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United News of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- United News of India
Volunteers should work for social transformation through Panch Parivartan: Mohan Bhagwat
Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh), June 18 (UNI) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat today said that India has been a Hindu nation since ancient times and this has been decided by the Hindu society this information, RSS Varg Karyavah Dr. Pratap Singh said Bhagwat had come on a four-day tour to theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Karyakarta Vikas Varg Pratham, and addressed students on the last day of the tour today. Bhagwat told the students that in the centenary year of the Sangh, every volunteer should go to the society with the topics of Panch Parivartan - social harmony, family enlightenment, environment, civic duty and indigenous lifestyle. This will bring positive change to society. Indianness should be reflected in the mother language, attire, bhajans, food, travel, etc. Modernisation is not bad but blind imitation of the West is not right. Pratap Singh said Bhagwat also replied to the queries of the students on various topics of national importance. UNI ZC SSP
The Print
08-06-2025
- Business
- The Print
Srinagar train was decades in the making. It's set to transform security, trade, identity
From Jammu through Chenani and then over the windswept, 2,382-metre Banihall Pass, Forbes, Forbes, Campbell & Co.'s engineers proposed a 150-kilometre ropeway to haul timber and iron, live animals, fruits, and vegetables. Linked to a railway line running from Srinagar to Shahabad in south Kashmir's Dooru, the project would connect Kashmir's agrarian markets to the industrial powerhouses of India. And yet, those single-spaced pages were precisely that, a proposal to create the impossible from iron and rock. The neat-blue typewritten manuscript from Forbes, Forbes, Campbell & Co. of Karachi arrived on the desk of Maharaja Pratap Singh of Kashmir, proposing an improbable adventure. The oldest corporate conglomerate in India, the grandees at Forbes were practical men, not given to allowing their imaginations excessive rein. Their company had grown cotton in Lyallpur, built railway lines that cut through Sindh and Mirpur, operated fleets out of Manchester, and served as bankers to the imperial government of Bombay, which later became the State Bank of India. Fantasies were not among their many lines of business. Like so many impossible ideas, that dream was realised last week when the first train linking Katra with Srinagar traversed the Chenab Bridge, hanging 359 metres over raging waters below—the result of seventeen years of work led by the Indian Institute of Science engineering professor G Madhavi Latha—and then headed through the brand-new Banihal Tunnel. Geography, the engineers of the age of industry at Forbes, Forbes and Campbell had, however, taught Kashmir's rulers, is not a fait-accompli. Train lines, roads, tunnels and rivers can all be transformed through technology to build new relationships between peoples and economies. From 1921 onward, Maharaja Pratap Singh, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his successors HD Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh all contributed to the transformation of the geographic relationship Kashmir has with the rest of India—culminating in the triumph that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now presided over. Also read: Not a seat left vacant as J&K's all-new Vande Bharat makes first journey from Katra to Srinagar A turn to roads For most of the nineteenth century, the fastest way from Srinagar to Delhi was a rutted cart road over the Banihal Pass. 'This route is reserved by HH Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, and no visitor can travel this way without his express permission,' sourly recorded Pratap Singh's advisor, Major-General Roul, the Marquis of Bourbel. 'When the letter is given, the traveller should arrange for the through transport of his camp and baggage from Jammu to Islamabad [Anantnag] otherwise much trouble and difficulty may be felt, the local coolies frequently putting down their loads on the roadside and running away.' This ought to have been no surprise, of course: The labourers were slaves, forced to labour for the crown for parts of the year. A number of ambitious railway projects were brought to the table in the late nineteenth century, but without success. SR Scott Stratten & Co. proposed, in 1898, to conduct surveys and execute the project. Engineer DA Adams proposed electric engines, but it was thought infeasible because of the elevations he proposed to traverse. In 1902, WJ Weightman suggested building a railway line along the Jhelum River. The First World War, though, put an end to these explorations. For the most part, passengers and goods from the Kashmir Valley used the metalled and well-bridged road running through Pattan and Baramulla and through Kohala to the town of Jhelum in northern Punjab. The route was designed and delivered by Charles Spedding and his company Spedding & Co., who also built a road through the mountains linking Srinagar to the monarchy's furthest outpost in Gilgit. The Baramulla-Jhelum road, American explorer Ellsworth Huntington reported in 1906, was the only one capable of bearing wheeled traffic. 