The iconic Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) has a first since its birth 137 years ago – an evening daily toy train service hauled by a steam engine.
But the evening narrow-gauge train, introduced on Monday for tourists, does not go the whole hog.
Instead of the 88 km between New Jalpaiguri at 113.8 metres above mean sea level to Darjeeling at 2075.6 metres, the train will cover 18 km between Siliguri Junction and Rongtong at the 427.9 metres.
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Siliguri Junction is the third station after New Jalpaiguri on DHR and Rongtong the fifth. Rongtong, meaning ‘southern river’, is the first of the high-altitude stations.
“The steam evening safari leaves Siliguri Junction at 3 p.m. to reach Rongtong at 4:20 p.m. with a 10-minute stoppage at Sukna station in between. The break is for tourists to visit the DHR museum at Sukna station. The train returns from Rongtong after a 25-minute halt for refreshment and engine reversal,” Pranav Jyoti Sharma, spokesperson of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), said.
DHR, tagged a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1999, is under operational control of NFR. Most films featuring DHR in song sequences or poignant moments are shot along the Sukna-Rongtong stretch and Tindharia further up. Tindharia is where the DHR workshop is located.
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The evening special toy train has a first class coach and a dining car with a total seating capacity of 29. The train has on-board catering service to be served on payment, NFR officials said.
New additions
NF Railway had introduced Vistadome – transparent glass roof for passengers to get a panoramic view of the journey – and air-conditioned coaches in DHR some time ago. This was the first instance in India of a narrow gauge railway having AC coaches.
The Vistadome coach can accommodate 40 people while the first class AC coaches have bigger and wider windows offering a better view for passengers.
The coaches also boast of other features such as automatic sliding compartment doors, multiple television screens providing infotainment to passengers, wide side door for the differently abled, GPS-based info system, and LED lights.
NFR officials said that the Railway Ministry has delegated more powers to the divisional railway managers and director of each of the five heritage hill railways of Indian Railways for enhancing their tourist potential and scientific preservation.
Innovative measures have helped DHR reduce the expenditure-earning gap. For instance, the mountain railway earned ₹7.65 crore against an expenditure of ₹22.83 crore on maintenance during the 2016-17 fiscal. The revenue dipped to ₹6.23 crore mainly due to six months of shut down due to Gorkhaland stir and landslides during the 2017-18 fiscal. The expenditure during this period also dipped to ₹19.37 crore. In the current fiscal (up to October), DHR has earned ₹8.80 crore while spending ₹12.19 crore.