The ‘toy trains’ on the World Heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are scheduled to chug again after more than a year of closure due to COVID-19.
A statement issued by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Saturday said the narrow-gauge train services between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in West Bengal would be resumed from August 25. The timings for a pair of trains from each terminal, around 88 km apart, have not been notified yet.
“Each train will have 17 seats in the first class and 29 seats in the general class for passengers,” NFR’s spokesperson Guneet Kaur said, adding that the tourism and hospitality sectors were expected to benefit from the resumption of the mountain railway services.
Passengers would have to observe all preventive measures and guidelines related to COVID-19 during the journey, she said.
Built between 1879 and 1881, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway ascends from about 100 metres above mean sea level at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had declared the Railway a World Heritage Site in December 1999.
