SRINAGAR: The People's Democratic Party (PDP) Saturday "criticized" the mandatory deboarding of train passengers at Katra, calling it a "needless inconvenience" and an additional burden on the passengers from Kashmir and vice versa. In a statement, the party's senior leader and former law minister, Syed Basharat Bukhari, argued that this measure seems to have ended up undermining the "much--hyped" promise of convenience for Kashmiris and is a step back from the original vision of the Kashmir Rail Project that was being sold as a major infrastructural game changer for Kashmiris in the post-370 era.
Mr. Bukhari, while underscoring the hardships faced by travelers, particularly the elderly and those traveling for medical treatment, due to this deboarding requirement, said, that making train swaps at Katra mandatory, the essence of the rail project has vanished, which would demotivate travelers to take a train ride. He said the passengers would prefer to reach Jammu by road instead of consuming time at Katra for changing the trains and dragging the luggage and other belongings.
The former law minister questioned the necessity of such a measure, suggesting that adequate security checks could be conducted at the start of the journey instead and make the travel more convenient for travelers, particularly the patients, students, and elderly. Basharat Bukhari cautioned that the government's desire to connect Kashmir with the rest of the country through train may not yield results if the government does not revisit the decision.
