A locomotive of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Darjeeling, Feb. 2: Agitated over “mismanagement” of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, residents of Tindharia and Kurseong have set up a protection committee to preserve the World Heritage status of the toy train.

It would also fight the alleged attempts by the DHR authorities to close down the train’s Tindharia workshop to Siliguri, said information secretary of the committee Youraj Sundas. The workshop has been operational in Tindharia since 1880.

Sundas said they feared the closure was imminent because number of employees at the workshop had been reduced from 700 to 115 over the last few years.

“The economic prosperity of the people in this region is linked to the DHR. The authorities are trying to diminish the importance of the Tindharia workshop and locomotive shed by curtailing the staff and possibly get it shifted to Siliguri, where a shed is being constructed,” Sundas alleged.

Satrughan Gupta, also of the committee, said the replacement of old wooden planks with steel ones were also not being done properly.

The organisation said the DHR was not being properly maintained. “If the slide is not arrested, it may soon lose the World Heritage status accorded by the UNESCO in 1999,” it added.

“Ours is purely an apolitical body and has members from all walks of life,” said Sundas.

The committee also plans to press for increasing the frequency of the steam train along the route, “without which the charm of riding the railway is lost”.

Railway authorities denied the allegations levelled by the committee.

Assistant divisional railway manager (New Jalpaiguri) S.N.Sen said there was no plan to close down the Tindharia workshop and locomotive shed.

“The Committee must have been misinformed because I do not know that 700 workers were employed at the workshop and the shed at Tindharia,” the railway official said.

The locomotive shed at Siliguri was meant for day-to-day maintenance and was not being built to shift the workshop from Tindharia, he added.

“The actual repair work will be done at Tindharia. We are doing the replacement of the tracks, but if anybody still has any complaint, he can meet the railway officials at Tindharia.”