Darjeeling toy rtain to add extra coaches for Christmas-New Year season

8:20 AM

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Tourism

Siliguri, Dec. 22: The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway will add one extra coach to each of the three diesel-run toy trains for the joy rides to accommodate tourists who flock to the hills during the Christmas-New Year season.

The additional compartments on the Darjeeling-Ghoom-Darjeeling route would be introduced from December 25.

Narendra Mohan, the area officer of the DHR, said the decision to add the coaches was taken because there had been an increase of around 10 per cent in online reservations for the joy rides since the holiday season began this time.

"We have noticed that the online reservations for the DHR joy rides have risen to around 80 per cent in the past two-three days, which is around 10 per cent more compared to the previous years. So, we have decided to add an extra coach for all diesel-driven joy rides to accommodate more tourists," said Mohan.

A diesel-driven toy train in the Darjeeling hills. File picture

Currently, the DHR offers seven joy rides, including a steam-run Red Panda that plies between Kurseong and Darjeeling.

The six other joy rides are between Darjeeling and Ghoom.

Three trains on the route are diesel-driven and the three others run on steam.

"The reason for attaching additional coaches to the diesel-driven trains is that they (the engines) can haul up to four coaches. The steam-driven engines can pull only two compartments. We will run the extra coaches till the reservations come back to normal," Mohan said.

DHR sources said a first-class coach has 28 seats and by adding the extra coaches, 84 more passengers can be accommodated for the joy rides daily.

On December 2, the DHR had resumed the toy train service between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. The route had been shut since June 2010 because of a landslide at Paglajhora.

While one train travels from NJP to Darjeeling, another one runs from Darjeeling to NJP everyday.

"The occupancy has been fairly good in the past three weeks. In fact, in the past three days, the train that travels uphill from NJP to Darjeeling had full occupancy," Mohan said.

Source: Telegraph

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Week long Darjeeling Cultural and Tourism Festival 2015

8:47 AM

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Tourism

Tourist in the second day of the ongoing week long Darjeeling Cultural and Tourism Festival (DCTF) did what they had only watched actors do in cinemas and wished. The festival organizers gave enthusiastic tourists a thrilling opportunity, to dance on the moving Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), a first for many of them.

And willing tourists did not let go of the opportunity as some of them climbed aboard the open coach of the toy train and showed their moves. “Fifteen years back I had taken my last ride on the toy train. But, today it was an amazing and different experience, to dance on one of them with people on the streets looking at us. I felt like a movies star,” said an elated Prashant Divedhi from Kolkata.

Burdawan resident Animika Bhowkick did not dance but the ride from Darjeeling to Ghoom and back was a memorable one for her. “I am not much of a dancer so I refrained from joining the others. However, it was just as much a scintillating experience to be a part of the road show. I thank the organizers and wish them well for future, too,” she said.

The DCTF that is organized by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has become an annual affair in the Hills. It is organized every year this month in November with the objective to attract tourists to the Hill station.

This year the festival is being held from November 1 to 7 in Darjeeling sub-division. Similar events will also be organized in the other sub-divisions of Kurseong, Kalimpong and Mirik, till November 8.

The cultural dance (on different Nepali songs) on the moving DHR train however will only be held for three days from today. Performers from the GTA’s information and cultural department will perform every morning for three days on the 10.40 am diesel run train from Darjeeling to Ghoom and back with a break at the Batasia War Memorial. Bhanu Kanta Ghisingh, the GTA information and cultural department assistant director said, “The idea behind having dancers from the department on the moving train is to bring to highlight and promote our cultural. Tourists can even participate with our dancing troupe, which we believe will give them a trilling experience”.

Not only tourists but the performers too were elated with the opportunity to dance on the heritage train. “I have been dancing for thirteen years but this is the first time on a moving train. This experience I will keep till my last days. Of course, dancing on moving train is never easy but I managed it all the same,” said Ram Limboo, one of the male dancers.

The festival will showcase the various culture and traditions of the Hills communities. Stalls have been put up at the Gorkha Ranga Manch Bhawan dishing our traditional delicacies and in the evening local bands will entertain tourist and locals alike for the next six days.

