Heavy rain and floods in Himachal Pradesh have battered the 94-km-long Kalka-Shimla railway line, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The back-to-back floods, first in July and then in August, has led to stoppage of services along the route.
The damage to infrastructure on the Kalka-Shimla route is estimated at around ₹15 crore.
“Since July, the route has seen over 150 disruptions in patches due to hill slips, falling boulders, falling trees, deposition of debris on tracks, damage to abutments, collapse of culverts and so on,” Divisional Railway Manager (Ambala) Mandeep Singh Bhatia told The Hindu.
The Kalka-Shimla railway line is divided into four parts — Kalka to Koti, Koti to Barog, Barog to Solan and Solan to Shimla.
The first flood that inundated the route on July 9 and 10 caused 137 disruptions, of which 110 disruptions were set right, Mr. Bhatia said. “After the July flood receded, we were able to make the Solan-Shimla stretch functional, but we have again shut down the route after the floods of August 14,” he said.
After the landslips near the Summer Hill station led to the collapse of a 19 metre-long arch bridge, the Railways had to stop operations on the Solan-Shimla stretch.
Mr. Bhatia said that if there are no more floods, then the route would be up and running within the next three to four weeks.
The scenic route — a popular tourist attraction — has 20 stations, 103 tunnels and 912 curves. From a height of 2,152 feet at Kalka, the narrow-gauge line goes up to 4,656 feet at Shimla. Prior to July, seven trains of seven coaches each used to ply on the route every day. Each train has a capacity of 210 passengers and the journey takes around five hours one way.
