Jammu, June 6 -- For railway engineer Tarun Kumar, Friday's inauguration of the Udhampur-Baramulla-Srinagar Rail Link (USBRL) - Kashmir's historic rail connection to rest of India - was an emotional culmination of a decade spent overcoming fear and personal sacrifice, including the loss of a colleague to terrorism.

Kumar, an engineer with Indian Railway Construction International Limited (IRCON), shared the journey of his association with the project at the Banihal railway station, located 100 km from Srinagar along the national highway.

"As a manager in IRCON, I was initially posted in Srinagar and later had my postings in Baramulla and Anantnag. My main job was to look after the tracks, bridges, station buildings, platforms and electr...