‘PM gave priority to train connectivity in J&K’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 10: Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh today thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sanctioning a Vande Bharat train to link the holy towns of Katra and Amritsar, and said the transport infrastructure, particularly in the railways, has witnessed unprecedented growth in Jammu and Kashmir over the last 11 years.
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“This (Katra-Amritsar) is the fifth Vande Bharat Express train gifted to Jammu and Kashmir by Prime Minister Modi, who has given top priority to this region ever since taking the reins of the Government in 2014…. I do not know if there is any other Railway Station in the country where five Vande Bharat trains stop,” Singh told reporters on board the newly-launched train.
Dr Jitendra Singh attended the function at Katra Railway Station when the Prime Minister flagged of three Vande Bharat trains from Bengaluru including Katra-Amritsar train virtually.
The train will operate six days a week except Tuesday. Currently, four Vande Bharat trains are running in Jammu and Kashmir including two from New Delhi to Katra and two from Katra to Srinagar.
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This was fifth Vande Bharat train gifted to Jammu and Kashmir by the Prime Minister.
Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also third-time MP from Udhampur-Doda-Kathua Lok Sabha seat congratulated the people of Jammu for the new train and said when Modi took over as the Prime Minister in 2014, the railway project to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country was almost abandoned.
“Modi’s election campaign in 2014 started by paying obeisance at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji shrine. After getting elected, he dedicated the Katra railway station to the nation and when Vande Bharat trains were introduced in the country, the second train was sanctioned for the Katra-Delhi section. In the second phase of the Vande Bharat rollout, another train was gifted to Jammu and Kashmir,” the Union Minister said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said the Prime Minister visited Katra in June to flag off two Vande Bharat trains from Katra to Srinagar, marking the completion of the decades-old national railway project to connect Kashmir with Kanyakumari. The trains will later run between Srinagar and Jammu.
“The Vaishno Devi shrine is witness to all this in the last 11 years. The first train reached Jammu and Kashmir in 1972 and it took more than 50 years to connect Kashmir by train.
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