Srinagar, Feb. 16 -- The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Khanabal-Baltal 2/4-laning road corridor already exits and it had been submitted to National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) in January 2024. In planning terms, that document did more than propose a wider road - it formally acknowledged an old truth: south Kashmir already has a defined mobility spine running from Bijbehara and Anantnag into the Lidder valley and onward toward the Amarnath axis.

Yet when the discussion around rail connectivity to Pahalgam surfaced, the debate quickly assumed that a railway would have to carve out an entirely new route through orchards and fields. No one bothered to check the truth, alignment, and route, and...