Railways Plans Special Tour Package On Kalka-Shimla Line

Railways soon would introduce special tour packages for Kalka-Shimla line. Talking about the plan, Divisional Railway Manager (Ambala), H K Jaggi said that Railways is planning to introduce special tour packages to different destinations on the 96.6 km Kalka-Shimla railway line in partnership with the Himachal Pradesh government.

Remarkably, the Kalka-Shimla line has been selected by UNESCO as a heritage destination. And, the new step from the railways would help develop and harness the much potential hidden here as a tourist destination. Mr Jaggi said that he held talks in this regard with HP Chief Secretary Asha Swaroop and Secretary Tourism Manisha Nanda, and response has been positive.

Also, he divulged that a plan has been chalked out to set up a museum to place signals, benches, weighing machines used over the years on the 104-year-old narrow gauge railway line. As of now all these heritage items are preserved at different stations along the Kalka-Shimla railway. Also, he promised that the model of Kalka-Shimla tour package would be similar to Palace-on-Wheels.

Toy Train

The over 100 years old Matheran toy train of Maharashtra is ready to huff and puff its way into the prestigious Unesco Heritage list soon. The Union Ministry of Culture and the Indian Railways are determined to turn this prospect into a reality and are therefore currently busy readying the final dossier on the historic Matheran Light Railway (MLR).

Railway officials, infact, are look forward to seeing the Matheran hill train on the 2009 Unesco list. It was in 2005 itself when the Indian Railways (IR) proposed that the Matheran hill train be included in the Unesco list. But it was not fated to happen so as later that year, Mumbai witnessed a violent deluge on 26/7, which washed away a significant portion of the tracks of the 20-km Matheran railway.

Thereafter the central Railway had to spend nearly two years to get them back in their original condition. It was only in February 2007 that the Matheran toy train restarted its operation. ‘Last year, the ministry of culture could not back our application for MLR as they had already selected two other sites. But this year, they have promised to push for the Matheran train with Unesco,’ said executive director (heritage) at the ministry of railways, Rajesh Agrawal.