Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated key railway projects worth over Rs 16,000 crore in Jammu and Kashmir. These include a 48.1 km portion of the new rail line under the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project (USBRL).

The Banihal-Khari-Sumber-Sangaldan section built for Rs 15,863 crore includes the country's longest railway tunnel spanning 12.77 km. PM Modi laid the foundation stone, inaugurated, and dedicated 220 projects totaling Rs 32,000 crore to the nation. These initiatives will provide all-weather transportation, replacing unreliable mountain roads and footpaths.

PM Modi also flagged off the first electric train in the valley from Baramulla Station, and another service between Sangaldan and Baramulla Station was also started. This was made possible by the electrification of the 185.66 route km (RKM) Baramulla-Srinagar-Banihal-Sangaldan section costing Rs 470.23 crore.

The USRBL project, spread over 272 km and costing Rs 41,119 crore, is subdivided into four legs for focused execution, of which three were completed by 2014. Work is currently underway only on the 111 km Katra-Banihal section. The 97.4 km (87 percent) of this section involves tunnelling. Further, 48 out of the 49 bridges are already completed. There will be seven stations in this section with four in Reasi district and three in Ramban.