The Wait at the Station

The Srinagar-Katra train was meant to unite Kashmir with the rest of India. But for thousands like Danish, it remains a promise unfulfilled.

- Muhammed Rameez Kumar

When Danish Habib lately stepped off the plane in Jammu, his heart beat with something more than homecoming.

After two long years working in Saudi Arabia, he had returned to Kashmir and was determined to take the new train to Srinagar.

It was all anyone talked about while he was away. Videos, speeches, and the way the Vande Bharat Express curved through tunnels and mountains looked like Kashmir was finally on the move.

But at the railway station, Danish was met with something else: a screen flashing sold out.

For the next day, the day after, and every day after that, there were no general seats. The train he had waited so long for had already pulled away without him.

That moment at the counter stayed with him. “I never thought I'd come home and still be stuck,” he told me, bags in hand, shoulders slumped.

Danish isn't alone.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link, or USBRL, was built on decades of planning and hope. It cut through some of India’s toughest terrain and cost thousands of crores. It’s an engineering marvel.

And for a place as long isolated as Kashmir, it was meant to be more than just steel and stone. It was supposed to be belonging and ease.