A train of hope, from Jammu to Mumbai

In any other context, a train carrying produce from one region to another may make for humdrum imagery, but when it is one from Jammu and Kashmir, carrying cherries to Maharashtra, it evokes expectations centred on multiple possibilities.

- 

One, it opens up the market for horticulture farmers from the Union Territory, not just in fruits such as cherries, apples, apricots, and even Ladakh's sea buckthorn berries, but also for a wide variety of flowers. For a region whose horticulture potential has not been fully tapped due to lack of market access — despite linkages that have come up in the past couple of decades — access to new markets through railways is a significant boost, and one that hastens its integration with the economic mainstream. Two, it