Soon the steam engines will make rounds on zigzag tracks of hill stations

New Delhi, December 7: Imagine you are travelling by train and you see a lot of steam while yravelling then? It will be possible soon as the hill station of Darjeeling, Matheran, Kalka-Shimla will see old steam engines running on its twisty and turny narrow tracks. The Indian Railways is set to bring back the steam engines on the routes of hill stations. Currently diesel engines are running on these routes.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani announced Saturday that the mountain lines where trains are currently pulled by diesel engines will instead host steam engines. “We will also try to keep the ticket prices of these special trains economic,” Lohani told the National Congress of Indian Steam Railway Society, an independent body of enthusiasts of steam locomotives and railway heritage patronized by, among others, retired and serving railway officers. Lohani is a founding member of the society.

Earlier, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Railways ministry with Switzerland which would help the two countries in developing tilting trains Tilting trains lean to one side on approaching a bend.

The MoUs aim at cooperation in the areas of traction rolling stock, electric multiple units and train sets, traction propulsion equipment, freight and passenger cars, tilting trains, railway electrification equipment, tunnelling technology among other things.

The 96-km Kalka-Shimla Railway line in Himachal Pradesh line, the 130-year-old Darjeeling Himalayan Railway consisting of the 88-km line and the 21-km Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra, opened in 1907 will witness these steamy engines soon.