Railways sees potential in steam locomotives

Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi

With the aim of giving a fillip to rail tourism, the Ministry of Railways has decided to introduce steam locomotives on all hill railways and on some other tourism circuits with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Minister of State for Railways Bandaru Dattatraya said on Monday.

Addressing the one-day National Conference on Steam Heritage Tourism, organised by the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) in collaboration with the Department of Tourism and Ministry of Railways, Dattatraya said that steam heritage tourism has tremendous potential to attract both domestic and international tourists.

Stating that his ministry was very keen on preserving the rich heritage of steam locomotives, Dattatraya said that a heritage steam locomotive shed at Rewari (Haryana) would maintain steam locomotives for heritage and tourism purposes.

Elaborating on the initiatives taken by the Indian Railways to step up tourism, especially steam heritage tourism, the minister pointed out to the launching of the Fairy Queen Express in 1997. Built in 1955, he claimed that the Fairy Queen was the oldest working steam locomotive in the world. He also referred to the National Rail Museum, which he said was constantly engaged in preserving and propagating the rich heritage of the Indian Railways.

He called upon the Ministry of Tourism to package and promote train journeys with steam engines in a big way.

Earlier, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Vinod Khanna said that a three-day photo exhibition on steam locos was part of the conference.

ITDC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said that while United Kingdom was the undisputed leader in steam heritage tourism, India has vast potential in this area.

Railway Board member (Mechanical) Dasarathy said that efforts were on to run the steam locomotives using oil, instead of coal, as fuel.