Source EOI

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100 years of Tindharia workshop - DHR, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

12:37 PM

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Tenzing Norgey

1915-2015: 100 years of Tindharia Works, A UNESCO World Heritage Area
Article by: DHR Sano Rail

This year celebrates 100 years of Tindharia Works. It has always been considered a location relatively safe from landslips but this was to change in 2011.

The only background information I have of Tindharia is to be found in the late Terry Martin’s books ‘Halfway to Heaven’ and ‘Iron Sherpa’ - although I remember conversations with some local residents of the area over the past 20 years,

Until the early 19th Century, the Darjeeling Hills were heavily forested and largely unpopulated apart from the indigenous Lepcha people. I am not certain as to exactly where the area which is now Tindharia lay in relation to the borders of the kingdoms of Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim before the British Raj purchased land around Darjeeling and Kurseong from Sikkim as sanatoriums and summer resorts.

The first roads into the area, to link Siliguri and Darjeeling, were the Pankabari Road up to Kurseong and then the Military Road across to Darjeeling. However, these were steep mountain tracks suitable only for pack horses rather than wheeled carts. The Hill Cart Road (now NH55 Tensing Norgay Road) was built around 1861 with a steady gradient up which two bullocks could haul a cart. It was largely along this formation that the DHR was constructed in 1879 - 81 to reduce the almost prohibitive cost of taking supplies up to Darjeeling and bringing down the products of the rapidly developing tea industry.

Tindharia was built as a ‘railway town’ by the DHR around its mechanical headquarters. It is said that the location, which is logistically illogical for a workshop, was chosen for being the lowest point in the Darjeeling Hills, on the DHR, where the British employees could work year round. It should be remembered that, at that time, Siliguri was just a very small settlement around the railway junction between the North Bengal Railway from Calcutta (through what is now Bangladesh) and the DHR up to Darjeeling and considered to be a most unhealthy location to spend any time.

The current workshop complex at Tindharia was not built until 1913 - 15. From 1881 until then, it is assumed that the large locomotive shed there, with the godowns around it, was also used as the workshops for major locomotive and rolling stock repairs. This would make sense as the Chief Mechanical Engineer’s bungalow and the Mechanical Department offices were adjacent to it. The original bungalow was a single storey wooden structure with a veranda, similar to many of the Tea Planters bungalows of the period, but was replaced in the mid 1940s with the current two-storey building in the then fashionable Indian interpretation of Art Deco style - which can also be seen at Darjeeling Station. The office building was destroyed during the political disturbances of the mid 1980s - although the remains still exist.

The first railway colonies were built around Tindharia station and the Locomotive Shed and include the bazaar area. Later ones were constructed further down the hill nearer to the new Workshops. I don’t know if it still exists, but the only street map I have seen of Tindharia was (2004) framed in the electric generating plant in the Workshops and also had the power lines into the town marked on it.
The opening of the new Workshops (which are just about to celebrate their centenary) coincided with the major expansion of the DHR system with new lines from Siliguri to Kishanganj (connecting with the metre gauge line to Katihar) and up the Teesta Valley (to develop international trading with Tibet at Kalimpong). Other developments at this time included the hospital at Tindharia, new headquarters offices for the DHR at Kurseong (adjacent to the station), the DHR Club at Kurseong (now All India Radio) and a new railway colony at Kurseong, which incorporating the railway officers’ residences above what is now the Tourist Lodge.

Until the DHR company sold out to Indian Railways in 1947, the method of working the line was very different to that of today. Not only were the now extinct freight facilities considerably larger (and more profitable) than the passenger services but all train operation was based at Tindharia. Therefore Tindharia was home not only to the workshop overhaul staff but to most of the routine maintenance staff, loco drivers, firemen, sanders, guards, jamader / brakesmen etc. Locomotives and their crews all started from Tindharia and worked on a cycle of diagrams which might involve spending one or more nights away from home at Darjeeling or Kurseong or Siliguri. One retired driver told me that at the height of the spring tea season, he had to make four round trips between Tindharia and Sukna each day to clear the loaded wagons off the Hills as fast as possible for a larger loco to assemble longer trains onwards to Siliguri and transhipment onto the Broad Gauge for Calcutta.

