A.K. Sharma, a divisional railway manager of North-East Frontier Railway, told reporters on Tuesday that work remained pending along a small stretch between the two destinations and is expected to be completed shortly.
It has been three years since the DHR had suspended services, depriving tourists of the joyride through the picturesque terrain from Siliguri to Darjeeling.
”We hope to wrap up the repair work between Mahanadi and Gayabari by the end of the year,” Sharma said.
Huge landslides in the Tindharay and Paglajhora areas had forced the DHR to suspend services in 2011.
The Darjeeling toy train first began running in 1881 when Sir Ashley Eden was the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. The DHR comes under the UNESCO's world heritage sites and spans 87km.
S.S. Ahluwalia, who represents Darjeeling in Parliament, had recently raised the issue with railway minister Sadananda Gowda and also informed chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Sharma said that, along with the Railways, the National Highway Authority of India and the state’s Public Works Department were involved in the repair work.
Recently, Bimal Gurung, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, had raised the issue of repairing National Highway 55 with the Union Road Transport Ministry. NH55 connects Darjeeling with the plains at Matigara near Siliguri.
Source: The Telegraph
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