A profound truth lies in the path of every rail line: As routes are engineered with steel and concrete between different points on a map, or abruptly dismantled, there are stories that unfold of connection and division.
As the moment for the green signal to the train between Delhi and Anantnag draws nearer, the memory goes to Jammu and Kashmir’s first train link – between Jammu and Sialkot – a journey which people of my generation never embarked on but it formed an important part of the folklore, passed on from one generation to another, revealing tales of the connection that existed between Jammu and Sialkot – once regarded twin cities.
Jammu-Sialkot train
Started in 1890, the 40-minute train journey sent traders and students from Jammu to Sialkot and beyond to Lahore, and brought day-picnickers from Sialkot to enjoy a day at Jammu’s famous Ranbir Canal, where they would spread their blankets along its storied banks and where the cool evening summer breeze – locally called Duddu – would provide them a cherished escape in the evenings.
The train journey was abruptly stopped after India’s partition in August 1947 as invisible walls erupted all around, snapping Jammu and Kashmir’s link with the outside world. While Jammu was soon connected by road via Pathankot, the next railway link started in 1972 by which time both the memory and trace of the old rail link were beginning to fade.
A road replaced the railway line connecting Jammu with Suchetgarh – the last point on the Indian side. Some remnants of the track that could be seen in places till the 90s – in vacant lands and near Jammu’s old railway station – were also lost amidst a relentless phase of concretisation of open spaces.
The old railway station in Jammu was replaced by a transport yard for many years till the area was acquired for erecting a cultural centre called Kala Kendra about two decades ago. Where a heritage station with its few remaining remnants once whispered decades of stories, now stands an architectural calamity – a graceless bulk that is an affront to both aesthetics and function. An ode to bureaucratic mediocrity, the building’s poorly lit corridors and badly conceived art galleries are a vindictive conspiracy against art and artists.
Beneath this concrete misadventure that missed the opportunity of connecting the past to the present lies the ghost of the erstwhile state’s first railway station and its labyrinth of many stories – of people ordinary and well-known who embarked on that journey.
Salima Hashmi, the daughter of celebrated Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, once told me that her father and mother met at the Jammu railway station for a romantic rendezvous during their courtship years. After the meeting, Faiz took the train to Sialkot.
I recall seeing an old photograph of Maharaja Pratap Singh, the Dogra ruler, standing and waiting at the Jammu railway platform to receive the Prince of Wales, probably in 1922. There is also an undated photograph of the railway station with grand buggies and tongas waiting outside.
Many such stories and images are now lost in oblivion.
1972 train link
Jammu was added to the independent and post-partition railroad map in 1972 via Pathankot. For decades, it had the distinction of being the northernmost railway station till the railway line was extended to Udhampur in 2005. The work on the rail link started in the 1980s during Indira Gandhi’s regime but it remained slow-paced.
While it was still incomplete, the Delhi-Jammu-Baramulla railway project was first conceived and announced in 1994, albeit as a disconnected rail line from Qazigund to Baramulla via Srinagar due to the seemingly impossible task of connecting Udhampur to Qazigund through mountainous terrain.
However, not much work was executed as the Valley was caught in the grip of militancy till the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared the railway line as a national project to be entirely funded centrally and batted for an unbroken link.
The dream of the uninterrupted train ride then had evoked much skepticism. It was unheard of. Trains had never been part of the Kashmiri lexicon. The first experience of a train and railway station for most Kashmiris came after 1972 when they would descend to the plains when the offices moved to the winter capital in Jammu.
In the 70s, not many had the pleasure of experiencing a train journey. The affluent often flew directly to Delhi. The less affluent would drive down to Jammu and catch the train for a journey ahead. For others, the world outside Jammu and Kashmir remained inaccessible – both geographically and culturally.
So, Jammu’s railway station almost became a sightseeing site during the winters where men, women and children would come to watch the trains screech to a halt or chug out on a journey to a world beyond their imagination.
Turbulent journey of Kashmir rail link
Three decades later, when Vajpayee announced the train to Kashmir, there wasn’t much enthusiasm. The train link had been talked about since the early 90s but among the larger public there was disbelief even as work on the Baramulla-Anantnag rail line picked up pace.
A year before the train was flagged off between Anantnag and Baramulla in 2009, the work on the Katra-Qazigund alignment was abandoned due to adverse geological reports. However, subsequently the work resumed with minor alignment changes. The same year, the work on the railway line between Baramulla in the north and Qazigund in the south was completed.
In late 2011, the challenging 11.2 km Pir Panjal Railway Tunnel (Banihal-Qazigund tunnel) was completed, allowing trains to run from Banihal through to Baramulla by 2013, though the southern connection to India’s main rail network remained incomplete. Meanwhile, significant progress was made on other sections, with the excavation beginning on the world’s tallest rail bridge across the Chenab River, and successful trial runs conducted between Udhampur and Katra.
With that, Katra was finally added to the Indian Railways map. Now, after many hiccups and delays over the last several decades, the train will finally roll from Delhi to Kashmir via Jammu in January next year.
Ecological impact and displacements
The Kashmir rail link is being celebrated as an engineering marvel with its record-breaking bridges and tunnels, through breathtaking views. This, however, glosses over the heavy toll it has imposed on local communities and ecosystems.
Many residents, particularly apple orchard owners in Kashmir Valley, were displaced from ancestral lands and productive orchards through forcible acquisitions, with numerous cases of delayed or inadequate compensation reported. For the affected families connected with horticulture, the lost apple orchards are not just a sign of economic devastation but also destruction of cultural heritage.
The project’s construction in a highly seismic zone (Zone V, India’s highest risk category) raises serious environmental concerns, as extensive tunneling and mountain cutting have potentially destabilised the fragile Himalayan slopes, caused excessive landslides, deepening the anxieties of the people in the Ramban district, where people have complained of sinking land and damaged houses due to excessive blasting and tunneling.
Massive construction footprint has also taken a heavy toll on the green gold in the once verdant hills, and led to deforestation and soil erosion.
The balance between development and environmental protection remains a critical challenge. The 2009 project suspension, triggered by geological and environmental red flags, led to modest design modifications. However, questions linger about the decision-making process. Was there adequate independent environmental scrutiny, or did the usual bureaucratic complacency, red-tape, inefficiency and opacity prevail? While the project ultimately proceeded, only time will reveal whether this decision was prudent – though hopefully not through disaster.
Accessibility vs connectivity
As for the project’s promise of connectivity, a high-class luxury train will be flagged off to Kashmir, limiting its accessibility to those who can afford it. The Indian Railways have been drastically cutting down affordable trains and compartments for the common masses in recent years. Would Kashmir’s poor not get to enjoy a ride?
Every year when the Jammu-Srinagar highway is blocked due to inclement weather conditions, thousands of stranded Kashmiris are left to their own devices in Jammu. Would the train provide them an alternate route or would it remain out of bounds for those who can ill-afford? And, will fair weather conditions disrupt the rail link as much as the road links are?
Only time will tell. For now, undeniably, the train offers an opportunity to travel with comfort and ease and make the world outside the landlocked Valley more accessible for Kashmiris. But will it connect them to mainland India?
When a government relentlessly disempowers the people politically and economically and popularises a narrative that allows a larger mass celebration of the misery of Kashmiris in mainland India, Kashmiris (at least those who can afford the journey) can rejoice only better accessibility.
But real connectivity will come when bridges and routes of trust are built, paving links from one heart to another.
Anuradha Bhasin is the Managing Editor of Kashmir Times and the author of ‘A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After 370’.
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