Muddy coal stops Darjeeling Himalayan Railway on tracks in hills

Darjeeling, March 26: A Darjeeling Himalayan Railway toy train stopped midway today because coal with a higher mud content had been shoved into the engine.

In recent times, the joy rides operated by the century-old DHR have been frequently disrupted for one reason or the other, leaving visitors as well as tour operators livid at the way the services are conducted.

So much so that the Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents today asked the railways to “completely shut down the services if they cannot maintain the heritage property”.

The 10D train hauled by a steam engine left Darjeeling for Kurseong at 10.15am, but it could not proceed beyond Bokshijhora in Dali, about 3km from the terminal point.

“The steam engine is propelled by coal. However, when the coal was dropped in the engine, the fire itself got doused as the amount of mud was more than the fuel,” said a source.

As Dali is at a higher elevation than the Darjeeling railway station, the train could return to the starting point. Because of the coal with inferior quality, the DHR cancelled the other two rides also.

“A steam engine can haul three bogies, but only two are attached nowadays because of adulterated coal,” said a tour operator. A standard compartment carries 24 passengers who shell out Rs 240 each for a two-hour ride.

The DHR officials at the Darjeeling station refused comment on the incident.

Sources, however, said seven tonnes of “poor quality coal” are presently lying at the railway station. “Coal is brought from the Siliguri Junction as and when the stock is used up,” he said. Last month, the steam service had come to a halt because of coal shortage. Around 3.2 tonnes of coal are needed a day

Not that just coal is halting the services.

Two days ago, a ride was delayed because of lack of water. “It was 1pm when the 10.40am train left the station. There was no water at the railway station and officials were seen pumping water from private tankers. The Darjeeling loco shed does not have even a proper water storage facility,” said the source.

Around 2,000 litres of water are required for each ride. “Even the refilling outlet at West Point Water Column near Dali has no constant source to fill up the tanks,” said an official.

Pradip Tamang, the secretary of the Darjeeling Association of Travel Agents, said: “We are fed up with the DHR services. At times they don’t have enough water to run the engines, while on other occasions, they do not have coal. This time, the quality of coal was so bad that the engines cannot be fired. The government should completely shut down the services if they cannot maintain this heritage property.”

“A chartered service from Siliguri to Darjeeling was delayed by almost four hours in December because of water shortage at Rongtong station,” added Tamang.

The DHR services are affected for days, sometimes even weeks, by landslides during the monsoon. Frequent bandhs called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha also hit the rides.

R.K. Roy, additional divisional mechanical engineer (Tindharia), admitted that the coal supplied to the DHR was lacking propulsion. Asked if the stock would be replaced, he said: “I cannot say anything. We just hope that the trains can run tomorrow as we will try to mix rock-like coal with the powdered coal that has been recently supplied to run the engine.”

However, there was no sight of solid coal in Darjeeling. “All the lumps of coal that we had have already been used. That is why we faced problems today,” said a railway employee.

Source: The Telegraph

Darjeeling: Steam to pull Darjeeling Himalayan Railway again

Darjeeling, Oct. 6: The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s joy rides will again have the familiar hoot of the steam engines from October 19.

Since September 23, the DHR has been using diesel engines for the joy rides, much to the chagrin of hill tour operators who have termed the move as a betrayal of its promise.

Subrata Nath, director, DHR, had claimed that they had never committed a steam engine for the joy ride on Darjeeling-Ghum route.

But tour operators in Darjeeling pointed out that www.dhr.in, the hill railway’s official website, said three locomotives would be pulled by the heritage B-Class steam engines.

“The official website suggests that the toy trains will be run on steam. But diesel engines are now used for the rides. Many foreign clients refused to travel on a train pulled by a diesel engine,” said Suresh Periwal, chairman, Indian Association of Tour Operators’ north Bengal and Sikkim chapter.

Even though the website could not be accessed this afternoon, Periwal claimed that he had with him the downloaded pages of the DHR’s website.

“I have a copy of the saved page. In the time-table section of the website, the DHR has clearly maintained that only steam engines would be used to haul the trains. It is based on these information that foreigners visit Darjeeling for a steam engine joy ride,” said Periwal.

The DHR in a letter to the tour operators has clarified that diesel engines are being used primarily to pre-empt any effort by coal labourers to disrupt the joy rides by calling strikes during the tourism season and secondly to accommodate more tourists on the train.

Nath had said the diesel engine could pull four bogies whereas only three rakes could be attached to the steam engine.

“Incidentally, two trips of steam hauled joy ride can carry a maximum of Rs 100 tourists whereas diesel hauled joy ride can clear 150 tourists in two trips. I am glad to say that the two diesel hauled trips are running 100 percent since 27.09.2009,” said the letter by Nath.

Today, Nath said he had never stated that a commitment on the steam engine had not been made. “What I had said was that the fares for the steam and diesel rides was the same. We will be reintroducing steam rides after October 18,” he said over the phone from Siliguri.

The Telegraph

DGHC's positive notion about The DHR & Darjeeling Tourism

Darjeeling: The DGHC’s proposal to create a new tourist point by extending the toy train link to Tiger Hill has brought cheer to the tourism industry.

“This is definitely good news as we need more tourist attractions to sell Darjeeling for longer tours,” said Suresh Periwal, chapter chairman, Indian Association of Tour Operators (north Bengal and Sikkim).

More than 50 per cent of the town’s population is directly or indirectly dependent on the tourism sector. However, with Sikkim increasingly opening up new destinations, the Queen of the Hills seems to be losing out.

“Right now we can sell a weeklong package to Sikkim. Tourists can be taken to all the four districts there. In Darjeeling, on the contrary, tourists stay only for three days. If the joy ride on the toy train can be made into a whole-day affair, their stay can be extended at least by a day,” Periwal said.

According to Periwal, an estimated 45,000 foreign tourists visited Darjeeling during the last season, of whom almost 90 per cent took the train ride. “For the Japanese the ride is a must. Given that Tiger Hill is also a popular destination, a ride there will be a good addition to the tourism itinerary,” he said.

Though the DGHC has made it clear that it will seriously address all environment concerns, experts feel that the council could do better with a change in the route.

“Instead of going up to Tiger Hill, the council should press the railways to extend the rail link right up to Lebong where there are fewer trees,” said Bharat Prakash Rai, general secretary, Federation of Societies for Enviornmental Protection.

Environmentalists are at the moment waiting for the DGHC to finalise its proposal before commenting on the project. In the past, the construction of an airport at Tiger Hill had been stopped as it involved the felling of a large number of trees.

Source: The Telegraph