Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kashmir on Friday, his first visit to the contested Himalayan region since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan last month, and opened a strategic railway line.

Modi is launching 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 an intense four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.

His office broadcast images of Modi at a viewing point for the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long (4,314-foot-long) steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the river below.

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