Perhaps the wait is finally over as the Government has made it clear that the Jammu-Baramulla rail link will be made operational by next year while at the same time, the announcement regarding the rolling out of the light metro rail in Srinagar as well as in Jammu by next year was also made. Both the events have got their significance and are going to impact the lives of the people in a great manner.
Apart from impacting the lives in a positive way, the start of direct rail service from Jammu right up to Baramulla is also going to be a boost for the economy of J&K. While the direct rail link is going to be something new for the people of Kashmir, the economic aspects of the service are going to be big. The direct rail link will not only reduce the time of travel from Jammu to Srinagar but will have other transformational effects as well.
The economy of J&K which has been witnessing a slum for the last few years is now expected to get exposed directly to the micro-economies on the other side, which will surely have a cascading effect to be visible and felt by those who are associated with a wide range of businesses. It is akin to the fact that whenever a far off, the total cut-off area gets road connectivity, it starts brimming with the business activities. The same is going to be the case with the rail link which is expected to be operational next year. New doors of opportunities will be opened and indeed a new era of economic boost is what Kashmir is going to witnesses.
No matter the project took as if an eternity, the effects that it will have on the entire landscape, be it economic or social, across J&K, particularly Kashmir are going to be immense. The project was started way back in 2002, since then it did miss several deadlines, but in between, it achieved many other things. The world’s tallest railway bridge falls on the way and that has proved to the world the engineering expertise the country has.
There is hope—now that the Government has committed—that the rail link will be made operational by next year and that it does not miss any other deadline. The time is right to let the people of Kashmir welcome economic emancipation which can only come from better and more effective connectivity. Also, the process of starting the light metro rail in Srinagar and Jammu should be expedited. It needs to be completed well before the set deadline.
