Amitava Banerjee, HT, 9 Jul 2014: Despite tall promises by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP vicepresident SS Ahluwalia (the present MP from the Darjeeling constituency) during the Lok Sabha election campaign, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR) failed to secure a berth in NDA’s 2014 Railway Budget.While Modi, during an election campaign speech at Khaprail near Siliguri on April 10, had promised development of this region, it was echoed by Ahluwalia even after winning the Lok Sabha elections from the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency.

“We are utterly disappointed with this Railway Budget as we had pinned a lot of hopes on the new government. What Taj Mahal is for India, the DHR is for North Bengal and Sikkim. About 50% of the tourism of this region revolves around the DHR,” said Raj Basu, secretary general of the DHR India Support Group.

The DHR was given world heritage status by Unesco on November 26, 2000. “The DHR is unique in many ways. It only has two feet narrow gauge tracks and covers around 88 km. It climbs from almost sea level in the plains to around 8,000 ft. If the government cannot capitalise on such a unique railway service, then something must be miserably wrong with the system,” stated Basu.

Secretary general of the DHR India Support Group feels that the absence of a strong lobby at the Centre could have been the reason the Hills got a raw deal.”In future, we will strive hard to create this lobby so that the government is compelled to announce a special package for the DHR” added Basu.

Despite DHR seeing a heavy rush from both foreign and domestic tourists, this world heritage train service is plagued by numerous problems. Basic amenities like toilets and drinking water are not available in DHR stations. Also, work on the upgradation and revamping of the Darjeeling Station has been on since 2008 and is yet to be completed.

Political parties have come down heavy on the BJP for having “ignored” the DHR. “NDA’s political tussle with West Bengal has resulted in Darjeeling being deprived. On top of this, the BJP does not have a sense of belonging to the Hills. BJP MP SS Ahluwalia has no say in the party and hence could not secure a special package for the DHR despite earlier assurances,” alleged Pratap Khati, general secretary, All India Gorkha League.

The condition of the DHR is deteriorating by the day. The Kurseong-Siliguri section of the DHR has not been fully operational since June 2010 following two major landslides. The first landslide in June 2010 damaged a 500 metre stretch on the NH 55 at Paglajhora. In September 2011, a landslide at Tindharia further damaged the tracks and the Tindharia Locomotive Works, which is the DHR workshop. This led to DHR services getting truncated from Darjeeling to Kurseong and Siliguri to Rongtong in the foothills. However, the Rongtong to Gayabari section has been re paired and service has resumed since February 2014.