Darjeeling Himalayan Railway - A UNESCO World Heritage institution
The Hill Railways are a metaphor of life in India. The railways are unique in their own way and they are part and parcel of people’s life in their respective regions. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of a hill railway, as it applies ingenious engineering solutions to the problem of connectivity in a mountainous terrain of great natural beauty. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is intimately linked with the development of Darjeeling as the ‘Queen of Hill Stations” and one of the major tea centres in India. The densely wooded mountain spur on which Darjeeling now stands was formerly part of the Kingdom of Sikkim. The British East India Company leased it to develop as a rest and recovery station for its soldiers in 1835. By 1878, Calcutta (Kolkata) had been linked by rail to Siliguri, in the foothills of the Himalaya. By this time the tea industry had gained great importance in the Darjeeling region, and the existing road link was inadequate to cope with the inc
