The DHR however faced competition from buses operating on the Hill Cart Road which took a shorter time than the railway to reach Darjeeling. The engineers of the railway constructed the Batasia Loop in 1919, which eased the ascent from Darjeeling. In 1897 the fury of nature impacted the railway system following a cataclysmic earthquake and left the railway line crippled. Humans are a mere cipher in this vast cosmos and cannot combat nature. Commercially, the DHR, by 1909–1910, was a prodigious success as it began ferrying 1, 74,000 passengers and 47,000 tons of freight traffic annually. The railway line became more manoeuvrable with the construction of four loops and zigzags that made the ascent over the steep gradient more gradual. The town of Siliguri, where the peregrination of this beguiling railway route commences got connected with Kolkata (once upon a time Calcutta)) through the railway network way back in 1878, while the additional journey to Darjeeling required the deployment of tongas (horse-driven carts) besides the dust track.īased on the erudite recommendations of a high –powered committee appointed by Sir Ashley Eden, a British diplomat (after whom the celebrated Eden Gardens derives its name) work on the route was began in the year 1879 and was completed by July 1881. The highest point of preferment is at Ghoom station located at 2,300 m. This route is operated by Indian Railways, and the exotic ladder commences the enthralling voyage at 100 m at Siliguri and rises to about 2,200 m at Darjeeling. It is a 610 mm narrow-gauge railway which links the 88 kms between the bustling towns of Siliguri and Darjeeling. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), laid on a serpentine track, negotiating bends and sharp curves has earned the moniker of ‘Toy Train’. But Kanchenjunga, the pristine, lofty and imposing mountain is one of the highest peaks in the world which dwarfs the remaining, standing tall at 8586 metres. ‘Kanchenjunga’ the alcoholic drink triggers the minds of a host of drinkers. The cyclorama of the town is the grandiose and gargantuan Mt. To this day the town remains the terminus of the much vaunted narrow gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway which was commissioned in the year 1881.ĭarjeeling is fabled for the distinctive black tea grown on humongous plantations which populate the landscape besides the sylvan surrounding slopes.
This quaint town perched at the foothills of Himalayas was once a protuberant summer resort for the British Raj elite. “The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that,” are singular emotive words of the talismanic author Norton Juster.ĭo we recall the trouper Rajesh Khanna -without doubt the first superstar of Bollywood- crooning ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani’ for the blockbuster film Aradhana? How many people are aware that the graphic sequence which left an indelible impression on cinema goers was canned on the renowned Darjeeling Hill Railway? Rajesh Khanna motoring on a jeep and the celebrated actress Sharmila Tagore reading a book on the Toy Train.ĭarjeeling is a quintessential hill station, nestled neatly in the eastern state of West Bengal.