'The roads are terrible,' Huntington complained, 'and as outside traffic is largely shut out by the mountains, beasts of burden are rare, wheeled vehicles are practically confined to the single new thoroughfare down the Jhelum, and traffic is carried on in boats, the loads being usually carried for short distances on men's backs.' Why was this so? Through earlier centuries, historian Parvez Ahmad writes, Kashmir's trade relations focussed on markets in Central Asia, such as Samarkand, Kashgar, Bukhara, Khurasan and Yarkand. The Mughal invasion of 1586 led to the formation of linkages between Kashmiri traders and markets in the plains of Punjab and beyond. The brief period of Afghan rule, from 1753 to 1819, saw this trade collapse. However, the rise of the Dogra monarchy in 1819 led to further evolution in trade with the plains. Led by the Kashmiri Pandit Laxman Joo Tickoo, the first qualified engineer in the state, the Maharaja also decided to develop the Banihal Cart Road as a commercial axis. The project included a tunnel at Banihal, which reduced some of the road's worst vulnerabilities to weather and made it possible for trucks to cross the pass into Jammu and on to Pathankot. There is no evidence in the historical record that the Maharaja had strategic considerations on his mind, but the Dogra state now had a second, fateful highway curling through its territories. The expansion of road and rail projects needed money, and the monarchy didn't have it. The revenues of Rs 27.7 million in 1939 had a substantial amount of Rs 4 million deducted by the Maharaja and his private departments. Another Rs 5 million was spent on what was to prove a woefully underequipped army. Little was left for infrastructure. In 1947, the Maharaja's successor, Hari Singh, fled Srinagar as his army collapsed in the face of an invasion by Pakistani irregulars. Indian troops were able to use this road to support Indian Army special forces who had been airdropped to save the state. A blueprint for freedom From the 1930s, the economist and political activist Prithvi Nath Dhar—later to head Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's secretariat—had begun to think through what Kashmir's accession to India might look like. The one possible rail line, he wrote in a 1951 note, would have been through Banihal, as the Forbes, Forbes, Campbell & Co. report had made clear. 'Thus, if Kashmir develops her railway communications, a much closer integration with India will be possible, and her comparative isolation, brought about by the high mountain ranges of the Himalayas, broken.' The technology and resources of the time, though, meant a project of this kind just wasn't feasible. The Government focussed, instead, on boring a new tunnel to replace Laxman Joo's old one, and work was completed in 1956. The Army also invested in upgrading the cart road to one that met the needs of the giant logistical chain leading up to what was then called the Ceasefire Line. Even more important, though, was Dhar's revelation that the severance of trade links with Panjab would have few consequences—if alternative routes were available. Trade with Panjab, through hubs like Lahore, rose both in volume and value from Rs 40,442 in 1900-01 to Rs 1,53,35,877 in 1925-26. This was mainly composed of finished cotton, dyes, gunny bags, liquor, metals, oils, grain, tea, and tobacco. To Punjab, Kashmir sent live animals, timber, herbal drugs, fruits, vegetables, pulses, hides and skins, as well as opium and charas—then traded legally. For Dhar, it seemed that the agricultural economy of Kashmir and the industrial economy of India complemented each other perfectly. Much of what Kashmir needed was just being routed through Punjab, not made there. Linking Kashmir to the broader Indian market would yield substantial profits for its farmers. All that was needed was a secure logistical system. Kashmir had to be related to India with iron and concrete, not soldiers and bullets. Also read: India needs to focus on winning in Kashmir, not fighting Pakistan The final push The idea of a railroad, though, never quite went away. In this, there was remarkable strategic coherence that cut across successive governments. Prime Minister Deve Gowda laid a foundation stone for the railway line in 1996, at a time when it seemed impossible to assemble workers and protect them from assault. A year later, Prime Minister IK Gujral laid another foundation stone. In 2002, the project was declared one of national importance, freeing it from the limitations of the railway's budget. The big impacts of the railway line, when it is fully functional, will be visible in cities across India: Fruit will be transported far more cheaply and efficiently, the movement of ghee and spices like saffron will be better organised, and new Kashmiri products like high-end cheese will find markets. Less noticed, the compression of space will bring about profound cultural changes. The new train will enable easy day trips between Kashmir and Jammu, two cities divided not only by religion, ethnicity, and culture but also by the bitter history of Partition and the Pir Panjal Mountain range. The impact of this cultural change ought not to be underestimated—because we know that's just what happened earlier. Travelling on the new highway their father had built, Laxman Joo Tickoo's sons went to Mumbai to learn engineering. They discovered new ideas instead. Lambodar Nath Tickoo, the eldest son, decided to become a tailor and set up a high-end bespoke business in Srinagar. Local Pandit conservatives derided the young rebel for engaging in work below his caste status—but the profits from Navyug Tailors soon silenced the critics. Kashmir's railway story reveals essential aspects of what India has achieved in the state, which often receives insufficient attention. Instead of developing its rail network, Pakistan currently lacks a single electrified line, which reduces the efficiency of its system. Large numbers of railway stations in the country's North-West have simply been abandoned. Islamabad also failed to push through a railway line to Kandahar and the north, which would have enabled it to dominate trade in parts of Central Asia. The war India really needs to win is to make Kashmir's people secure, prosperous partners in the project of India. To this end, each journey on the new train will bring us just a little closer. Praveen Swami is contributing editor at ThePrint. His X handle is @praveenswami. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
