A rail line to Jammu & Kashmir is more than just a tale of tracks, bridges and tunnels. The saga to connect one of the country’s most picturesque regions by rail link with the rest of India spans over a century. That saga is expected to culminate later this month, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the remaining 63-km Katra-Sangaldan section of the 272-km Kashmir line, also called Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL).

The importance of connecting Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India by rail was recognised back in the 1890s. As part of his Punjab-Kashmir Project, in 1889, Raoul De Bourbel, a Major-General in the Royal Engineers of the British army, conducted the first survey for a rail line from Jammu to Akhnoor, located on the banks of the Chenab. Eight years on, the state would get its first rail line, from Jammu to Sialkot (in present-day Pakistan). However, a rail line to the Valley was still a distant dream.

In 1898, Maharaja Pratap Singh of Jammu & Kashmir proposed the idea of a rail link to the Valley. The British administration saw strategic merit in his suggestion despite the challenges. The Maharaja commissioned a detailed survey in 1902, which threw up four potential rail pathways.

British engineers proposed a rail link along the Jhelum, connecting Srinagar to Rawalpindi. However, this proposal was rejected since Jammu residents travelled to Srinagar in Kashmir via the Mughal Road, which connects Poonch and Rajouri to Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley.

The other routes suggested by the surveyors included the Banihal route from Jammu (which involved crossing the Pir Panjal range via the Banihal Pass), the Poonch route along Jhelum valley; the Pajar Route (which would start from Rawalpindi, located in present-day Pakistan);and the Abbottabad route (in present-day Pakistan, which would start from Kalako Serai and pass through Hazara in the Upper Jhelum Valley, also called the Kashmir Valley). Despite these suggestions, the ambitious project did not materialise.

Buoyed by the survey results, the colonial government in 1905 once........

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