Shimla, Oct 20
Almost seven months after suspension of all railway services in the hill state Northern Railway on Wednesday (tomorrow) will restart seven bogies of Shimla Express Special on World Heritage Kalka Shimla railway line. The train would departure from Kalka railway station Wednesday at 1210 hrs and arrived at 1720 hrs at Shimla Railway Station on same day.
Northern Railway official (STM/TT) Kavita Aggarval said in a notification that Kalka-Shimla Express Special No 04515/04516 would resume operation for the first time after a gap of seven months tomorrow on Wednesday as the seven-coach departures from Kalka to Shimla and vice versa ( on Thursday) .
She said that the service will resume in the state after March when a national lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease was enforced.
She said that it has been decided to resume Shimla Express Special keeping in mind the upcoming festive season. She said that the train depart will from Kalka to Shimla at 12:10 hrs tomorrow and arrive at the state capital at 1720 hrs.
On Oct 21 the same train would depart from Shimla at 1040 hrs and likely arrive at Kalka at 1610 . The Kalka-Shimla Express Spl would conduct 41 trips each to and fro between (Oct 21 to 30) on Kalka- Shimla station and Between (Oct 22 to Nov 1 ) on Shimla-Kalka station respectively.
” Following the Covid protocol all the coaches would undergo sanitization and maintenance work of the track before it was thrown open for the passengers. ”
The Kalka-Shimla railway track was declared ‘world heritage route on completion of 127th anniversary on November 9, 2008 as the first train service brought on the track on November 9, 1903.
The track falls under Northern Railway Ambala division of the Northern Railway and is 96 km long with 18 stations on the route. There are more than 880 bridges, as well as over 100 tunnels on this route.