In its last year as a private company, the DHR employed at Tindharia:
• 1 Chief Mechanical Engineer
o 1 Chief Clerk
8 Clerks
1 Steno typist
1 Tracer
3 Menials
o 1 Loco Officer
1 Coal Inspector
3 Coal Clerks
30 Drivers
31 Firemen
200 Jamaders and Brakesmen
45 Jackmen and Loco Cleaners
1 Shed Clerk
2 Running Clerks
2 Callmen
o 1 Store Keeper
1 Head Clerk
7 Clerks
9 Menials
o 1 Workshop Foreman
1 Assistant Chargeman
2 Shop Clerks
2 Peons
2 Timekeepers
5 Chowkidars
88 Fitters
27 Drillers and Turners
12 Boilermakers
50 Riveters
16 Blacksmiths
14 Strikers
23 Carpenters
4 Coppersmiths
4 Tailors
16 Painters
11 Moulders
28 Khalasis
1 Tindal
1 Sweeper
• 1 Medical Officer (at Kurseong)
o 2 Assistant Medical Officers
1 Compounder
1 Nurse
1 Dresser
2 Menials
• 1 Commercial Inspector
o 2 Station Masters (including relief)
o 2 Assistant Station Masters (including relief)
12 Guards
2 Travelling Ticket Examiners
• 683 Total

This list does not include Civil Engineering and Permanent Way staff nor other Commercial passenger or freight staff based at Tindharia (as the inventory does not split the location of these establishments).

The Mechanical Engineering Department did not function as separate Open Line and Workshop divisions - only maintenance (all types) and train crews.

Although all the above employees were based at Tindharia, some of their work-output was actually for the DHR extension lines from Siliguria to Teesta Valley or Kishanganj, not the DHR main line to Darjeeling.

It is probable that the above establishment levels were much higher than those in the 1930s since the DHR had only just started reducing its operations after World War II - when road traffic was restricted, many special trains were run for the Army (both rest leave and medical convalescence in the Hills) and Tindharia Workshops was undertaking production of many Broad Gauge railway components to allow other railway workshops in India to increase output of military hardware.

Today, Tindharia is best described as a ‘ghost town’; a shadow of its former self. The DHR no longer runs services to Teesta Valley and Kishanganj or freight trains and the remaining passenger services are now based at Darjeeling and Siliguri. Only a much-reduced establishment at the Workshops, the last in India to give heavy repairs to steam locomotives and wooden bodied coaches, remains to give local employment. Even the passing trade of cars, taxis and buses up the Hill Cart Road requiring refreshments has ceased because of landslips either side of the town in 2010 - 12 and again recently.

It is hoped that the soon-to-commence UNESCO Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP) for the DHR will recognise that all the non-railway, environmental, social and cultural criteria of the World Heritage Site listing (as well as the obvious railway elements) are summarised in the railway town of Tindharia and that a sub-plan can be developed to give the area a sustainable future and hope.

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Toy train resumes Darjeeling-NJP service after 5 years

7:43 AM

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Tourism

 Mrinalini Sharma

World heritage, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway today resumed its full-fledged toy-train service along the whole length of 80km tracks from New Jalpaiguri (NJP ) to Darjeeling after a gap of five years.
The toy train service from NJP to Darjeeling, the most sought-after choice of tourists, has been suspended since June 14, 2010, after a major landslide swept away 500 metres of NH55 at Paglajhora - located 35km from here - and the track running parallel to it.

Toy train resumes Darjeeling-NJP service

Although the toy trains used to run from NJP till Gayabari, another landslide on the highway at Tindharia in September 2011 cut short the joy ride till Chunabhati. Chunabhati is 27km from Siliguri and Gayabari is 7km uphill.

The resumption of Siliguri-Darjeeling service today was a low-key affair with no fanfare. The diesel-driven toy train hauling two first class coaches and a second class one started its journey to Darjeeling from the NJP station around 8.50am with a single passenger Edward Copperman from Ireland.

