Like most mountain railways in India, the Kangra Valley Railway (KVR) these days begins at a nondescript place. Originally chugging off from Pathankot in Punjab, the KVR now starts at Nurpur Road, after a major bridge across the Chakki River collapsed in August 2022.
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On a cold and rainy March morning, we bounced our way into Jassur, the town that hosts the Nurpur Road station. With work going on to expand NH-154 into a four-lane highway, construction debris strewn all around, and half flickering street lights, the town wore a particularly bleak look. Even less confidence-inspiring was the location of the station, down a narrow, blink-and-you-miss cul-de-sac.
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The 164-km journey from Nurpur Road to BaijnathPaprola, one of the principal termini, takes six hours. | Photo Credit: Bharath Moro
Unlike its famous counterparts such as the Kalka-Shimla Railway, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the KVR was first proposed and surveyed by the British between 1912 and 1914, not as a way to get to a hill station for the summer, but with the intent of opening up the Kangra and Kullu valleys for trade. This plan was dropped because it wasn’t remunerative enough.
It was revived in 1927 by the erstwhile North Western Railway, as a way to facilitate the construction of the Uhl hydroelectric power project at Shanan, Himachal Pradesh, above Joginder Nagar. Work proceeded at a fast pace with the line from Pathankot to Nagrota opening in December 1928, followed by the completion to Joginder Nagar in April 1929.
These days, much of the line feels haunted. | Photo Credit: Bharath Moro
The railway has had a bit of a tortuous existence. In 1942, the portion between Nagrota and Joginder Nagar was uprooted, with rails and other infrastructure sent off to West Asia to support the British war effort. Restoration happened under a newly constituted Indian Railways in 1954, but barely 20 years later, a portion between Guler and Jawanwala Shahr in Himachal Pradesh was realigned when the Maharana Pratap reservoir was created.
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These days, much of the line feels haunted. Most of the permanent route is old and in desperate need of better maintenance, though the railway staff do an admirable job with the resources at hand. There are hundreds of bridges, some of them massive, indifferently cared for, with the bare minimum done to keep up with safety standards. As a result, the 164-km journey from Nurpur Road to BaijnathPaprola, one of the principal termini, takes six hours.
Most of the permanent route is old and in desperate need of better maintenance. | Photo Credit: Bharath Moro
I spoke to Abhishek, a native of Kangra, who drove me around the hills, on whether he takes the train regularly. “Absolutely not,”, he said. “While the highway condition is patchy, it is far quicker, and I know that they are improving it much faster than the railway, so why bother with the train? Of course there are others who take the train because it is cheap and mostly they don’t pay the fare.”
It is a strange thing to be — a non-local, a railway enthusiast — in such a place. To want to preserve this nostalgic quaintness, yet wanting to see progress; to experience an old way of life, yet wanting a quick, comfortable way to travel.
The writer documents unique aspects of the Indian Railways.