It was flaunted as the most strategic railway line ever planned on the Indian Railways network. Seven years after work began on the 148-km-long Katra-Qazigund section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail project, Indian Railways now finds itself in a mess that could delay the project by another 10 to 15 years and send costs shooting.

Having already spent close to Rs 750 crore on this section, the Railways only have 10 per cent results to show. And a move to reconsider a new alignment for this section has brought out in the open the manner in which this “national project” is being dealt with by the Railways Ministry.

Even as a standalone 100-odd kilometre stretch in the Kashmir Valley—between Qazigund and Baramulla—got its first ever train last year, it is only the completion of the Katra-Qazigund section that will connect this “island” section to the rest of the country.

India had pitched the project as its answer to Tibet Rail but it would do well to remember China’s track record: it took five years and one day to complete the 1,142-km long railway track between Golmund and Lhasa before flagging off the Qinghai-Tibet railway in July 2006.

Meanwhile, from an initial cost of Rs 3,000 crore, the project cost of the Katra-Qazigund line has already touched Rs 10,000 crore and there’s still no knowing when the train will arrive.

The faultlines

The first spanner in the works came in July 2008 when then Railway Board Member (Engineering) Satish Kumar Vij ordered suspension of all works on a 70-km portion on the Katra-Qazigund section. Work on the main access roads continued. That was the first time the Railways Ministry admitted it was exploring a realignment on the route.

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