"I arrived in Siliguri on Tuesday and got to know through Internet that the DHR service from Siliguri to Darjeeling would resume today after a gap of nearly five years. The toy train is very popular in Ireland and I have heard that the scenery along the route is spectacular. This is my first visit to Darjeeling and it feels great that I am the first passenger to board the Unesco World heritage train which is resuming its journey from here to Darjeeling after five years," said Copperman who works for a travel agency.

The scheduled departure of the train from NJP is 8.40am and its scheduled arrival at Darjeeling is at 4.15pm. Although the train departs from NJP, the toy-train service is popularly referred to as the Siliguri-Darjeeling service.

When the toy train reached Siliguri Junction at 10am, eight more passengers boarded the train.
Among them was Shweta Rani from Bhagalpur in Bihar, who along with her husband and two children, had come for a holiday to Darjeeling.

"We had arrived in Siliguri yesterday and were supposed to go to Darjeeling by road today. However, we got to know through Internet that the Siliguri-Darjeeling service would be starting today. So, we decided to travel by it. My children had wanted to take a ride in the heritage railway during our Darjeeling visit and their wish has been fulfilled," said Shweta.

In March 2013, Unesco - which had conferred World Heritage status on the DHR in 1999 - had rapped the Indian Railways over the delay in restoration of the tracks at Tindharia and Paglajhora and resumption of service from NJP to Darjeeling.

In February 2014, the toy train service resumed from NJP to Gayabari after restoration of the tracks at Tindharia.

"The restoration of tracks at Paglajhora was completed on December 13 last year and trial runs were being conducted since December 24. We had applied for permission to restart the Siliguri-Darjeeling service to the Northeast Frontier Railway and got it a few days back. So, we are starting full-fledged daily service from NJP to Darjeeling with passengers from today. It will be a regular service from Siliguri and online reservations will start as soon as the service has been updated in the railway reservation system. Till then, we will provide manual tickets to the passengers," said a DHR official at Siliguri Junction.

Another train service from Darjeeling to Siliguri started from Darjeeling at 10.15am today and reached Siliguri after 8pm.

Source: Telegraph,

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Bimal Gurung thanked Dr Subramanian Swamy for raising Gorkhaland issue at the National level

8:00 PM

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GTA

Bimal Gurung, the GTA chief  expressed his gratitude to Dr Subramanian Swamy for raising the statehood issue at the National level by  writing to Home Minister for GORKHA PRADESH and raising several other issues such as creating a post of Additional Chief Secretary and Additional DGP for the GTA (Gorkhaland Territorial Administration).

Subramanian Swamy during National Seminar on “Small States and Gorkhaland”

Senior BJP leader  Dr Subramanian Swamy had promised to raise the Gorkhaland statehood issue last week when he had been invited by the Morcha leadership in the two days National Seminar on “Small States and Gorkhaland”

GJM (Gorkha Janmukti Morcha) president Bimal Gurung on his official Facebook Page wrote the following.

"I am most thankful to Dr. Subramanian Swamy for raising the Gorkhaland issue at the highest level.
The fact that he wrote to the Home Minister to take necessary steps to form “Gorkha Pradesh” shows the significance he has placed on the formation of a separate state for the Gorkhalis in India.

In writing his letter to the Hon’ble Home Minister a day before the 1/1st and 1/3rd Gorkha Rifles complete 200 years service to the nation is reflective of the impeccable as the nation will celebrate our brave Gorkha jawans tomorrow, the Hon’ble Home Minister will be reminded of the need to give justice to the Gorkhas who have waited for 108 years for a state of our own.

I had a telephonic conversation with Dr Subramanian Swamy today where I thanked him whole heartedly for advocating our cause of a seperate state of Gorkhaland.

Dr Swamy told me that he was written to the Hon'ble Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh outlining various steps that can be taken towards creation State of "Gorkha Pradesh". He has sought creation of posts of Addl DGP and Addl Chief Secretary, he told me. He said that the Hon'ble Home Minister was gave a very positive response to the demand.

