increase in frequency of the train. "We hope that its time is increased and it also runs during night, of which we are hopeful as well," he said. Abdullah said that the immediate benefit would be that people will not be forced to solely rely on Srinagar-Jammu highway now, which is weather dependent....