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Landslide hits Kalka-Shimla heritage track, trains delayed

CHANDIGARH: The Kalka-Shimla heritage track section came to a halt for 15 hours after a massive landslide between Kalka and Taksal, near Parwanoo station.


The railway authorities managed to clear the track by 6.30am on Thursday after which the traffic resumed. One train was cancelled on Thursday and three others departed late from the Kalka railway station .

The train 52453 Kalka-Shimla NG Express was cancelled. It departs from Kalka station platform 4 at 6.20am. The other trains, 52457 Kalka-Shimla Passenger with scheduled departure at 3.30am, 52459 Kalka-Shimla Passenger Special with departure time of 5.10am and 52451 Shivalik Deluxe with departure time of 5.45am, were made to depart after 6.30am once the tracks were cleared of debris.

Kalka station superintendent Puran Singh said, “The situation was normalized at 6.30am, after which trains left one after the other for Shimla .”

On Wednesday after the landslide hit the track around 3pm, two trains from Shimla were cancelled, whereas three were short terminated at Parwanoo.

Many passengers complained that they had to take local buses or taxis to reach Kalka or Chandigarh for onward journey. Kamal Kishore, one of the passengers heading to Delhi with his family, said, “We were asked to get down in Parwanoo. We were supposed to board Himalayan Queen in the evening from Kalka to Delhi which we missed and then we had to take a bus to Delhi.”

Daily passenger Om Parkash, who works at a factory in Gumman, said, “No one told us before boarding the train at Gumman that tracks have been closed near Taksal. We were taken aback when told that the train will not go further. We had to walk to reach main road and get a local bus to reach Kalka.”

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