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The Congress on Friday described the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Line as an example of , which it claimed had not been acknowledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “perennial desire for self-glory”.

This statement came ahead of Modi inaugurating the Chenab Bridge on Friday. The is part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link.

In a social media post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said governance involves “great continuity”, a fact he claimed is “consistently denied” by the prime minister.

“This is especially true when it comes to the implementation of extraordinarily challenging developmental projects,” he added.

The 272-km railway project, cutting , was sanctioned in March 1995 when the Congress’ PV Narasimha Rao was the prime minister, Ramesh said. It was declared a national project in 2002 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he added.

Ramesh also listed a series of rail link inaugurations carried out by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh between 2005 to 2013 during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, including stretches between Jammu-Udhampur, Anantnag-Mazhom, Mazhom-Baramulla, Anantnag-Qazigund and Qazigund-Banihal.

“This meant that by June 26, 2013 the 135 km rail link between Baramulla and Qazigund had become operational,” Ramesh said.

Since 2014, the 111-km Katra-Banihal stretch has been completed, though most of the key contracts, including for...