Modi opens strategic railway in contested 'crown jewel' Kashmir

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to Kashmir on Friday since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan, opening a strategic railway line to the contested region he called "the crown jewel of India".

Modi launched a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the divided Muslim-majority territory, the centre of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought a four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on 10 May.

"Pakistan will never forget... its shameful loss," the Hindu nationalist premier told crowds a month since India launched strikes on its neighbour after an attack on tourists in Kashmir.

"Friends, today's event is a grand festival of India's unity and firm resolve," Modi said after striding across the soaring bridge to formally launch it for rail traffic.

"This is a symbol and celebration of rising India," he said of the Chenab Bridge which connects two mountains.

New Delhi calls the Chenab span the "world's highest railway arch bridge", sitting 359 metres (1,117 feet) above a river.

While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.

'Our troubles'

Modi called it "an extraordinary feat of architecture" that "will improve connectivity" by providing the first rail link from the Indian plains up to mountainous Kashmir.

With 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, the new railway runs for 272 kilometres (169 miles) and connects Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla.

It is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, to around three hours.

The new route will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.

Around 150 people protested against the project on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

"We want to tell India that building bridges and laying roads in the name of development will not make the people of Kashmir give up their demand for freedom," said Azir Ahmad Ghazali, who organised the rally attended by Kashmiris who fled unrest on the Indian side in the 1990s.

"In clear and unequivocal terms, we want to say to the Indian government that the people of Kashmir have never accepted India's forced rule."

More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire during last month's conflict.

The fighting was triggered by an 22 April attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing, a charge denied by Islamabad.

Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged an insurgency for 35 years demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.

Modi also announced further government financial support for families whose relatives were killed, or whose homes were damaged, during the brief conflict --- mainly in shelling along the heavily militarised de facto border with Pakistan, known as the Line of Control.

"Their troubles are our troubles," Modi said.