After 5-month break, trains to chug into Valley

The repair work along the Budgam-Srinagar-Qazigund track has been completed and the train is expected to chug again in the Valley on Thurday, they said.

The rail service connecting south and north Kashmir was suspended on July 31 after tracks were damaged in the summer protests and several railway stations were ransacked, forcing the non-Kashmiri railway staff to flee.

Many attempts to repair the damaged rail infrastructure were hampered due to stone pelting and protests in some areas including Bagh-e-Mehtab, Sopore and Pattan over the past couple of months, the sources said. Some tracks and railway stations were damaged during a recent protest on November 23.

The sources said foolproof security arrangements have been made with heavy deployment of railway guards, police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force to protect the railway track and stations in the Valley.

Repair work along Budgam-Baramulla track is also in progress and is expected to be completed soon, they said. A dry run of a train was conducted between Srinagar and Budgam and Budgam and Qazigund railway stations several times in the past month, which went off smoothly.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had inaugurated the Valley's first rail service between Anantnag and Budgam district on October 11, 2008, much to the delight of the locals who had been awaiting such a mode of transport for decades.

The second phase of the train between Budgam to Baramulla was flagged off by United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on February 14, 2009, followed by the third phase between Anantnag to Qazigund by the prime minister on October 28, 2009.

The service was a big hit among the people before the deterioration of the law and order situation in the Valley on June 11 following the killing of a boy.