Tamil Nadu   

Ride on Nilgiris Mountain Railway, a pleasant experience

By D. Radhakrishnan

UDHAGAMANDALAM, JUNE 19. ``The toy train is a great stress reliever.'' This was the opinion of employees of a Chennai-based private firm who were here today by the Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) from Mettupalayam as part of a company-sponsored holiday.

With the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) going all out to promote rail tourism, the popularity of the NMR line between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam vis-à-vis charter services has begun to grow.

Speaking to The Hindu here, the vice-president of the company, R. Sreedharan, said that with the NMR being one of the biggest tourist attractions in this part of the country, it was only natural to facilitate a trip by it to Udhagamandalam. Since the number of beneficiaries was 116, the IRCTC allowed the company to charter a train.

Pointing out that after the charter facility was introduced a couple of years ago, today's trip was the third, the senior executive, IRCTC, Southern Zone, D. Thangarajan, said that earlier an ``NMR by night'' special and a train exclusively for a few foreigners had been run. Claiming that the demand for running special trains was increasing, he said that early next year a chartered train would run for a group of tourists from France.

To a query, he said the cost of chartering a trip between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam was Rs. 19,000.

While a steam engine was used up to Coonoor, it was replaced with a diesel one for the trip between Coonoor and Udhagamandalam. However, foreigners preferred a steam engine for the entire trip.

Pointing out that within two or three days a chartered trip could be arranged by the IRCTC, he said the train with five coaches and a capacity to ferry 240 passengers halted at various stations including Runneymade and Hillgrove.

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