Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Feb 03: Jammu and Kashmir administration in collaboration with the Railway authorities is mulling to resume the train services by February 17 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 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 February 17.
He said that government will come up with SOPs in this regards in next few days.
Pertinently, train services in Jammu and Kashmir were suspended on March 19 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 05 August 2019 to November 11, 2019 after revocation of special status—(KNO)