Dr Swamy also said that he had spoken to Hon'ble Railway Minister, Shri Suresh Prabha and raised the issue of upgrading the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways. Likewise he also drawn the attention of Hon'ble Minister for Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari to the early restoration of NH 55 in Darjeeling and to the Hon'ble Law Minister, Shri D.V Sadananda Gowda for setting up a seperate High Court Bench in Darjeeling as a step to creation of a seperate state.

Even as I expressed my gratitude to Dr Swamy, he assured that he will continue his advocacy of a seperate state for Gorkhas in India.

On behalf of the people of Gorkhaland, I conveyed my gratitude and prayed that he will continue to support our just and fair demand of Gorkhaland State.

Time has come for us to turn the dream of Gorkhaland into a reality, and for that all of us need to work together as a team."

Source - Bimal Gurung Official

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Darjeeling Toy train accident in Kurseong, one tourist dead

8:46 AM

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Darjeeling toy train

A toy train carrying more than 50 tourists hurtled down sloping rail tracks in Kurseong yesterday as its wheels skidded, causing the death of a Calcutta lady who may have fallen off.

The alertness of a Siliguri-based businessman saved lives in the three coaches. Giridharilal Gan, a bookseller from Siliguri, turned the wheel-like emergency brake - each coach has one - as the guard on duty on the train had jumped off like several passengers had.

(Bottom left) The toy train at the accident spot; Giridharilal Gan (above), the bookseller from
Siliguri whose presence of mind saved co-passengers. Picture by Suman Tamang

Tourists today spoke of the horrifying "death-train-like" experience as they saw a co-passenger leaping out with a kid in her arms.

According to co-passengers, Beliaghata's Moly Pal, 51, jumped, too, but did not survive. Her brother, however, said Moly may have fallen off.

When the 57 tourists started the Jungle Safari ride from Siliguri Junction at 10.35am on Republic Day, the train was late by 35 minutes.

The to-and-fro ride from Siliguri to Gayabari in Kurseong subdivision, snaking through the Mahananda wildlife park and with a 15-minute halt before return, takes five-and-a-half hours. Tourists embarking at 10am can expect to be back in Siliguri around 3.30pm.

But as the train started late yesterday, the operators said they would not go the whole stretch up to Gayabari - 35km from Siliguri Junction - but till Tindharia, which is 30km from Siliguri. As a consolation to the tourists, the driver said there would be a stop for about an hour at Tindharia, so tourists can go to nearby shops.

Toy trains rarely move at a speed more than 20kmph, making them inconvenient for long rides or daily commute.

The train reached Tindharia at 12.45pm and started for Siliguri at 1.45pm.

Gan said: "I was in a group of 24 people and we were in the last of the three coaches. As the train was moving downhill, it seemed to have picked up speed. Then we saw a person jump off and realised something must be wrong," Gan said. "Soon, the guard, who was in our coach, also leapt out."

Seeing the guard jump off, some of the women passengers panicked and started crying. "The doors and windows were rattling. People were yelling," Gan said.

By then, some passengers had started shouting that the brakes had failed - the railways did not agree with this theory, though an official said the wheels slipped on the tracks despite the application of the brakes.

Gan said he knew there was a wheel-like emergency brake at the rear of every coach as "I have travelled in toy train several times before". "I ran to the back of the coach. I rotated the brake wheel thrice. Nothing happened, the train was still hurtling down. When I rotated the wheel the fourth time, it screeched to a halt after couple of minutes," he said.

The train came to a halt near Chunabhatti station, which is a couple of kilometres from Tindharia.

"This entire thing happened in five to seven minutes, but the experience was horrifying. Either the train would have gone off the tracks and fallen into a gorge ahead or it would have rammed into homes and shops at the side of the tracks and killed more people," the 44-year-old, who has a bookshop in Siliguri's Collegepara, said.

After the train stopped, local people helped the passengers disembark.

The driver, Gan said, was still in the engine room. "He said there had been a technical problem and that he had no way of stopping the train other than applying the emergency brake which I had done."

Nikita Saha, a Siliguri-based dentist on the train with her eight-year-old daughter Neha, said the morning "joy ride became a death ride".

She said: "Some passengers were jumping off. A lady who did that lost her life, it was horrifying." The "quick action of this gentleman (Gan) saved all of us who did not jump off," Nikita said.

