30/10/2017
PUNE: After
nearly 18 months, the famed 110-year old Matheran Toy Train resumed partial
services on Monday, after it was suspended in May 2016 following several
derailments, a top official said.
"The train resumed services on the critical Matheran-Aman
Lodge sector, around 3.5 km distance. We are planning to restart services on
the entire 21-km Neral-Matheran route as soon as possible," Central
Railway (CR) CPRO Sunil Udasi told pune-news.com
today.
From Monday, the CR started 12 shuttles daily on the route. It
started from Matheran at 8.50 a.m. and in return direction from Aman Lodge at
9.25 a.m., in what is Asia's only automobile-free hill station nestled in the
Western Ghats, around 110 kms from both Mumbai and Pune. To ensure passenger
safety, the CR has introduced enhanced safety features in the toy train 'Phul
Rani', and replaced the original manual brakes with the safer air brakes
system.
In the original system, there was a manual braking in which
six brake porters applied the brakes in sync and any time lag between could
cause an accident. Under the new air brake system, the train driver can now
slow down or apply the brakes as required without the involvement of the brake
porters.
Udasi said that the final trials to check the safety and
operational issues before top officials were conducted on Sunday before giving
the green signal to resume operations from Monday. The resumption of services
would prove a boon to the local residents and tourists to Matheran as the
winter peak tourism season has started and they were forced to cough out
exorbitant amounts to hire horses or carts.
The other option for the able-bodied people was to walk the
steep route from Matheran to Dasturi Naka, the termination point for all
vehicles outside the hill station precincts. The narrow guage toy train is
considered a marvel and ascends in a crazy zig-zag (with more than 280 steep
turns) from Neral to Matheran, around 2,500 feet from sea-level, offering
breathtaking views of the lush green and steep hills and deep valleys,
highlighting the beauty of the hill station.
The toy train was built by a Mumbai industrialist, the late
Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy at a staggering cost of Rs 1.60 million in seven years,
between 1901-1907. The hill railway contributed in a big way to the growth of
Matheran and forever changed the face of the tiny hill station, after it was
discovered in May 1850 by the then Mumbai Collector Hugh Poyntz Malet.
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