Vande Bharat Train Launch: Indian Railways will be launching the much awaited Vande Bharat Express train for the Kashmir Valley this month. With this launch the connectivity will be improved further. The news of this new train to Kashmir has brought much joy to the people of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir. The Vande Bharat Express will be the third such train for the UT. It will be a semi-high-speed train. It is expected that this will boost travel and tourism industry. The Kashmir Valley’s first Vande Bharat will be an ultra-modern train with eight coaches and it will run between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra (SVDK) and Srinagar. The Katra to Srinagar Vande Bharat train will run on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project. Confirming the news Ashok Kumar Verma General Manager of Northern Railway said “Initially we plan to operate Kashmir’s first Vande Bharat train between Katra and Srinagar. Eventually this service will be extended to Jammu Tawi. Only after that is established will we consider the possibility of launching direct train services from other parts” reports ETNOW.in. Once the USBRL project is completed the long-awaited rail connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar will become a reality. It will reduce the travel time considerably as this train will cut the Katra-Srinagar journey to just 3 hours compared to the current 6-7 hours by road. At present train services run between Srinagar and Sangaldan in the valley. Once the railway line from Sangaldan to Katra becomes operational these trains can be extended to Katra.