M A I N   N E W S

Modi to flag off train service to Katra on July 4
Deepanker Gupta
Tribune News Service

Udhampur, June 27
Finally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the much-awaited train service to Katra on July 4. Sources said the Prime Minister would land at Technical Airport in Jammu at 9.30 am on July 4 and would straightaway go to Katra, the base camp of holy cave shrine of Vaishno Devi in Trikuta Hills, to flag off the train service.

Modi had earlier visited the town to pay obeisance at Vaishno Devi shrine on March 26 before launching the BJP’s election campaign.

Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and local MP Jitendra Singh would accompany Modi.

The date for flagging off the train service on the 25-km Udhampur-Katra railway line, constructed at a cost of Rs 1,050 crore, was decided when Railways Minister Sadanand Gowda had called on Modi on June 23.

The Railways had finally got the mandatory safety clearance from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) this month to commission the line passing through a difficult hilly terrain. The CRS had conducted the inspection of the Udhampur-Katra rail line for three days from January 27.

“After flagging off the train service, the Prime Minister will fly to Srinagar and hold a meeting with senior Army commanders and officers in the Badami Bagh Cantonment area to review the security situation in Kashmir,” said an official.