Kartik Das, another Siliguri resident, said he saw "a woman jump from the first coach. Within seconds, another woman carrying a child in her lap, followed."

He said when the train stopped "we ran uphill along the tracks to locate those who had jumped off. We found the woman, who had jumped first, lying near the tracks, unconscious. The woman who had jumped after her with her child had suffered injuries but both were conscious. We called up the police."

The lady who had fallen off or jumped first was 51-year-old Moly Pal of Beliaghata.

Eyewitnesses said Moly had rammed against the wall of a house when she fell. But her brother said Moly's family on the train saw her chin hit the locomotive as she fell.

The ordeal for the passengers did not end with the ride. "There was no railway official to help us reach Siliguri. Each of us had to call for vehicles from Siliguri and we returned home in the evening," Nikita said.

A police officer later said three people suffered injuries when they jumped off.

"A woman died and three others got injured. The post-mortem was conducted at NBMCH today and her body was sent to Calcutta with her relatives," the police officer of Kurseong subdivision said.

When asked what snag led to the accident, a railway official said the wheels slipped on the tracks after the brake was applied. He refused to call it a failure of the braking system.

"There was some slipping of wheels on the tracks when the train was travelling downhill. This happens when brakes are applied forcefully in a moving train.... An inquiry committee will investigate the incident," said A.K. Sharma, the divisional manager (Katihar division) of the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Asked whether any action would be taken against the guard who had jumped off instead of operating the emergency brake, Sharma said: "I have got the information and referred it to the inquiry committee. If found guilty, we will definitely take necessary action against the guard".

Moly's family said her husband and four relatives were on the train.

"They were coming back to Siliguri. The train was coming down from the mountains at a very high speed unusual for a toy train," said Sumitava Pal, Moly's brother who stays at Siliguri. "It is not clear whether my sister tried to jump off or she fell down," he said.

Gan today said: "It's like I escaped death."

Source: Telegraph

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Restore Darjeeling Himalayan Railway writes New Railway Minister to Mamata Banerjee

8:25 PM

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Mamata Banerjee

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway  (DHR), warned by UNESCO that it could lose its status as a world heritage site, has found fresh hope of restoring the link that can help retain that status.

 Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

New Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, according to Darjeeling MP S S Ahluwalia, who adds Gowda has sought her “cooperation” in restoring the disrupted service. The Centre would allocate the funds, while the ministries of railways and road transport (the road too needs repair) would have to work jointly on the project, the MP says quoting from the letter, dated July 23.
Built between 1879 and 1881, the 81-km, high-altitude line ran the famous Darjeeling “toy train” between Darjeeling and New Jalpaiguri and remains the only Indian railway with the UNESCO world heritage tag. It has fallen into disrepair, with landslides in Paglajhora in 2010 having dismantled 8 km of the tracks. The service continues between Mahanadi and Darjeeling at one end, and between New Jalpaiguri and Gayabari at the other.
Last year, UNESCO warned the West Bengal government and Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that the world heritage site tag would be withdrawn unless the service was restored. Subsequently, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was allocated Rs 88 crore for restoration but the link between Mahanadi and Gayabari remains suspended. The road between those two points, too, has been snapped.
Ahluwalia then took it up again. “I wrote to the railway minister explaining the situation. He has responded and also written to Mamata Banerjee to cooperate in the restoration, and to the road transport ministry for support in rebuilding the road between Mahanadi and Gayabari,” said Ahluwalia.
DHR sources said restoration work had started after the warning but was stopped due to bad weather and labour problems in the area. North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb said, “We requested the central government to start restoration and allocate funds. The UNESCO team’s report said it was a highly seismic zone and the track could not be restored unless the road is rebuilt first. But the Centre did not make any effort.”
Former minister of state for railways Adhir Chowdhury blamed the state government: “After Railways allotted Rs 88 crore, the Bengal government failed to use the funds.”
According to Narendra Mohan, area manager of DHR, a pair of “jungle safari” trains runs between NJP and Gayabari while four pairs of trains run between Mahanadi and Darjeeling almost regularly. Chartered trains run on the operational track on request.

