Railways will protect heritage status of Nilgiris Mountain Railway: Southern Railway GM

COONOOOR ( TAMIL NADU): Railways would maintain the heritage status of the Nilgiris Mountain Railway for another 100 years, Southern Railway General Manager Rakesh Misra said today.

Since importing the steam loco for the NMR operating between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam would be to expensive, railways had decided to manufacture oil-furnace engine.

Two engines had already been delivered by the Golden Rock workshop in Tiruchirapplli and another would be delivered by September, he told reporters here.

To a question, Mishra, here to inspect various projects, said the issue of introducing summer special trains or attaching additional bogies on NMR to meet the expected tourist rush had not been discussed.

On change of timings of NMR, Mishra said due to problem posed by wildlife, particularly elephants, which often stray onto the tracks, it was better to run the train in day time.