Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat launch hits weather hurdle; PM Modi’s Jammu visit on April 19 postponed, new dates soon

The much-awaited launch of the Katra–Srinagar Vande Bharat Express by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scheduled for April 19, has been postponed due to bad weather.

Modi was scheduled to inaugurate the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Project (USBRL), the World’s tallest Chenab Rail Bridge and Anji Khad Rail Bridge on April 19, besides flagging off the special Kashmir edition of Vande Bharat Express from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Railway Station to Srinagar.

“The Prime Minister was scheduled to visit Chenab Rail Bridge and Anji Khad Bridge, for which two helipads were readied, but due to the bad weather forecast from April 19 to 22, the visit has been postponed,” news agency UNI quoted official sources as saying.

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued yellow and orange alerts predicting light to moderate rains and snow in Jammu and Kashmir in the coming days.

Modi was also scheduled to address a public meeting at Katra.

New dates soon

The new dates for the inauguration would be announced later. It will be inaugurated by April end when the weather is favourable, the officials said.

The PM was supposed to inaugurate the final section of the Katra-Sangaldan stretch of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), a 272-km project, on April 19 and also flag off the special Kashmir edition of Vande Bharat Express from Katra to Srinagar on the day.

"The proposed visit of the Prime Minister to Jammu and Kashmir stands postponed. Grateful for necessary action," read the notification issued by the director of the Special Protection Group (SPG).

Special Vande Bharat Express and USBRL project

The Katra to Srinagar Vande Bharat Express will have features like heating systems, anti-spall layers, and automatic doors. The train is designed to operate smoothly in cold weather--down to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

The Indian Railways had conducted a trial run of the Vande Bharat train from Katra to Srinagar on January 23 this year.

The Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat will run on the world’s highest railway arch bridge and Anji Bridge constructed on the river Chenab in Reasi district.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Project spans 272 km and includes 119 km of tunnels. Two iconic engineering marvels—the Chenab Bridge, the world’s highest railway bridge, and the Anji Khad Bridge, India’s first cable-stayed railway bridge—are part of this project.

The Chenab Bridge is 467 metres high, making it 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Designed to withstand earthquakes up to magnitude 8, the bridge posed significant engineering challenges due to its location in a high-seismic zone.

Approved in 1994–95 and declared a National Project in 2002, the USBRL has been completed in phases. Key sections such as Qazigund–Baramulla (2009), Banihal–Qazigund (2013), Udhampur–Katra (2014), and Banihal–Sangaldan (2020) have already been commissioned. A trial run of MEMU trains was also successfully conducted last year on the electrified Reasi–Sangaldan section.

Currently, train services in the Kashmir Valley are operational only on the Sangaldan–Baramulla section, while long-distance trains terminate at Katra.

Security reasons?

Some reports suggested security reasons too. Amid ongoing anti-terror operations in the Udhampur, Kathua and Poonch districts of Jammu, the security forces are on high alert to prevent any targeted strike, according to a report in the Pioneer.

In Poonch, a joint team of security forces conducted massive cordon and search operations during the day after establishing contact with terrorists at the village Lassana in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district late Monday evening, the report said.

(With agency inputs)