Work on the 25 km-long Uddhampur-Katra rail link is almost complete and Railways will hand it over to Commissioner Railway Safety for approval to run trains up to Katra.
Chairman of Railway Board, Vinay Mittal and General Manager of Northern Railway, V K Gupta will conduct a full- fledged inspection of the hilly route before it becomes operational.
The high-level railway team will also visit the Banihal- Qazigund line, which is expected to be operational this month.
The trains, including New Delhi-Uddhampur Uttar Sampark Kranti, Jammu Mail, Chandigarh-Katra Express, Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Uddhampur Express, Ahmedabad-Uddhampur Express, Delhi-Pathankot Express, among others are likely to reach Katra once the line is operational.
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Besides, many local trains between Uddhampur and Katra will be pressed into service depending upon the demand.
Katra station is ready with three platforms and two more platforms will come up later.
With the commissioning of the new route, pilgrims will be able to reach the base camp of Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra without having to break their journey at Jammu.
The Udhampur-Katra rail route, coming up at an estimated cost of Rs 960 crore, passes through inhospitable terrain, making it an extremely challenging engineering project.
An estimated 10 million devotees pay obeisance at the Vaishno Devi shrine every year.