New Delhi, July 15 (PTI): The Railways has decided to open more rail museums as part of its plan for reviving steam locomotives in a big way for tourism.

"Since steam locomotives have great heritage value, it has been decided to preserve and restore its past glorly as far as possible," Railway Board Member (Mechanical) R K Rao, said.

"As per the plan, we would not sell these old locomotives as scrap but preserve it and keep it in museums for display. We already have museums in some cities like Agra, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Gwalior and Delhi.

"But now our endeavour is to open rail museums in all major cities where these steam locomotives, coaches and other artefacts would be kept in restored form," he said.

Once upon a time, there were 18,000 steam locomotives in the country. With the introduction of diesel and electric-run engines these locos were phased out.

"Till 1991 there were about 3,000 steam locos, said Rao adding, now the number has been reduced to be less than 100, out of which only 35 are operational."

Railways had earlier constituted a task force for identifying routes where steam locos could run. The team identified about 53 routes in the country.

"Keeping the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in mind, we are planning to run steam locos in the ring rail for tourists. It will be called as heritage run," said Rao.

Welcoming the move to revive the steam locos in a big way in the country, R S Sethi, president of the Indian Steam Railway Society (ISRS) said setting up rail museums in all major cities is a step in the right direction to generate interest in steam locos.

Steam locos are running in five hill railways including New Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Kalka-Shimla, Neelgiri Mountain.

There is also a plan to run a steam loco in the forest areas of the Vidarbha region for tourists. The Vidarbha service will be known as "tiger trail".

Sethi said, "we have the world's rare locomotive - 'Beyer Garret locomotive' - which has been restored and kept in Kharagpur. Weighing about 130 tons this is the heaviest loco in the world."

About the new museums, Sethi said "once these are operational, some 50 steam locos would be kept here for public display. Currently, the locos are in the designated steam loco worksops where restoration work is going on."

Allaying the fears of environmentalists against steam locos, Aswani Lohani, founder member of ISRS said they do not affect environment and are quite popular in foreign countries including the US, Switzerland, South Africa and Germany.

There about 1,200 steam locos running in dedicated lines in the UK alone.

Lohani further said the Fairy Queen, which operates between Delhi and Alwar, is the oldest locomotive in working condition in the world is a great tourist attraction for tourists.