Title - Crucial security meet today

Srinagar: As the train services continued to remain suspended for the seventh consecutive day today, a security review meet is likely to be held tomorrow to decide about resumption of the services.Sources said the meeting would be attended by railway, police and civil officials. “The train services were suspended on Saturday due to security reasons and unless we get the security clearance, we will not ply the train. We are holding a security meeting tomorrow where the decision of resuming the train services will be taken,” said a railway official.He said overall situation would be taken into consideration before plying the train from Qazigund in south to Baramulla in north. On Saturday after the hanging of Afzal, the train services were suspended in Kashmir. In fact, the railway security had sought nearly 360 policemen to ensure safety of the rails in Kashmir. The railway officials said due to the disruption of the rail services in Kashmir, the Railways were incurring a daily loss of over Rs 1 lakh in terms of revenue generated from the passenger fare.“If calculated on daily basis, since the suspension of the trains from February 9 till date, the average loss would be more than Rs 7 lakh,” said an official. In 2010, the Kashmir train services had to be halted for almost five months from July 31 to December 22 due to security reasons and damage to the rail property in various parts of the Valley. “It is due to this fear that we suspended the train operations this time,” he said.

On the other hand, many passengers are urging the authorities to resume the services at the earliest, as the trains in Kashmir are fast becoming an alternative and cheap mode of transport.

The trains in Kashmir are yet to be connected with the rest of the country and they ply between Qazigund and Baramulla, a distance of 119 kilometres. A total of 10 trains ply between Qazigund and Baramulla.

The first phase of rail service between Anantnag and Budgam districts was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 11, 2008. The second phase of the train between Budgam and Baramulla was flagged off by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on February 14, 2009, followed by the third phase between Anantnag and Qazigund by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 28, 2009.