The Print
07-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Train to Kashmir: Helicopters ferried men and machines to build engineering marvels in once cut-off areas
'The helicopters of the armed forces played a pivotal role in transforming the dream of connecting Kashmir by rail into reality. They ferried men and machines to begin work in unconnected regions that made this train to Kashmir possible,' a senior railway officer told PTI. The use of helicopters proved to be a game changer, not only in building more than 215 kilometres of approach roads through mountainous terrain, linking around 70 remote villages, but also in paving the way for human resource deployment and the construction of three engineering marvels — the world's highest railway bridge, the country's biggest cable-stayed bridge and the longest transportation tunnel in India. Reasi (J&K), Jun 7 (PTI) As Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated a prestigious railway project connecting Kashmir to the rest of the country on Friday, fulfilling Maharaja Pratap Singh's century-old dream, the Indian Railways remembered the pivotal role of the armed forces' helicopters in ferrying men and machines to the remote and cut-off region to script history. He said the Reasi-Ramban belt was remote and largely inaccessible and initially, labourers and engineers had to trek on foot to undertake basic project work. Former Railway Board member A K Khandelwal, who supervised the project, said, 'To accelerate the construction of the approach road up to the most remote part of the project, Sawalkote, heavy construction machinery was airlifted using Army helicopters from the Jammu airport.' Their extensive logistical support helped the railway overcome one of the most formidable engineering challenges in the country — the 111-km Banihal-Katra section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), a Rs 43,780 crore national project. 'A tabletop helipad was constructed by levelling a 100-metre by 40-metre stretch of land near Surukote village between Dugga and Sawalkote using only hand tools,' Khandelwal said. He added that MI-26 helicopters were used for airlifting heavy construction machines, with sorties conducted and 226 MT of load lifted to Surukote in October 2010. Recalling his first journey to unconnected Sangaldan — which today boasts of a major railway station and infrastructure — another railway engineer said, 'To meet the scale of geographical challenges faced during the construction of the Chenab Bridge, labourers had to be airlifted by helicopters to the worksite in the early days.' He added that workers constructed a helipad on the site, enabling engineers and technical teams to reach the remote location and begin operations on the ground. 'Initially, engineers had to trek long distances on foot or rely on mules to reach various construction points,' he said. In the early years of the project, hundreds of helicopter sorties were carried out to ferry men, material and heavy machinery to remote and inaccessible parts of Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district. This changed the entire outlook of the prestigious project from isolation to connectivity to Kashmir. 'Before the construction of access roads, villagers relied on treacherous footpaths or boats to reach nearby towns. The project has changed that drastically,' the railway engineer said. The officials said more than 215 kilometres of approach roads were laid through mountainous terrain, linking around 70 remote villages, including Guni, Paikhad, Gran, Bakkal, Dugga, Surukote, Sawalkote and Baralla, and improving the lives of nearly 1.5 lakh people. These roads sparked a visible transformation in remote areas of Reasi and Ramban districts. 'Vehicles appeared outside homes for the first time and commercial activity began to flourish with the emergence of markets, roadside eateries and repair shops. Once cut off from development, these villages are now evolving into centres of learning and commerce,' the railway engineer said. Declared a national project in 2002, the USBRL initiative generated more than 525 lakh man-days of employment and provided direct jobs to 804 eligible land losers, besides creating 14,000 indirect jobs during construction, mostly for locals, the officials said. With its blend of strategic value, economic upliftment and social integration, the USBRL project is poised to be a defining chapter in the developmental journey of Jammu and Kashmir. Residents of these once-isolated regions have hailed the Indian Railways for transforming their lives, calling it an 'angel' that brought connectivity, communication and development. 'For us, the railway is a messiah. This was a remote and cut-off area. With this train, we are now fully connected with the rest of the world. There has been huge development due to this railway project. It has changed our fate,' Seerat Tariq of Dugga village told PTI. He added that locals got jobs over the last 10 to 15 years due to the project. 'It has improved our economic health. We can now travel to Kashmir for the best medical treatment in just an hour, which earlier took two days,' he said. Qauser Jabeen, a college student in Reasi, said, 'It has become very easy for us to pursue our studies, which was not possible before this project. This was made possible by the roads and communication infrastructure built here.' Others emphasised the enormous tourism potential created by both natural beauty and man-made wonders. 