Kashmir gets its first train service with opening of 41 miles of new line

After eight years of battling through the mountains, harsh winter weather and a simmering Islamic insurgency, India has defied continuing violence in Kashmir to open the first train service in the region.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, paid a fleeting visit to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, on Saturday to flag off the first train to travel along the new 73-mile railway line, which has been under discussion for more than a century.

Only 41 miles of the new line are complete — connecting the towns of Baramulla in the north and Qazigund in the south — but it will be linked eventually to the rest of India's railway network.

Indian officials say that the £277 million project is a feat of railway engineering second only to China's railway to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, completed in 2006. Thousands of engineers worked on the project, which began in 2000, braving the constant threat of attack by militants as well as appalling conditions during Kashmir's long, harsh winters. An Indian engineer and his brother were killed by suspected militants in 2004 and a policeman was killed in 2007 in another attack on a group of engineers. The opening ceremony came a day after police shot and killed two Muslims during demonstrations against the Prime Minister's visit. Shops, schools and offices were all closed after separatist leaders and trade unions called a two-day strike to protest against Mr Singh's presence.