Development of Nilgiri mountain railway

Abstract

Indian Railways are the proud owners of five Hill Heritage Railways viz. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR),Kalka Shimla Railway(KSR), Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), Kangra Valley Railway (KVR) and Matheran Light Railway (MLR).These are iconic tourists destinations and NMR is an unique amongst them. Nilgiri Mountain Railways or NMR as it is popularly known in Tamilnadu, connecting Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam (or Ooty) of Western Ghats is considered an engineering marvel. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, which is inscribed as World Heritage Site as a part of Mountain Railways of India during the year 2005 by UNESCO, is an outstanding example of a hill passenger railway. NMR has the unique distinction of being the only Meter Gauge(1000 mm) track in India, while all other Mountain Railways in India run on narrow gauge (610-762 mm) tracks. Opened in 1899, it was a bold and ingenious engineering initiative to establish a rail link across a mountainous terrain of great beauty. The “engineering marvel” has retained much of its original components: stations, signals, environment, locomotives and rolling stock – a rare system of heritage value that is still operational. The NMR attracts thousands of passengers/visitors every day from India and abroad. It is best known as the Queen of Hill Stations viz. Ooty. Nilgiri Mountain Railways, is not just a railway, it is an experience, which makes persons from every age group forget their age, education, status, and everything else, and make them feel one with the nature. The line from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam or Ooty was operational since 1908. This 46 km mountain railway line has 7 No. of stations and runs approx. 2920 No.of Services. NMR handles around 6.5 lakhs passenger annually in comparison with the 32.69 lakh tourists who visits ooty every year. Hence this paper aims at creation of capacity to match the demand at large. The annual earnings of 11 Crore, are realized from Fare and Non-Fare streams. The exploitation of the available demand will augment the revenue of NMR in manifold, thereby making it as a sustainable entity. Indian Railways and Southern Railway in particular which administratively controls NMR have shown genuine intentions to develop NMR on world class standards, but the actions haven’t matched with its potential. Improvement to stations , rehabilitation of bridges and tunnels , introduction of new coaches , locomotives and thereby increasing of services are some of the great leaps attempted . Hitherto, the changes in upgradation of Infrastructure were modest and relied on low key improvements on a minimum essential improvement basis. Large works requiring major investments and creation of assets are not proposed and thought of, due to many apprehensions. There are many reasons why this may have happened. This paper has limited its scope on drawing lessons from the various experiences and formulating a wider plan and perspective for its development. The policy paper attempts to develop a comprehensive approach for developing the Nilgiri Mountain Railway on the following lines : 1. To study the history of Nilgiri Mountain Railway for its rich cultural and ecological heritage and thereby to utilize it as an marketing asset. 2. To Scientifically study the “market segment” of NMR and utilize the data to “Target and position” the services (product) accordingly. 3. To analyse the various Regulations that governs /limits the NMR . To evaluate the extent which the existing policies enable the proposed Development scheme of things. Also, Defining of its boundary helps us to determine the arena in which the NMR is operating and thereby for developing a implementable strategy. 4. To formulate various ways to increase the revenue through core/fare aspects. 5. Also , the paper identifies the various innovative ideas through which the Non fare revenue may be increased. 6. To analyse the role of various agencies involved in the Development, Maintenance & Monitoring of Nilgiri Mountain Railway. Thereby suggesting a better model of management with focus on “Tourism - Development and Marketing “. 7. To compare with the International experiences and learnings available on the likes of Yellow train “Le petit train jaune” (Ligne de Cerdagne )of France.