Railway Board halts Vande Bharat’s Jammu-Srinagar March 1 extension so Modi can press the button first

The Railway Board on Tuesday night abruptly placed on hold its earlier decision to extend the Vande Bharat Express from Katra to Jammu Tawi from March 1, barely hours after a formal announcement had been made — and while no official reason has been offered, the evidence points to one uncomfortable conclusion: the launch is being held back so Prime Minister Narendra Modi can inaugurate it on his own terms and timeline.

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Uchit Singhal cited only "unavoidable circumstances" with no further elaboration — a phrase so vague it functioned less as an explanation and more as a signal that something inconvenient was being quietly managed from above. Northern Railways had earlier confirmed that train numbers 26401 and 26402 would operate between Jammu Tawi and Srinagar from March 1, departing Jammu at 6:15 AM and arriving in Srinagar by 11:10 AM, with the return journey leaving Srinagar at 2:00 PM and reaching Jammu by 6:50 PM, halting at Katra, Reasi, and Banihal. Capacity was set to expand from eight coaches carrying around 530 passengers to 20 coaches accommodating over 1,440 passengers daily — a desperately needed alternative to the landslide-prone Jammu–Srinagar highway.

The numbers matter here. The Katra–Srinagar Vande Bharat had already carried nearly 3.75 lakh passengers in its first six months alone, reflecting the scale of public demand. Traders, students, pilgrims, and tourists had aligned their plans around March 1. That date has now been quietly taken from them — not because of a technical fault, not because the train isn't ready, but in all likelihood because a ceremonial occasion is being engineered for political benefit. Every day of delay means 1,440 people rerouted, rescheduled, or left navigating a treacherous mountain highway. Multiplied across weeks of waiting for the right photo-op, the human cost becomes significant and inexcusable.

That a divisional official made a full public announcement without Railway Board clearance — only for it to be reversed within hours — also exposes a hierarchy so fixated on controlling the political moment that basic institutional coordination collapsed entirely. Indian Railways does not owe the Prime Minister a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It owes 1,440 daily passengers a train that runs on the date it promised.