***Nilgiri Mountain
Railway***
=*===**===*=
The Nilgiri Mountain
Railway is a railway in
Tamil...
more... Nadu, India, built
by the British in 1908, and was initially
operated by the Madras
Railway Company. The
railway still relies
heavily on its fleet of
steam locomotives.The Southern Railway,
with headquarters in
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
which operates the
NMR, incurs an annual
shortfall of Rs 4crores,
(~US$1 million). NMR
comes under the
jurisdiction of the newly
formed Salem Division.
In July 2005, UNESCO
added the Nilgiri
Mountain Railway as an
extension to theWorld
Heritage Site of
Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway, the site then
became known as
"Mountain Railways of
India.after it
satisfied the necessary
criteria, thus forcing
abandonment of the
modernisation plans.
For the past several
years diesel
locomotives have taken
over from steam on the
section between
Coonoor and
Udhagamandalam. Local
people and tourists
have led a demand for
steam locos to once
again haul this section.
The famous Hindi song
"Chaiyya Chaiyya" from
the film "Dil Se"
featuringShahrukh
Khan was shot on the
roof top of
NMR.
