Himachal Pradesh: The train operations of the Kalka-Shimla heritage railway line were suspended after a railway bridge developed cracks on Friday night. The train operations were suspended on Saturday, news agency ANI reported.
Two trains out of the total seven trains will arrive and return from the Tara Devi station on Saturday. One of the rain is also expected to return from Kandagjat but only till Shimla. However, all the trains will remain suspended.
The ANI report stated that no Railway Station official was available to comment on the issue.
The incident and suspension of the train operations left the tourists dissapointed as they were forced to reschedule their itinenary.
A tourist from Kanpur, Mohmmad Sultan, told ANI: "I had a train at 3:40 PM. All the trains have been suspended due to some problem. I came four days ago and arrived here on a toy train. I am not able to understand what has happened. I have come with my family here, now it's becoming difficult how we shall return. They are saying some problems have occurred on track."
Another local expressed his disappointment after his train ticket was cancelled following the cancellation of train services.
"We had come to visit Shimla. Our ticket got cancelled and we got to know that some bridges had broken and it was disasppointing for us. My son wanted to travel by toy train. They are not sure if the train will start tomorrow or not. Now we shall have to plan another route," the local said.
A similar incident occured last year in August when on August 14, the Railway bridge collapsed at Summer Hill. Besides, the line was also damaged at various locations between Solan and Summer Hill. Last year, the train operations were suspended in the first week of July till October.
Local Councillor To Request DRM Northern Railway To Restore Services
Local councillor of Shimla Municipal Corporation, Virender Thakur, stated the department will request the DRM Northern Railway in order to restore the train services, the report noted.
"The temporary Railway Bridge was built last year and was resumed within three months. I got to know that the railway track had started sliding from the corner of the bridge. Yesterday evening technical officials visited the site and trains have been suspended till further order," Thakur said.
Thakur stated that the department will demand that this railway track be restored, adding that "eight to nine trains run daily on this heritage trek."
"These trains are packed with tourists. We shall request the DRM Northern Railway to restore it. We hope this is restored soon. Until they give us a green signal the trains can't be run," the local councillor added.
In December 2018, the first Vista Dome coach was attached to one of the regular trains, following which it was started regularly after December 2019.