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SELLING heritage sites — be it temples, palaces, forts, or just old `havelis' and other assorted ruins as tourist destinations — has become old hat. To this has been added `steam heritage' with the formation of Indian Steam Railway Society, floated by the India Tourism Development Corporation.

The introduction of the `Palace of Wheels' in the early 1980s had heralded the revival of steam locomotives as a tourist attraction. This was followed by the `Royal Orient' run by the Gujarat tourism corporation in 1994 and the `Fairy Queen' — the oldest steam locomotive in the world — between Delhi and Alwar, a distance of about 30 km.

India could well take a leaf out of the British locomotive-revival book. Persuant to the Beeching plan of 1963, a large number of branch lines were closed by the British but not dismantled. Thus, many private parties were able to buy not only the old locomotives but also entire disused lines along with stations, signals and other infrastructure to be run as tourist destinations. Now, 108 such lines, totalling 640 route km, with 570 stations and 60 steam centres, are in operation and attract nine million visitors who pay £60 million for the excitement of riding a train hauled by a steam locomotive.

Tailored events, clean and comfortable carriages, a range of catering options and, above all, adequate information available about these on telephone and the Internet are some of the customer issues which are given priority.

From as many as 10,312 steam locomotives in 1960-61, the Indian Railways has now only 165, which have escaped the scrap dealers. Of these, 52 are in use and the rest are to be revived. Happily, a number of the narrow-gauge `steam' beauties, adorning the lawns of office buildings, have been inducted back into service.

One such priceless locomotive was pulled out from the Divisional Railway Manager's office at Vadodara, and now works the 128-km Pathankot-Joginder Nagar section. Since the hill railways, both in the North and South, have a vast untapped potential for tourists, three more B class type steam locomotives are proposed to be manufactured at the Southern Railways workshop at Golden Rock, Tiruchi, to the drawings which are still intact in the Southern Railway's Design Office archives. Expected to cost about Rs 1.7 crore, the locomotives could be run on the unique 46 km-long Mettupalayam-Udhagamandalam (Ooty) route.

While rail travel may have considerable novelty value in the US and the UK, unlike in India, where it is the lot of most people to endure it, the Indian Railways could still borrow from the innovation of its American and British counterparts and organise excursion specials, steam shuttles, and even locomotive driving courses.

With not many private firms likely to invest in buying or even leasing locomotives and trains, it will be up to the government, and the Indian Railways, to keep the steam heritage puffing.

R. C. Acharya

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