A Vande Bharat Express train crosses a bridge near Bajalta village while en route to Katra station (PTI Photo)
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will on Thursday flag-off all-weather Vande Bharat Express train which will connect Jammu to Srinagar in just 4 hours and 50 minutes, fulfilling the long-pending demand of the people of the Jammu and Kashmir region.
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The premium chair-car train, which has been operating between Katra and Srinagar, will now run from Jammu Tawi station. The extension is also likely to pave the way for a direct train from New Delhi to Srinagar, a senior railway official said.
Along with this, the number of coaches of the train has also been increased from eight to 20.
Currently, two Vande Bharat chair car trains are operating between Srinagar and Katra — which is 45-km from Jammu.
Officials said that the flag-off on April 30 will be the inaugural train run and the daily Jammu Tawi–Srinagar Vande Bharat Express service will start from May 2, 2026.
On February 25, The Indian Express had reported that the railways had decided to extend the services of the Vande Bharat Express up to Jammu Tawi station.
In an internal communication, Northern Railway had said that the operation of services will start from March 1. However, the order was put on hold “due to unavoidable reasons”.
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The extension of the service up to Jammu Tawi station was pending due to ongoing development works.
It takes around eight hours to cover the Jammu-Srinagar stretch by road. The Vande Bharat train will run at an average speed of over 55 kmph.
“The yard remodeling at Jammu station was important for the Vande Bharat train. It will provide all weather travel between Jammu and Kashmir. The road connectivity in the region along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway often faces disruptions due to landslides, heavy snowfall and adverse weather conditions. The Vande Bharat train is designed to operate at even minus 20 degree temperature,” said a Northern Railway official.
The first train will depart Jammu Tawi at 6:20AM and arrive Srinagar at 11:10AM, after taking halts at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Reasi, and Banihal. The same train will leave Srinagar at 2:00PM and reach Jammu Tawi by 6:50PM.
This pair will run six-day a week, except Tuesday.
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The second service will depart from Srinagar at 8:00AM and arrive at Jammu Tawi by 12:40PM, after halts at Banihal and Katra. This train will return from Jammu Tawi at 1:20PM and reache Srinagar by 6:00PM. This pair will run six days a week, except Wednesday.
The 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) became fully operational on June 6, 2025, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating its 63-km Katra-Sangaldan section, marking the completion of a project to link Kashmir to the rest of the country – which was first initiated 42 years ago.
While different stretches of the project were made operational in phases earlier, the trickiest one, the 111-km Katra-Banihal section, was the most difficult. This included India’s longest operational transportation tunnel, T-50, spanning 12.77 km; the world’s highest railway arch bridge at 359 metres above the sea floor (the Chenab Bridge); and the first cable-stayed bridge of the Railways (the Anji Bridge).
The idea to connect Kashmir with a railway line between Jammu and Srinagar was first conceived by Maharaja Pratap Singh in 1898. In 1905, he approved the construction of a narrow 762-mm gauge railway line via Reasi.
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The then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was later connected to the rail grid with a line between Jammu and Sialkot. But with the latter going to Pakistan following Partition, J&K got disconnected to the rest of India via train. While Jammu eventually got a train, it was in 1983 that the then Indira Gandhi-led Congress government laid the foundation stone for a Udhampur-Srinagar railway line.
However, work on the project only gained momentum after the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government declared it a national project in 2002.
