Clip on DHR to woo visitors - Australian agency releases 10-minute video to portray the journey of toy train

TT, Siliguri, Jan. 29: An Australian agency and India Tourism, Sydney, have together released a video on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in an attempt to popularise the heritage rail link among tourists.

The video called " The Magical Train Story: Darjeeling Himalayan Railway", has been created by Aei4eia Pvt Limited - a research and consultancy firm in Sydney - and supported by India Tourism, Sydney - a regional office of the Union ministry of tourism.

The 10-minute long clip was released in December last year and it showcases the 135-year-long history of the hill railway.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society, a UK-based association of toy train lovers, that has posted the link of the video on its website, www.dhrs.org, said it was an effort to encourage Australian tourists to visit the Darjeeling hills.

The video starts with a folk song sung by local artists, a brief history of the Darjeeling hills and how Franklin Prestage, an agent of the East Bengal Railway, established the DHR in 1878.

The video features old pictures of the Unesco World Heritage Railway and narrates the difficulties encountered while laying narrow gauge tracks across the hilly terrain.

The clip shows the way Prestage used loops and "Z Reverse", which are considered engineering marvels, to negotiate the steep gradient of the hilly region.

It also describes the transition of the toy train from one of the important mode of transportation from the plains of Siliguri to the Darjeeling hills earlier to a major tourist attraction now.

Vivek Baid, the president of the DHR India Support Group - an organisation of toy train lovers - and a tourism stakeholder, said with the help of social media, such videos would be seen by not only the tourists from Australia but those across the world.

"The promotional video is a good effort to promote the DHR among Australian tourists and it would be helpful in drawing visitors to the Darjeeling hills from that part of the globe," he said.

"With the help of social media in the current times, the video will reach a wider audience across the world as well. This will raise their awareness and interest and encourage them to visit the Darjeeling hills and ride the heritage railway," said Baid.