Jammu and Kashmir administration in collaboration with the Railway authorities is mulling to resume the train services by 17 February after a gap of ten months, official sources said.
People from different areas of Kashmir said that public transport is normally functional and now government has also decided to open educational institutions, then why only services have been kept suspended.
“If train service will resume, passengers can skip Qazigund -Banihall portion which remains very slippery in winters and it can reduce traffic jam on national highway as well,” Subzar Ahmad, a resident of Qazigund told a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
Saqib Yousuf, Chief Manager Railways said that once government will come up with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) pertaining to COVID-19, train service will resume in J-K.
He said department suffered losses in crores but decision was taken for wellbeing of people.
A top official in the administration told KNO that train services in Jammu and Kashmir will resume by 17 February.
He said that government will come up with SOPs in this regards in next few days.
Pertinently, train services in J-K were suspended on 19 March last year’s after outbreak of COVID-19.
Notably, Banihal-Baramulla Train services resumed on 11 November 2019 after remaining suspended for around 100 days after abrogation of special status of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Railway officials had said that railway suffered a loss of around 2 crore for remaining suspended from 5 August 2019 to 11 November 2019 after the abrogation of semi-autonomous status of J-K. —(KNO)
