Survey on to connect north Kashmir's Kupwara to railway network: LG Manoj Sinha
Manoj Sinha, who is on a two-day visit to Kupwara, said that the border district has been on the path of development for the past three years
The frontier district of Kupwara on the Line of Control (LOC) in North Kashmir will also be connected to the railway line as a technical survey sanctioned by the railway ministry was going on, Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said on Friday.
Sinha, who is on a two-day visit to Kupwara, interacted with various public delegations and said that the border district was on the path of development for the past three years.
Sinha said that the railway minister had sanctioned a technical survey in the rail budget for connecting the district to the railway network.
“Once the survey is completed and the DPR is submitted, I hope work on the rail link will be started and Kupwara will be connected to the rail network,” he said.
The train services in Kashmir are yet to be connected to the rest of the country and run standalone from Banihal in Jammu to Baramulla in north Kashmir – a distance of 137 km with 17 stations. The Banihal-Katra line will join the Kashmir line with the rest of the country.
LG Sinha in August had said that Kashmir will be connected to Kanyakumari by the end of this financial year. “It will connect the valley with all important commercial centres of the country,” Sinha had said on August 6.
The railway board has already sanctioned five Final Location Survey (FSL) works in Kashmir, including doubling of Baramulla-Banihal railway line, New Baramulla-Uri, Awantipora-Shopian, Sopore-Kupwara and Anantnag-Bijbehara-Pahalgam rail lines.
In Kupwara, the LG said that more than 9,000 people have been given homes under the PM Awas Yojana.
“Among them, there are eligible people who don’t have their own land and they have been given five marlas land each by the administration. And any person who is eligible for PM-Awas and doesn’t possess land, he will be given 5 marlas land by the administration of J&K,” he said.
Sinha said that the common man is living in a peaceful environment and there has been a significant increase in tourist influx in the district.
“Electricity has reached the far-flung areas and work under the Jal Jeevan Mission has been expedited. We are hopeful to achieve the target of covering all villages, panchayats and households under ‘nal se jal’ by December 31 this year in the district. 70% work has already been completed,” the LG said.
“From law and order perspective, the common man here is living a peaceful life. And there has been improvement in agriculture and allied sector, whether paddy production or surplus district in milk production. There was also good production of walnuts and there will be focus on high density plantation through holistic agriculture development plan by administration. So that the population involved in agriculture lives a prosperous life,” he said.
The LG said that in terms of infrastructure, all the villages, as per 2001 census, have been connected with roads in Kupwara. “Eight villages are pending as per the 2011 census which will be connected,” he said.
