SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make his first visit to India-held Kashmir on Friday since the conflict between the nucleararmed neighbours last month, inaugurating a strategic railway to the mountainous region, his office said on Wednesday.

Modi is set to visit to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the river below.

The project establishes all-weather rail link between held Kashmir and India, as the railway begins in the garrison city of Udhampur, headquarters of the army`s northern command, and runs north to Srinagar.

Modi is expected to flag off a special train.

According to the Indian media, PM Modi had postponed his previous visit to Srinagar, scheduled for April 19, for inauguration of the bridge and train just days before the deadly attack on tourists in Pehalgam, followed by multiple strikes inside Pakistan by India and Islamabad`sfirmresponse that resulted in the downing of six fighter jets.

People in Indiaoccupied Kashmir have been demanding independenceforthe territory or its merger with Pakistan, a demand India attempts to crush by force.

The 272-km UdhampurSrinagar-Baramulla railway with 36 tunnels and 943 bridges has been constructed to transform regional mobility and driving socio-economic integration, PM Office statement added.

Its centrepiece is the Chenab Bridge, which will facilitate the movement of people, goods and troops that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and air. The train line could slash travel time between the town of Katra and Srinagar, by half, taking around three hours.

Indian Railways calls the $24m bridge `arguably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history`.

The bridge will also revolutionise logistics in Ladakh, the icy region in India bordering China.

-AFP