SRINAGAR: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first Vande Bharat train from Katra to Srinagar and inaugurated the final leg of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) on Friday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah turned the celebratory event into a moment of poignant personal and political reflection.
Sharing the stage with Modi and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Omar recalled how the idea of a railway line to Kashmir had occupied the collective imagination of the region for over a century, even during British rule, but found fruition only now. “Even the British dreamt of a railway to Kashmir, but it is Prime Minister Modi who has made that dream a reality,” he said, calling the moment a “historic day not just for infrastructure, but for unity.”
Yet, Omar did not let the occasion pass without noting the personal arc of his political journey. “Back in 2014, I was here for the inauguration of Katra station as the Chief Minister of a state. Today, ten years later, I am here again, but as Chief Minister of a Union Territory,” he said, his tone measured but unmistakably political. “While Manoj Sinha ji moved from Minister of State for Railways to Lieutenant Governor, I was demoted. But I believe things will return to normal, and Jammu and Kashmir will regain statehood under Prime Minister Modi.”
It was a rare moment of candour, nostalgia laced with a quiet assertion, as Omar subtly renewed the demand for the restoration of statehood, which was revoked in August 2019 when Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and downgraded to Union Territory status.
Prime Minister Modi, later addressing a rally in Jammu, responded with a smile and a line that captured the emotional weight of the day. “I saw Omar Abdullah’s statement. He said he was in Class 8 when this project was started. Today, at 55, he sees his childhood dream come true. This is not just his dream but that of every citizen of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The USBRL, long plagued by logistical, geographical and political delays, is now complete. It includes the world’s highest railway bridge over the Chenab and the country’s first cable-stayed railway bridge over the Anji Khad. The total cost: Rs 43,780 crore. Trains on the route will drastically reduce travel time between Srinagar and Katra — the gateway to the revered Vaishno Devi shrine — to just over three hours.
But beyond engineering marvels and ribbon-cuttings, Friday’s ceremony also marked a rare moment of shared political recognition. Omar praised former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for declaring the USBRL a project of national importance and increasing its budget. “Many people dreamt of this train service. But it took a combination of political will, vision, and engineering grit to see it through,” he said.
For Omar, the rail link is more than steel tracks and locomotives. It is a personal timeline — from the teenage schoolboy who first heard of the project, to the Chief Minister who now watches it being inaugurated, in a different political landscape.
“This railway line is not just a track,” he said, “it is a symbol of what Jammu and Kashmir was, what it has become, and what it can be again.”
