It will take more than a month for temporary restoration of train services on the Kalka-Shimla heritage line, which has been badly damaged due to heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh.
The Railways will undertake civil works for permanent restoration as well, but that will take longer.
According to the Railways, one bridge on the corridor was washed away and another 20 spots were badly damaged due to heavy water flow. Besides, there were hill slips at 150 locations.
All these will take time to repair, the Railways maintains.
The heavy rain and cloudburst upstream of ‘Bridge 800’ on the Kalka-Shimla section led to a 50-metre bridge being swept away near Shimla’s Summer Hill on Monday.
This left a section of the track hanging between the Jutogh and Summer Hill stations. The bridge was built with multiple brick arches.
Since the approach road for Summer Hill station is very narrow, efforts are being made to transport the necessary material for temporary restoration, the Railways maintains.
The heritage route from Kalka to Shimla has 20 stations, 103 tunnels and 912 curves. Officials said this year’s rain has impacted the train service badly.
The Kalka-Shimla rail route is a World Heritage Site.
Since July, there have been around 150 disruptions due to hill slips, boulders falling, debris coming on the tracks.
Himachal Pradesh has been struck by tragedy, with over 56 lives lost due to cloudbursts and the ensuing landslides.
A cloudburst describes intense rainfall that suddenly deluges a localized region for a brief period. Though it can manifest in flat terrain, it’s most common in hilly landscapes like the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.