Southern Railway officials have dismissed as speculative and baseless, reports about winding up of the Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) and suspension of service from October 5.
For the last few days, rumours have been doing the rounds that ‘suspension' of NMR services from October 5 for Permanent Way Maintenance works is a first step towards winding up the heritage railway system.
NMR has an extended UNESCO's world heritage status along with the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway System.
Annual loss
It was also rumoured that the Railways had decided to wind up NMR because of the annual loss of Rs.5 crore in running services on the ‘unviable' section.
The NMR services frequently run into trouble owing to technical snags faced by locomotives during the uphill haul. Landslips affect the track alignment during heavy rain.
Officials clarified that the rumours were based on the decision of Southern Railway to issue only general tickets for journeys beginning October 5 and stop reservation. This was to avoid passengers with confirmed tickets being disappointed because of sudden cancellation of the service.
There was no move for long-term or permanent suspension of services, officials said, added that Permanent Way Maintenance was a regular exercise.
In the last few years, Southern Railway has spent over Rs.20 crore on the maintenance of locomotives and permanent way for ensuring uninterrupted operations of the NMR.
In November 2009, the section suffered extensive damage owing to rain and landslips at over 170 places. The loss was estimated at Rs.12 crore.
The restoration of the section on a war footing, notwithstanding the unfriendly terrain, is considered one of the major achievements in the history of Southern Railway, an official from the Salem division said.
The NMR came into existence in phases, with the Mettupalayam – Coonoor rack and pinion system inaugurated on June 15, 1899; the Coonoor Fern Hill section on September 15, 1908; and Fern Hill to Udhagamandalam on October 15, 1908.
Every year, September 15 is observed as NMR Day.
NMR services on the Coonoor – Udhagamandalam section is hauled by diesel locomotives and the Mettupalayam – Coonoor section by steam locomotives. The train is operated using the X Class Swiss locomotives.
Recently, the Golden Rock Workshop of the Railways at Tiruchirapalli embarked on manufacturing indigenous locomotives to run the NMR service. The first loco has been inducted into the system.
For every tourist visiting the Nilgiris, travelling by NMR at least in one direction is a dream. The train from Mettupalayam to Kallar runs on a normal track and from there it switches run on to the rack and pinion system for easy uphill haul on Asia's steepest track. The train chugs along through scenic areas during the 41.8-km journey and negotiates 208 curves, 16 tunnels and 250 bridges. The uphill journey takes 290 minutes and the down hill one 215 minutes.
