- By Abhishek Sheoran
- Thu, 21 Sep 2023 02:02 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Railways on Wednesday resumed train services between Kalka and Shimla UNESCO World Heritage Track after a 72-day standstill. The two trains took to the tracks on day one. The first train left Kalka at 4 a.m. and reached Solan at 7:15 a.m. It had no passengers on board, as per a report in the Tribune. The second one left from Kalka at 12:10 p.m. and reached Solan around 3 p.m. It had many passengers on it, including 35 foreigners.
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The railway officials welcomed passengers by applying vermilion on their foreheads as the trains started plying on the route after nearly two and a half months.
The services on the 96-km route were suspended on July 9 after a mammoth damage was caused to the track at over 175 locations owing to the horrifying rains in Himachal Pradesh. Major hill slips, embankment slips, fallen trees and heavy boulders became a common sight on the track. The Unesco World Heritage railway line was severely damaged near Summer Hill after a landslide swept away a 50-metre bridge, leaving a portion of the track hanging in the air.
Shimla-Kalka heritage rail track gets blocked by an uprooted tree following heavy rainfall, in Shimla. ANI File
Over seven trains ply up and down the track daily. In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.
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Incessant rain had led to landslides, cloudbursts and flash floods which caused significant damage in the hilly State in the months of July and August. Himachal saw three major spells of heavy rains this monsoon. The State Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Thursday claimed that the state suffered losses of ₹12,000 crore. At least 51 people were killed in rain-related incidents. Many homes were damaged too.
Sukhu declared the Himachal mayhem as a state disaster and met Prime Minister Modi to seek financial help to rebuild the infrastructure lost in the disaster. He also requested the PM to declare the calamity a national disaster.
