So many decades after the Pathankot-Jammu rail link was established, authorities have begun to realize that this link passes close to the firing range of Pakistani troops. Railway Minister is reported to have initiated a trilateral meeting of three ministries, namely Railways, Defence and Finance to discuss the vulnerability of the existing Pathankot-Jammu link to the firing of Pakistani border force. They want to initiate the process for which the first stage would be conducting a survey of the topography and the possible new link which would not be within the firing range of Pakistani troops. In other words, they want to ensure strategic importance of the link. We are prompted to believe that this new thinking has surfaced only after Pakistani terrorist attack on Pathankot air base. It is not clear whose figment of imagination it has been though it seems a sound suggestion.
In all probability the clue to this information is traceable to the announcement of the Union Minister for Roads and Surface Transport, Nitin Gadkari who has proposed an Expressway from New Delhi to Katra via Amritsar at a cost of 15,000 crore rupees. When the Railways Ministry came to know that the Roads and Surface Transport Ministry was undertaking survey for the Express Way, it held on to the idea of simultaneous survey of a new rail track from Pathankot to Jammu. That is how the idea snowballed from Expressway to rail realignment link.
Before we proceed with reflections on the project, two points need to be clarified. The first is that the Pathankot-Jammu rail link was surveyed and established much after the partition had taken place and international borders between India and Pakistan had been defined. Why did not the planner at that time realize that the alignment which they were pursuing would be running close to the firing range of Pakistan? How come the initial survey was recommended and no attention was paid to the vulnerability of the path to fire attacks by the enemy? Had the factor of proximity of the designed track to the firing range of Pakistan army been taken into account and consequently a safer track explored, we would not be forced to incur enormous expenditure on realignment of the existing tack. Evidently the planners and engineers of that time have had not done their good homework. Now we are supposed to pay it from our nose.
The second point which we would like to touch upon is this: Are we supposed to live in constant fear of intrusion by our enemy or unprovoked firing by our enemy so much so that we must change the alignment out of fear of enemy shelling. Does it not reflect our escapism and unwillingness to be the masters of our property? We have allowed too much of liberty to Pakistan to shell and open fire at choice along the border and scare us away from one or the other post. No state with a firm will to exist and exist with full sovereignty will succumb to the gimmick of changing the route for fear of the enemy firing. If enemy guns had been silenced for all times to come, we would not be running away to find safer routes today. The Defence Ministry is certainly involved now and it was then when the track was laid. It is the Defence Ministry which is responsible for making our border line secure. If re-alignment is made now, who knows Pakistan man brings in bigger guns tomorrow and makes even the new alignment track again vulnerable? What the heck are we going to do then? In our opinion, the permanent solution of this problem is to create conditions in which need for re-alignment for security reasons is eliminated.
As regards the Expressway from New Delhi to Katra via Amritsar, this seems a new idea and a new project. As such, the planners should have the option of approving a track that is off the range of Pakistan fire. It will be an entirely new project and if the considerations like closeness to the international border or coming within the firing range of Pakistan are hindrances, these may be avoided and a safer track approved. That is an entirely different matter. We would go even to the length of saying that simultaneously with the survey for Expressway underway, survey of the new rail alignment from Pathankot to Jammu may also be conducted. But abandoning the existing rail track between Pathankot and Jammu and shifting to the new track under the security reason has to be given much more than casual thinking. This must be thought over after considerable deliberations by policy planners. It is a vital decision in which dimensional national interests are involved.
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