In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Northern Railway is all set to cross another milestone soon by starting Kashmir's first electric train on the 137 km Banihal-Baramulla corridor as the electrification of the 324 crore rupees project is in its final stage. Indian Railway officials said that work on the project was going on since August 2019. Bittu Kumar, Engineer RS Infra Pvt Ltd said that the project will be ready for inauguration by next month as 90% work of electrification has been done.
With the commencement and electrification of this train, air pollution is expected to decrease manifold. Currently, 19 trains are in service with seven trains running regularly on Baramulla- Banihal sector in J&K. About 30,000 passengers including students and office goers travel daily in the trains. Kashmir got its first train service in 2013 which was inaugurated by then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. It is notable that the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway (USBRL) railway track is being laid to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country.