WHS:Kalka-Shimla Railway

·         On July 7, 2008 in Quebec City, Canada the 21-member World Heritage Committee, recognised Kalka-Shimla railway line as a World Heritage Site while describing it as “one of the most authentic mountain railways in the world”.

·         With this decision, the Indian Railways has secured world heritage status for their fourth line.

Mission IAS’2009

·         The other three in the list are

 the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in West Bengal,

the Nilgiri Mountain Railway near Ooty in Tamil Nadu and

the Chhatarpati Shivaji Terminal (erstwhile Bombay Victoria Terminal) in Mumbai.

·         The Kalka-Shimla Railway (KSR) line was opened to traffic on November 9, 1903.

·         During its six-hour journey on the 96 km narrow gauge route from Kalka to Shimla, the line runs through 103 tunnels, several arched bridges and picturesque stations like Dharampur, Barog and Solan.

·         The KSR was commissioned initially with modified version of steam locomotives used in the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway but soon more powerful, larger and compact locomotives were included.

·         The coveted “world heritage site” status to the 104-year-old Shimla-Kalka rail track is a tribute to Bhalkoo, an illiterate genius who played a vital role in translating the dream project of the British into a reality.

·         The engineer marvel called the “toy train” could not have become a realty but for Bhalkoo, a man of extraordinary engineering acumen who came to the rescue of British engineers every time the project hit a roadblock.

·         The British came close to abandoning the project on several occasions, but Bhalkoo, who claimed that the trace of the rail track had been revealed to him by his “devta” (deity), put them on the “right” track.

·         A celibate, Bhalkoo had little interest in the materialistic world. The people believed that he was blessed with supernatural powers that transformed him into “Baba Bhalkoo” over a period of time.