Toy trains may resume from Nov

SNS, Siliguri, 5 October 2014: Around three years after services of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) was truncated following massive landslides at Paglajhora on National Highway 55, fresh hopes have emerged that the services along the entire stretch from Siliguri to Darjeeling may resume from November this year.

Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Katihar Division of North East Frontier Railway (NFR), AK Sharma, expressed hope that the services will resume from November. A landslide at Paglajhora on 14 June, 2010 had brought to a halt the train services between Siliguri and Kurseong. Although the trains used to run from Siliguri to Gayabari, another landslide on the highway at Tindharia in September 2011 had shortened the service till Rongtong only.

However, the trains have been running between Kurseong and Darjeeling uninterrupted.

The NH-55 and the toy train tracks, which run parallel to each other, had suffered major damage during the two landslides.

The DHR later resumed the train service between Siliguri and Gayabari, a stretch of around 40 km, and from Mahanadi to Darjeeling (around 39 km).

"The NH-division of the state PWD is working to restore the road at Paglajhora. They have set the deadline of this month. We will need at least another 15 days to lay down the tracks. So far the railway department has laid 600 meters of tracks and 200 meters more remain to be laid. We hope that the toy train service will resume between Siliguri and Darjeeling by November," said Mr Sharma at the NJP railway station recently. The DHR was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1999.

Expressing concern that the heritage DHR is running truncated services, Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia had informed the matter to Railways Minister V Sadananda Gowda, who in turn had written to chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue.