Jammu, July 9 -- The two specially designed Vande Bharat trains between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra and Srinagar were flagged off on 06-06-2025 by Honorable Prime Minister. The inauguration of a direct rail link to the Valley is a historic milestone that is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the development, trade, and tourism of Kashmir, and its closer all-round integration with the rest of the country.

This was the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project, which was approved in March 1995 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore. In 2002, the USBRL was declared a national project, and sections of the line became operational over the years that followed. The USBRL is finally complete now -272 km of tracks built at a cos...