A file picture of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Siliguri, April 2: Unesco, in collaboration with Indian Railways, has drawn up a “comprehensive draft plan” to restore the popularity of the 125-year-old Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR) and in the process get the tourists back to the mountains.

The aim is to tap the tourism potential of the heritage train that started chugging along the 80-km long track in 1880 as the only carrier of the hill people.

Nothing much has changed about its character, except that it is no longer the only conveyance that crawls up the hilly tracts.

Born three years after independence, the colonial-era train is now on the Unesco’s heritage list. It has drawn tourists from far and wide, only in the process it has resulted in mounting losses. Sources at the DHR said the toy train incurs an annual loss of around Rs 9 crore.

The thrust of the plan is self-sustainable development initiatives, which includes boosting cultural and ecological tourism along the stretch the train covers. The Unesco plan has identified certain locations along the track where the “development drives” would be put to test. These are Sukna, Rongtong, Tindharia Workshop, Gyabari, Kurseong, Tung, Sonada Jorebungalow, Ghum and Darjeeling.

For starters, information and communication technology centres (ICTs) have been set up at Sukna and Kurseong, two points between which the train trundles.

The ICTs, providing computer-assisted information and history about the DHR and its surrounding areas, is aimed at making the tourists aware of the history part. Apart from these ICTs, the Unesco also wants to create “information cells” at important stations.

Rajesh Agrawal, the executive director of Unesco and a DHR expert, told The Telegraph: “The Unesco will be responsible for reviving the heritage rail tourism project with assistance from the ministry of railways and the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Different teams would be formed to oversee the development initiatives and their implementation.”

Railway officials said the tourism initiatives were influenced by “foreign models of the toy train” like the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales, the Puffing Billy in Australia, Semmering Railway in Austria and the Steam Heritage Mountain Railways in Germany.

Work is underway to remove encroachments along the train’s track and improve the quality of bridges along the railway track. The toy train is currently off the tracks for a few days as part of a routine maintenance work.