People of the Doaba region have a reason to cheer as they will soon get a daily train to Katra, the base camp of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. The train will cater to passengers of Jalandhar and its adjoining areas.
This seven-day train will run from the Ferozepur railway station to the Katra railway station via Jalandhar city with a halt at the Pathankot railway station.
Divisional railway manager (DRM), Ferozepur division, Anuj Parkash told HT that the division has already sent a proposal to the Union ministry six month ago and are expecting a nod anytime now. “We have received a positive feedback from the Centre on the proposal and are expecting to run the train by July,” said Parkash.
As the process of bifurcating the Jammu region of the railways from the Ferozepur division is in limbo, the division is aiming to increase the train load at Katra. Officials at the Ferozepur division said the work of separating the Jammu railway region from the Ferozepur division has been put on hold as it was not part of this year’s railway budget.
The train will have 18 coaches, but the officials said it was too early to reveal the proposed name of the train.
The DRM said the people of the region were demanding a daily train to Katra since long. “On the basis of the study, we had decided to propose a new train that can cater the population in this region on a regular basis other than the biweekly and a weekly train,” he said. Currently, most of the trains to Katra from the region go through the Jalandhar cantonment railway station.
