Besides the historical news of record-breaking bridges and gleaming terminals in Jammu and Kashmir there is one development that also needs appreciation. In August, foundation stones were laid for 110 village roads across the Udhampur, Kathua, Doda and Kishtwar region. This connectivity is going to improve the lives of 47,000 people. An interesting aspect of this road project is that recycled plastic waste is being used in this road construction.
This renewed emphasis on improving the connectivity showcases how the government approaches the problems pertaining to bringing connectivity to difficult terrains in the region. As they say, the railway line is only half a promise until the road to your house is paved.
For several generations, the Kashmir valley has remained cut-off to its mountains and largely with the mainland due to its harsh winters. Heavy snow often closed down the highway for weeks if not months. Students waited, sick people waited, and truckloads of apples sat rotting by the roadside. Isolation was a common feature of their lives. However, this mindset has seen a remarkable change in the last few years.
All thanks to the Udhampur–Srinagar–Baramulla (roughly 272kms) rail link, which opened in June 2025. The link road is one of the hardest railway projects India has ever attempted. It runs through tunnels cut into unstable mountains and across deep gorges. Its remarkable centrepiece, the Chenab Bridge, is the highest railway arch bridge in the world (some 360 meters higher than the Eiffel tower).
But the real story is not the height of the bridge. It is that a person in Srinagar can now take a train and reach Jammu province in under five hours, and that trains are built to keep running through snow and earthquakes.
The roads are catching up too. Some years back, no one in Srinagar could imagine staying back in Sonmarg during the peak winters and think of reaching Zojila and Kargil via road. Since January 2025 travellers are now bypassing a stretch known for avalanches. It all happened because of the Sonamarg tunnel. It has already begun to turn Sonamarg from a summer stop into a year-round destination. The much bigger Zojila tunnel, which will connect Kashmir to Ladakh through the winter, reached its main breakthrough in June, this year.
It is not finished yet, but the hardest digging is behind it. In July, key sections of the new expressway from Delhi towards Katra opened, cutting a gruelling journey for pilgrims and traders to roughly half its old time.
In the air, a large expansion of Srinagar’s airport has been approved. It will add a new terminal designed with Kashmiri woodwork and local craftsmanship, and smaller airports at Udhampur and Kishtwar are planned so that people outside the big towns are not left behind. Behind all this concretization is assurance of timing and certainty or security.
A farmer who grows apples or saffron in south or north Kashmir no longer has to gamble on whether the road will be open on the day his crop is ready. A new cargo terminal in Samba, with more planned, helps goods travel by rail to bigger markets. A shawl weaver or a handicraft seller in Srinagar city can reach customers far beyond the valley. A tourism operator in Sonamarg can plan for winter instead of closing down. A student or a patient heading to Jammu no longer faces a day-long ordeal.
These are not small things especially for people who are living in the mountains. If we bring it down, it appears the government’s approach consists of four substantial ideas.
First, connectivity is the foundation of everything. The thinking appears to be that jobs, trade, tourism and investment will follow once the region is no longer cut off. Roads, rail and air are being treated as one network rather than separate projects.
Second, the goal is all-weather access. Almost every project, from the tunnels to the snow-clearing trains, is aimed at defeating the winter. Seasonal isolation is the enemy being fought.
Third, strategy matters alongside development. Government statements openly link these projects to “border security, defence logistics and disaster response”. Better roads and tunnels in border regions serve both villagers and especially the armed forces. This is a reasonable aim, though it means some projects are driven by security needs as much as local ones.
Fourth, the benefits should reach beyond the big cities. The village road programme and the small regional airports suggest a recognition that a few showcase projects are not enough.
It would be too easy for some to end the celebration. A railway or tunnel is not the same as prosperity. Whether farmers actually earn more, whether young people find local jobs, and whether remote villages feel the change will depend on what happens after the ribbon-cutting. Roads need maintenance. Terminals need to be used. The Zojila tunnel still has to be finished. And infrastructure alone cannot answer every question people in the region have about their future.
Still, the direction is clear, and it deserves credit. A region once defined by what separated it from the rest of the country is being stitched back in, one tunnel, track and village road at a time.
The government’s postering is that being connected is the starting point, and not the end goal. The real challenge comes what needs to be added afterwards; that a child growing up in a remotest area of Kishtwar village, or a fruit grower living in Shopian and a shopkeeper based in Srinagar no longer feel mountains acts as an impediment in their career or dreaming bigger in their lives.
COURTESY: PIB SRINAGAR
