Prime Minister Vajpayee, who is beginning a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on April 18, will launch several development programmes as part of his peace initiative in the state. Vajpayee will launch the Rs 54,000 crore project aimed at connecting the North-South corridor with a 4-lane super national highway, linking Kashmir to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. He would be inaugurating the construction of the Rs 168-crore Srinagar bypass, which is expected to bring down considerably Srinagar's traffic load. The biggest initiative in recent years will be the launching of the railway projects costing Rs 5,960 crore, which will connect Jammu and Baramullah and bring the state into the mainline of the railway system.