Rail official inspects DHR tracks & workshop

TT, 11 May 2019, Siliguri: Sanjive Roy, the general manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), on Friday discussed with officials the upkeep of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and its properties.

"Toy train tracks get affected mostly during the monsoon because of landslides and other natural calamities. I am here to visit some stretches of DHR tracks and take a stock of its present infrastructure. Our objective is to minimise incidents of disruption of toy train movements," Roy said at Tindharia, the oldest workshop of the DHR, located about 30km from here.

The DHR tracks -- stretched for around 80km from New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling stations -- are mostly in the hills. The rails are often af- fected by mud slides or boulders during the rainy season.

In 2017, a major landslide along the tracks near Paglajhora (35km from Siliguri) during the monsoon and even some minor slides in some other stretches had halted the service between the NJP and Kurseong from August 1 to mid-September.

A source in the DHR said apart from inspecting the tracks, the GM also went to the Tindharia workshop.

"During his visit, he had a meeting with the senior officials of the DHR and got the latest update about the infrastructure, the rolling stock and other machineries," the source said.