'We now have the world's highest rail bridge, the country's biggest Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge and T-50, the longest transportation tunnel in India,' Surinder Singh, a businessman from Gulabgarh, said. He further said that with several other tunnels, bridges and scenic places, the area can attract thousands of tourists. Modi dedicated the USBRL project to the nation on Friday by inaugurating the world's highest railway bridge and India's biggest cable-stayed Anji Khad bridge over the Chenab river, and flagged off a Vande Bharat train to Kashmir from Katra. The 272-km-long USBRL project, built at a cost of around Rs 43,780 crore, includes 36 tunnels spanning 119 km and 943 bridges, the officials said. The plan for a rail link to Kashmir was first proposed on March 1, 1892 by Maharaja Pratap Singh and subsequently, in June 1898, British engineering firm S R Scott Stratten and Company was engaged to conduct surveys and execute the Kashmir rail project. PTI AB RC This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Train to Kashmir: Helicopters ferried men and machines to build engineering marvels in once cut-off areas
Reasi (J&K): As Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated a prestigious railway project connecting Kashmir to the rest of the country on Friday, fulfilling Maharaja Pratap Singh's century-old dream, the Indian Railways remembered the pivotal role of the armed forces' helicopters in ferrying men and machines to the remote and cut-off region to script history. The use of helicopters proved to be a game changer , not only in building more than 215 kilometres of approach roads through mountainous terrain, linking around 70 remote villages, but also in paving the way for human resource deployment and the construction of three engineering marvels -- the world's highest railway bridge, the country's biggest cable-stayed bridge and the longest transportation tunnel in India. "The helicopters of the armed forces played a pivotal role in transforming the dream of connecting Kashmir by rail into reality. They ferried men and machines to begin work in unconnected regions that made this train to Kashmir possible," a senior railway officer told PTI. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If You Eat Ginger Everyday for 1 Month This is What Happens Tips and Tricks Undo He said the Reasi-Ramban belt was remote and largely inaccessible and initially, labourers and engineers had to trek on foot to undertake basic project work. Former Railway Board member A K Khandelwal, who supervised the project, said, "To accelerate the construction of the approach road up to the most remote part of the project, Sawalkote, heavy construction machinery was airlifted using Army helicopters from the Jammu airport." Live Events Their extensive logistical support helped the railway overcome one of the most formidable engineering challenges in the country -- the 111-km Banihal-Katra section of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), a Rs 43,780 crore national project. "A tabletop helipad was constructed by levelling a 100-metre by 40-metre stretch of land near Surukote village between Dugga and Sawalkote using only hand tools," Khandelwal said. He added that MI-26 helicopters were used for airlifting heavy construction machines, with sorties conducted and 226 MT of load lifted to Surukote in October 2010. Recalling his first journey to unconnected Sangaldan -- which today boasts of a major railway station and infrastructure -- another railway engineer said, "To meet the scale of geographical challenges faced during the construction of the Chenab Bridge, labourers had to be airlifted by helicopters to the worksite in the early days." He added that workers constructed a helipad on the site, enabling engineers and technical teams to reach the remote location and begin operations on the ground. "Initially, engineers had to trek long distances on foot or rely on mules to reach various construction points," he said. In the early years of the project, hundreds of helicopter sorties were carried out to ferry men, material and heavy machinery to remote and inaccessible parts of Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district. This changed the entire outlook of the prestigious project from isolation to connectivity to Kashmir. "Before the construction of access roads, villagers relied on treacherous footpaths or boats to reach nearby towns. The project has changed that drastically," the railway engineer said. The officials said more than 215 kilometres of approach roads were laid through mountainous terrain, linking around 70 remote villages, including Guni, Paikhad, Gran, Bakkal, Dugga, Surukote, Sawalkote and Baralla, and improving the lives of nearly 1.5 lakh people. These roads sparked a visible transformation in remote areas of Reasi and Ramban districts. "Vehicles appeared outside homes for the first time and commercial activity began to flourish with the emergence of markets, roadside eateries and repair shops. Once cut off from development, these villages are now evolving into centres of learning and commerce," the railway engineer said. Declared a national project in 2002, the USBRL initiative generated more than 525 lakh man-days of employment and provided direct jobs to 804 eligible land losers, besides creating 14,000 indirect jobs during construction, mostly for locals, the officials said. With its blend of strategic value, economic upliftment and social integration, the USBRL project is poised to be a defining chapter in the developmental journey of Jammu and Kashmir. Residents of these once-isolated regions have hailed the Indian Railways for transforming their lives, calling it an "angel" that brought connectivity, communication