Since independence, transporters like Ravi Baru have ferried passengers from the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country.
Kashmir’s only road link to the mainland, Jammu is also its gateway to the rest of the country. But a new direct railway link from Kashmir to mainland India is likely to lessen the Valley’s dependence on this town in the plains.
Baru, who owns a private passenger transport company, is worried.
“Jammu was the only connecting road link between Kashmir and the rest of India,” the 66-year-old said. “But with this rail line, why would anyone want to waste time in Jammu? They would get on a train in Srinagar and deboard in New Delhi.”
Baru’s company owns a fleet of 8-10 buses that ply from Jammu to Delhi, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jaipur.
“If Kashmiris don’t come to Jammu, we are finished,” he said.
Train to ‘India’On January 7 and 8, railway authorities are all set to conduct a final inspection of the 17-km-long Katra-Reasi patch of the railway line in Jammu – the last link in the sprawling train network that will run from Baramulla in north Kashmir to Srinagar in the south and, finally, Udhampur in Jammu.
The first train on this 272 km rail route is expected to be inaugurated...
