Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti has called for a sustainable and people-centric approach to railway planning in Kashmir, urging the Union Government to safeguard fertile agricultural land while prioritising connectivity for long-neglected regions.
In a letter addressed to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mehbooba Mufti welcomed the decision to keep three proposed railway projects in the Kashmir Valley in abeyance, terming it a major relief for lakhs of farming families whose livelihoods, she said, were under threat.
She said agriculture and horticulture remain the backbone of Kashmir’s economy, supporting nearly two-thirds of the population either directly or indirectly. She pointed out that cultivable land in the Valley forms only a small portion of its total area and has already been reduced substantially due to highways, bypasses and ring road projects.
While acknowledging that putting the railway projects on hold had provided temporary relief, Mehbooba Mufti said continued uncertainty over their future was causing anxiety among farming families and putting long-term investments at risk.
She stressed that most farmers in Kashmir are marginal landholders with no alternative source of income, adding that rising unemployment among educated youth has further increased dependence on agriculture. Protecting fertile land, she said, was therefore a matter of wider public interest.
Mehbooba Mufti urged the Railway Ministry to scrap the projects in their current alignment and rework them in a manner that preserves productive farmland. She said a revised approach could protect the livelihoods of nearly 1.5 million families while addressing development needs.
Clarifying that farmers are not opposed to rail connectivity, she strongly pitched for a dedicated fruit corridor through a dependable railway network, especially in view of frequent disruptions on the national highway. However, she emphasised that development must remain sustainable and prioritise the use of barren or unproductive land.
The PDP chief also called for extending railway connectivity to the Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal regions, saying these areas have remained economically constrained due to unreliable surface connectivity despite being resource-rich and strategically important.
She said the absence of dependable rail links, even decades after independence, has continued to hamper growth in these regions and urged the Union Government to address the imbalance as part of national integration and development.
Mehbooba Mufti expressed hope that her concerns would receive serious consideration in the larger public interest. [KNT]