and development. "For us, the railway is a messiah. This was a remote and cut-off area. With this train, we are now fully connected with the rest of the world. There has been huge development due to this railway project. It has changed our fate," Seerat Tariq of Dugga village told PTI. He added that locals got jobs over the last 10 to 15 years due to the project. "It has improved our economic health. We can now travel to Kashmir for the best medical treatment in just an hour, which earlier took two days," he said. Qauser Jabeen, a college student in Reasi, said, "It has become very easy for us to pursue our studies, which was not possible before this project. This was made possible by the roads and communication infrastructure built here." Others emphasised the enormous tourism potential created by both natural beauty and man-made wonders. "We now have the world's highest rail bridge, the country's biggest Anji Khad cable-stayed bridge and T-50, the longest transportation tunnel in India," Surinder Singh, a businessman from Gulabgarh, said. He further said that with several other tunnels, bridges and scenic places, the area can attract thousands of tourists. Modi dedicated the USBRL project to the nation on Friday by inaugurating the world's highest railway bridge and India's biggest cable-stayed Anji Khad bridge over the Chenab river, and flagged off a Vande Bharat train to Kashmir from Katra. The 272-km-long USBRL project, built at a cost of around Rs 43,780 crore, includes 36 tunnels spanning 119 km and 943 bridges, the officials said. The plan for a rail link to Kashmir was first proposed on March 1, 1892 by Maharaja Pratap Singh and subsequently, in June 1898, British engineering firm S R Scott Stratten and Company was engaged to conduct surveys and execute the Kashmir rail project.
India Gazette
07-06-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
"Truly historic moment": Congress' Karan Singh lauds Modi Govt for realizing century-old railway dream in J-K
Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], June 7 (ANI): Senior Congress leader and former Union Education Minister Karan Singh has praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government for the inauguration of several historic railway projects in Jammu and Kashmir, including Chenab Railway Bridge, Anji Bridge, Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project. Singh described the inauguration of the Katra-Srinagar train service as a truly historic moment in the region's history. In a statement issued on Friday, the former Member of Parliament said, 'Today marks a truly historic moment in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. The inauguration of the train from Katra to Srinagar is an astounding technical achievement, and everyone involved deserves our heartfelt gratitude.' He further stated, 'The idea of a railway line was first envisioned by Maharaja Pratap Singh several decades ago. In fact, three project reports were prepared by international engineers at the time, one of which closely resembles the present route. On March 1, 1892, Maharaja Pratap Singh even laid the foundation stone of a railway project to link Jammu and Kashmir. However, the technology and finances required for such a massive undertaking were not available back then.' The Senior Congress leader also congratulated Prime Minister Modi on the inauguration of USBRL project and flagging off of two Vande Bharat trains from Katra to Srinagar. Singh said, 'It was only during the tenures of Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Indira Gandhi that the project began to take shape. I extend my congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for seeing the project through to completion and inaugurating it today.' Singh hoped that this train service will usher in a new era of growth in tourism, trade, and commerce in Jammu and Kashmir. 'I am confident that this train service will usher in a new era of growth in tourism, trade, and commerce in both the Valley and Jammu. I look forward to taking this train journey myself soon to witness the marvelous bridges and tunnels that have been constructed,' he concluded. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off two Vande Bharat Express trains from Katra Railway Station, directly connecting the Jammu division with Kashmir. He also inaugurated the world's highest railway arch bridge - 'Chenab Railway Bridge' and India's first cable-stayed 'Anji Bridge' in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district. This marks a major milestone in Jammu and Kashmir's railway connectivity. The architectural marvel Chenab Rail Bridge, situated 359 metres above the river, is the world's highest railway arch bridge. It is a 1,315-metre-long steel arch bridge engineered to withstand seismic and wind conditions. A key impact of the bridge will be in enhancing connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar. The new Vande Bharat Express train will take just about three hours to travel between Katra and Srinagar, reducing the existing travel time by two to three hours. The train will run through the Anji Khad Bridge, which is India's first cable-stayed railway bridge, and the Chenab Bridge, which is the highest railway arch bridge in the world. These trains have been specially designed to operate in the cold climatic conditions of the Kashmir Valley. These all projects are part of the ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project. USBRL project is 272 kilometres long, constructed worth around Rs 43,780 crore, includes 36 tunnels (spanning 119 km) and 943 bridges. The project establishes all-weather, seamless rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country, aiming to transform regional mobility and drive socio-economic integration. (ANI)
