India, Oct. 20 -- For Jammu and Kashmir, geography has always come with a cost. Mountains that make the region spectacular have also made movement difficult, winters isolating and access to markets expensive. For decades, improving connectivity remained one of J&K's biggest development challenges.

That is beginning to change. The Narendra Modi Government has made infrastructure a central part of its approach to Jammu and Kashmir, investing heavily in railways, highways, tunnels, airports and logistics. What is taking shape is not simply a collection of big-ticket projects, but a wider attempt to reduce the economic distance between the region and the rest of the country.

Nothing illustrates this better than the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramul...