Toy-train services between NJP, Kurseong to resume.... DHR may be tagged ‘endangered’ by Unesco

SNS, KURSEONG, 29 APRIL: To resume toy train services between New Jalpaiguri to Kurseong stations, railway officials have planned to build an alternative railway route via Tindharia where a major landslide had wiped out the railway route.

The service between the two points has remained suspended since 14 June 2010, when a major landslide followed by several ones occurred at 14th Mile, Ghayabari. Things further compounded after another major landslide occurred on 28 September 2011 at Tindharia near the Locomotive Workshop.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, (DHR) Director, Mr M D Bhutia, said they have already made a blue print for the alternative railway route that would move through the backyard of the Locomotive Workshop at Tindharia. “We are sure the tracks would be laid in a month once the work starts,” he said.

However, he could not specify when the work would begin. “Things are in the process. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has started repairing the damaged parts of NH-55 and once it is completed we would begin the work of laying down the tracks,” he said.

“The backyard of the damaged workshop would be separated and protective walls would be built before laying down tracks,” he added.

According to the NHAI officials, the road beneath the workshop had been washed away. “The crater is at least 50 metre long. Roads slipped around 500 feet into the ravine, leaving no foundation to start reconstruction on. It is proving immensely difficult,” an NHAI official said.

It is learnt that the road and transport ministry has already sanctioned crores of rupees for reconstruction of the damaged road. Works are going on at several places along the NH-55, yet it is unknown when it would be thrown open again for the normal traffic.

It is also learnt that the Railway ministry has recently sanctioned over Rs 80 crore for restoring the long-suspended DHR services. Yet things remain mired in uncertainty with the people being left to guess. 

SNS, DARJEELING, 29 APRIL: The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) ~ a world heritage project ~ is in deep trouble, as the Unesco has warned to tag it as ‘endangered’ site unless the Indian government takes prompt initiatives to revamp the service that has remained partly crippled since several landslides occurred beginning with the major one in June 2010.

Unesco has taken a serious note of the service between NJP and Kurseong stations having remained suspended since.

In a letter written to the Union Minister of State for Railways, Mr Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Unesco representative to India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, Mr Shigeru Aoyagi, stated that the state of the DHR is perilous.

"If no action is taken by the Government of India for its prompt restoration it is possible that the Intergovernmental Committee of World Heritage Convention (may) advise to place the DHR in the list of endangered sites to provide focused attention for conservation," the letter stated.

The DHR top officials pleaded helplessness. “I learnt about the letter a few days ago from a citizen of Darjeeling who visited us, but we are helpless. We are just employees without power to bring things back on the rails,” an official said.

Mr Pasang Dhendup, who had visited the DHR office after he had learnt about the letter, said when contacted that he had gone to the DHR office after getting the wind of the project being in danger. “I have been trying to make people aware of the danger to the best of my individual capacity. However, I cannot do much on my own. However, I would continue raising voice to protect the dignity of DHR we all boast of,” he added.

Beginning its career in 1880, it received the Unesco-sponsored world heritage site in 1999.

It is learnt that Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has been invited by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society based in London, an old group of heritage railway enthusiasts, to attend a conference to be held on the subject of DHR restoration next month.