KATRA/SRINAGAR: Festive cheer filled Katra, the base city for the revered Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, ahead of a grand railway inauguration ceremony to be led by Prime Minister Modi on Friday, marking a new era of connectivity for Kashmir and the country.The PM will flag off two new Kashmir-specific, specially designed Vande Bharat trains and inaugurate two engineering marvels: the Chenab Bridge (the world’s highest railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower) and the Anji Bridge, India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge. “We are fortunate to witness a new rise in rail services which were earlier not even being thought out by us,” said Nadeem, a young taxi driver, adding, “Development doesn’t disseminate on caste or religion.”The local population expressed immense pride not only in the inauguration of the world’s tallest single-arch rail bridge – taller than both the Eiffel Tower and the Qutub Minar – but also in the newly designed Srinagar-Katra Vande Bharat trains, which are set to begin commercial operations from June 7.“I had read in books that a train will ply from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. But it is now going to happen in reality. This is a dream come true. Better late than never,” said a university student, Riyaz Ahmad.Meanwhile, on the eve of the grand inauguration, Modi posted, “Tomorrow, June 6, is indeed a special day for my sisters and brothers of Jammu and Kashmir. Key infrastructure projects worth Rs 46,000 crore are being inaugurated,” he said.
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