Source: indianexpress

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The fading legacy of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

8:39 PM

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Opinion

Unless authorities involves more and more local participation, the DHR (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway) would remain just a showpiece for Darjeeling GenNext - writes Vivek Ghatani, Senior Editor, www.indiangorkhas.in

At Kurseong Railway station above 4750 ft, tourists mostly Bengalis from south Bengal stands in queue for a railway ticket to travel in the infamous toy train. Their enthusiasm to board the train upto Darjeeling has no limits. They had heard somewhere in Kolkata that a toy train ride from Kurseong to Darjeeling is picturesque and more of it fun.

 

The fading legacy of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

“Is this the queue for 7 a.m train to Darjeeling,” asked a gentleman not knowing exactly where to stand. Once he was informed that the queue actually is for the 7a.m daily train, a crowd of 7-8 people gathered around.

A middle aged woman finally appeared at the ticket counter bringing relief for the tourists standing in queue. One after another the tourists bought the ticket and boarded the train waiting for it customers. Once the queue finished, the ticket counter woman shut the small window before handing the chart to one of the guard.

A whistle blowed and the two compartment train pulled by a diesel engine one pierced through the congested Kurseong town heading towards Darjeeling. Smiles adorned amidst the passengers as travelling in a small train was a new experience for all.

Soon after the train left the station, I met an old friend of mine. The friend is an employee of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) since many years. Meeting after a long time always opens up chat. Since he is working with the DHR I inquired many things about DHR. It was no shocking to me when my friend whispered, “The DHR is running at a loss every year”.    

The fact, the story of DHR running at a loss, is often heard from its enthusiasts while the Indian Railways remains tighlipped may be out of fear of losing the heritage status accorded in 1999 by UNESCO. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) and its toy train with a steam engine is the only the second such railway to get the status after Festooning Railways in Austria which uses the similar steam engine.

This steam engine train built by the British in 1881 is considered to be a manoeuvring engineering work whose tracks pierces through perky hilly terrain of Darjeeling hills that starts from the foothills of Siliguri. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway indeed still today a world famous epitome for the Queen of hills.

Inspite of the fact, people from these politically disturbed hills unfortunately has not benefitted the way it should have from this world famous epitome. As I come across meeting many people of the hills asking them has the DHR in reality served the purpose for the people to earn from it? The answers to my knowledge till today has been a big ‘NO’ that has triggered or forced us to conclude that the manoeuvring  work of the Britishers has become a show piece rather than a combination of show piece and earning epitome for the people.

The whole agimony of debate vis-a vis whether people are benefitted directly from DHR draws attention because of the fact that the hill economy is directly depended on tourism. A ‘Gorkha Bhansa Ghar’ (Kitchen of Gorkha cuisines) at Kurseong Railway station, an effort of ex-serviceman to woe tourist visiting hills by travelling on toy train has failed to attract tourists ever since its inception.

A fellow former journalist and a school teacher rightly says people from his locality in Tindharia, known to be a hub for DHR because of the place having the famous Tindharia Workshop, directly depended on DHR. “Ninty percent people from here was an employee of the DHR. Most worked in the Tindharia workshop. But the legacy is no more because of the fact that DHR is not functioning properly. After the old timers retired, there has not been recruitment anymore and the GenNext are now disinterested in toy train except a few,” he says.

People ofcourse here too formed cultural troupes to woe tourists, opened up tea stalls and eateries at various stations before finding that the National highway collapsed bringing closure to the functioning of DHR along Kurseong-Siliguri route.    

Likewise many such efforts from the local people have gone in vain right away starting from Tindharia to Darjeeling. The only reason for all this is lack of promotion both of the DHR and local efforts by the Indian Railways. In other words the Indian Railways has not been serious to develop further the world heritage status railway of India.

As a result, the fading legacy of the DHR is putting the real existence in jeopardy with people remaining least interested in toy train and its legacy. The Indian railways may be taking pride while running at a loss, but for the people this marvellous engineering piece would be nothing rather than a show piece for the GenNext of the Darjeeling hills unless the concerned authorities involves more and more local flavours so that it becomes a source of livelihood.    

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