After Shopian, the locals of Baramulla are up in arms against the railway line expansion plans in the Kashmir valley.
While villagers in south Kashmir’s Shopian district have objected to the land-marking for the railway line in the area as it will devastated their apple orchards, the residents in north Kashmir’s claim that railway authorities earmarked the ground of degree college Baramulla for the railroad track.
The Railways Ministry has approved the final location survey of five lines, all of which fall under the Kashmir division. The lines include the Baramulla-Banihal section (135.5 kilometers), Baramulla-Uri (50 kilometers), Sopore-Kupwara (33.7 kilometers), Awantipora-Shopian (27.6 kilometers), and Anantnag-Bijbehara-Pahalgam (77.5 kilometers).
The railway line expansion plan has triggered protests in Shopian, where fruit growers have appealed to the Prime Minister to divert the track.
In Baramulla, civil society members have also demanded a diversion of the railway track, which they said passes through one of the oldest college grounds in north Kashmir.
“It came to the notice that the Department of Railways authorities have earmarked the degree college ground in Baramulla for fleeting the railway track towards Uri that bisects the playground, which is the only available ground in Baramulla,” a representation by the Civil Society Baramulla to Deputy Commissioner Baramulla read.
The Baramulla administration has written to the Deputy Chief Engineer, Northern Railway Srinagar, and asked him to look into the matter and redress the grievance on merit.
The mainstream politicians, too, have demanded the shifting of these railway tracks.