Jammu-Katra shuttle service suspended for second day following landslides

Jammu, Sep 04: The Jammu-Katra shuttle train service, which was started to facilitate the movement of locals and stranded passengers, was suspended for the second day on Thursday in the wake of floods and landslides.

Heavy rains triggered landslides blocking the portal of tunnel number 16 on the rail track between Ramnagar and Manwal in the Jammu-Udhampur section.

“Due to heavy rainfall and landslides, railways have decided to cancel the shuttle train service (between Jammu and Katra) today,” Chief Public Relations Officer Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay said.

The shuttle services, with the induction of four trains between Katra and Jammu, had started on September 1, and were scheduled to run till September 15.

Rail traffic has remained suspended in the Jammu railway division for the past nine days due to misalignment and breaches at multiple locations in the Pathankot-Jammu section following heavy rains and flash floods on August 26.

However, railways has been running special trains to ferry stranded passengers from Jammu to their destinations over the past four days.

A total of 5,784 stranded passengers have been ferried in seven trains from Jammu for their onward journey.

Scores of people, especially pilgrims, were stranded as heavy rains lashed the Jammu region since August 26, severely disrupting rail and road traffic.

A landslide near the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra claimed 34 lives.