Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 13: About 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 25 kilometers long Udhampur-Katra railway line, the first long distance train, Katra-New Delhi would start plying from Katra railway station from tomorrow. Earlier, only three DEMU trains were shuttling between Katra to Jammu and Pathankot.
As desired by Modi during inauguration of the railway line at Katra on July 4, the Railways has named the train as ‘Shri Shakti Express’.
Official sources told the Excelsior that 18 AC coaches train reached Katra railway station this afternoon.
The AC superfast ‘Shri Shakti Express’ will depart from Katra daily at 10.55 pm, beginning tomorrow, and reach New Delhi at 10.45 am the next day. In the return direction, it would leave New Delhi daily at 5.30 pm and reach Katra at 5.10 am the next day.
Comprising one first AC, five AC two-tier and nine AC three-tier coaches, the train will have stoppages at Ambala Cantt, Ludhiana, Jalandhar Cantt, Pathankot Cantt, Jammu Tawi and Udhampur stations enroute in both directions.
Sources said Katra-Kalika (Chandigarh) Express would be the next train to ply from Katra railway station followed by trains from Katra to Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Bangalore (Karnataka), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).
Apart from this, Railways would extend Jammu Mail and Uttar Samparak Kranti trains, presently plying between New Delhi-Udhampur to Katra.
Apart from this, Railways Minister Sadanand Gowda had also announced Kamakhya Guwahati, Assam)-Katra Express in the budget, which would ply once a week.
Sources said new trains to Katra, announced by the Railways Minister during his address at the inauguration of Udhampur-Katra railway line along with the Prime Minister on July 4, would take time but gradually the Railways would provide connectivity to Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims up to Katra from most parts of the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on July 4 flagged off the first train from Katra while commissioning the 25-km-long Udhampur-Katra line, built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,132.75 crore.
At the function, the Prime Minister had named the train Shri Shakti Express and said such services are planned from major cities in the country. The shrine attracts about 10 million pilgrims annually.
Katra station is equipped with modern facilities, including tourist guide counter, cloak room, waiting hall, VIP lounge, escalators and lifts and parking spaces.
The train connectivity to Katra is part of the ambitious Kashmir rail link project marking region’s rail connectivity with the rest of the country. Now only Katra to Banihal rail link is to be constructed, which was scheduled to be completed in 2018.
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