Bathed in colourful lights Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Railway Station, equipped with state-of-the-art modern passenger amenities, is all decked up on the eve of formal commissioning of 25-km-long Udhampur-Katra rail link on Friday.
Accompanied by Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to flag off regular train service from Katra during his maiden visit to the State after assuming the charge.
With the launch of train service to Katra, several other religious centres across India including Varanasi, Ahmedabad would directly be connected to cater to the heavy influx of devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi. The Railway Ministry is also expected to announce the schedule of new trains immediately after the formal launch.
Around half a dozen trains are expected to run between Katra and their final destinations in the coming months connecting different tourist circuits in Himanchal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.
In addition, the DMU service up to Udhampur would be extended up to Katra with immediate effect. The engineering marvel in many respects, the rail link has been constructed at a whopping cost of over Rs 1,100 crore.
As per the original plan the train service was expected to start in 2011 but hostile terrain and other factors led to project delays which further led to cost escalation.
Apart from elaborate security arrangements in and around Katra Railway Station the security forces have been kept in a state of high alert across the region to foil any militant strike during the high profile visit of Modi to the State.
The Indian Army and the jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) have been maintaining a tight vigil along the line of Control and the International border to prevent any infiltration bid.
Hours ahead of the arrival of the Prime Minister alert jawans deployed in Krishna Ghati sector of frontier Poonch district foiled a major intrusion bid from across the loC. According to Defence PRO in Jammu, an infiltration bid was foiled by jawans of the Indian Army in KG sector of Poonch. He said following reports of suspected movement of infiltrators close to the loC search and combing operations were launched.
Meanwhile, GOC 16 corps headquarters in Nagrota lt Gen KH Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a tribute ceremony, “The jawans have noticed suspected movement of infiltrators in the forward area of Poonch and the operations were going on in the area”. “I cannot comment further,” the senior commander said.