The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday announced to promote all students studying in Classes I to IX and also Class XI to the next classes.

The decision on mass promotion was taken after annual examinations of these students could not be conducted because of floods and the Assembly elections.

The state government had announced that the examinations would be conducted in March. However, the swine flu scare and inclement weather forced the government to extend the winter vacations. Now, to avoid further wastage of students’ time, the government decided for mass promotion.

“The students shall be elevated to the next level with immediate effect,” said an order issued by Commissioner Secretary (Education) Shaleen Kabra.

The academic session of schools in the Valley starts from November, but last year, the examinations forIt's not like you can just pull one of those behemoths into a regular garage and give it a tune-up. You need space. Lots of it.

The grandest of the buildings is the 165,000-square-foot machine shop, where rows upon rows of steam engines could be lined up for maintenance and repair. The multi-paned windows stretch upward, giving it the sense and scale of a church. The floors are made from wood bricks, chosen as a way to dampen the clamor of the repair work. Bullet casings from 9 mm blanks litter the floor, left over from some movie, or possibly a scene from "Breaking Bad."

The shops were built on more than 27 acres in the early 1900s, a time when steam-breathing giants roamed the rails, carrying cargo and people.