Abstract:

In India, Railways play a vital role in the socio-economic life of the country.
Today, the number of domestic as well as international travelers is increasing with
an increase in the disposable income of Indians. To support the increasing traffic of
travelers even Indian Railways have come out with few plans over last 10-15
years. They are trying to build their tourism wing as well but still travelers are not
aware of the various initiatives taken by Indian Railways. Indian Railways have a
totally new wing to handle this i.e. Indian Railways Catering and Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC).

The first objective of the project is to bring awareness by designing the marketing
plan for them. This will be used all over the country to promote rail tourism.

The other objective of the project is to find the feasibility of new route which they
can venture into. This would require both financial and operational strategy.

The final deliverable for the MRR would be a combination of both the strategies
mentioned above for Indian Railways to showcase the marketing plan and
advantages and risk for investing in the new routes.

Introduction:
In India, numbers of tourist are increasing every year due to increase in the
disposable income. Railway has a tourism wing which tries to satisfy the need of
these tourist but still general public is not much aware various initiatives taken.
Tourist are still competing with the general traveler to get a seat in rail instead of
opting for various other special offers provided by rail tourism. We have an
opportunity to start new route and promote both old as well as new routes by
formulating a marketing plan for this.

Travel has been one of the fastest and ever growing service industries with an
enormous potential for further growth in world. The bulk of tourist arrivals are in
developed countries but now developing countries are also increasingly sharing in
the tourism boom. Tourism has come to play an important role in the socio-
economic development of a country. It is both cause and consequence of economic
development. Travel today, is sold like any normal consumer product through
retail outlets, wholesalers and even departmental stores of many countries. The
reasons for travel too have changed over the span of time. Tourism in India is
witnessing widespread growth on the back of increasing inbound tourists by the
burgeoning Indian middle class, rising inflow of foreign tourists and successful
government campaigns for promoting ‗Incredible India‘. Infrastructure
development holds the key to India‘s sustained growth in the Tourism sector. The
tourism industry is primarily related to the service and people oriented; it is made
up of businesses and organizations belonging to various other industries and
sectors. It is the interplay among these businesses and organizations/persons which
offers ―travel experience‖ to tourists. The tourism industry comprises hospitality
(related to accommodation and dining), travel (transportation services through
different modes), and various other businesses which offer services and products to
tourists.
Indian Railways and Tourism: The tourism in India cannot be possible without
the train journey since it is a commonly used mode of public transportation in the
country. Trains are not only cheaper and reliable mode of transport in India but
also touch almost all important and less important places of tourism. They
encourage tourism by offering different promotional schemes, tour packages,
special trains, charter trains, luxurious trains, coaches to tourist domestic as well as
foreign.
Concept of the promotion: Promotion is one of the market mix elements or
features, and a term used frequently in marketing. A promotional plan can have a
wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance,
creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a
corporate image.
However, fundamentally there are three basic objectives of promotion:
To present information to consumers as well as others.
To increase demand of a product or service.
To differentiate a product or a service from others.

In the context of present study, we have restricted the promotion to the first two
objectives as above mentioned. So, for the present study, promotion will mean all
the measures which result in increase of the Role of Indian Railways in Promotion
of Tourism in India: A Case Study of Foreign Tourists www.iosrjournals.org 23 |
Page
volume and frequency of journey on Indian Railways. It will also include those
initiatives which lead to enhanced awareness among foreign tourists on different
aspects related to services or facilities of Indian Railways. The literature regards
customer satisfaction as the basis of promotional activities. Higher tourist‘s
satisfaction is likely to contribute to enhanced reputation of tourism product
providers and of the whole destination, increased consumer loyalty; reduced price
elasticity lowers cost of future transactions and improved productivity (Anderson
et. al., 1994). Studies have revealed that customer satisfaction is likely to produce
positive behavioural intentions from customers such as positive word-of-mouth
and repeat purchases (Saleh and Ryan, 1992; Barsky, 1992; Bojonic and Rosen,
1994; Kozak and Rimmington, 2000; Gursoy et. al., 2003; Karatepe, 2006; Neal
and Gursoy, 2008). So, on the basis of the findings of the above mentioned studies,
we can now redefine the promotion for the present study as all those services or
measures of Indian railways which ultimately lead to enhancement of satisfaction
level or awareness of foreign tourists towards these services or measures.
II. Review of Literature:

Research on tourism is considered as an established area of research which has

received adorable attention from the researchers. Several authors have reported
works on different aspects of tourism research. In the present study, for the sake of
simplicity we have divided the reviews into four sub-sections; i.e. reviews related
to (1) Developments in Tourism Research (2) Marketing aspect of Tourism
Research (3) inter-relationship of Tourism & Transportation and (4) Tourist
Satisfaction-Concept and Measurement.
The tourism industry has evolved into a broad sector comprising many subsectors.
In last few years, researches related to the development of tourism have focused on
areas like adventure tourism (Weber, 2001; cruise tourism (Kwortnik, 2008), eco-
tourism (Stoneman et al., 1995), event tourism (Getz, 2008), medical tourism
(Connell, 2006; Michelle, 2009), sex tourism (Oppermann, 1999), special interest
tourism (Trauer, 2006), volunteer tourism (Sin, 2009), wedding tourism (Johnston,
2006), and rural tourism etc.
Tourism marketing has been considered vital in the changing competitive
marketing environment and there has been a phenomenal rise in the academic
research activities on the marketing aspects of tourism. Chaudhary (2000) has
reported its importance with the help of domain specific data and relevant analysis.
Theoretical analysis involving different issues in formulating strategies for
destination marketing was outlined by Buhalis (2000), Wheeler (1995) observed
that ethical marketing of tourism products advocates promotion of destination to
attract larger number of tourists while tourism industry was analysed in a holistic
manner through distribution channel perspectives by various authors (Laws, 1997;
Halloway, 1998; Middleton and Clark, 2001; Mill and Morrison, 2002). Very few
researches were focusing on the role of transportation in promotion of tourism
have been conducted till now. In one of such researches, Page and Lumsdon (2004)
argue that the transportation system of a tourist destination has an impact on the
tourism experience which explains how people travel and why they choose
different forms of holidays, destination, and transport etc. Tourist‘s satisfaction is
an emotional state after experiencing the trip (Baker and Crompton, 2000). When
experiences compared to expectations result in feelings of gratification, the tourist
is satisfied. However, when they result in feelings of displeasure, the tourist is
dissatisfied (Reisinger & Turner, 2003). According to Kozak and Rimmimgton
(2000), satisfaction is on important to successful destination marketing; Philip and
Hezlett (1996) also acknowledged that an increasing concentration of customer
satisfaction is one of the strategic routes used by leisure firms in gaining
competitive edge.
It is a fact that tourism is an inter-disciplinary subject by nature and each of its
aspect is too complex and complicated. Form the Indian railway‘s point of view,
the significance of the study lies in identifying and highlighting the problem areas
in the field of tourism development. It specially aims towards finding answers to
problems and shortcomings in the field of infrastructure development,
improvement in quantity and quality of basic amenities for foreign tourists and
requirement marketing of and publicity for the promotion of tourism. At this
juncture it is important to know how far Indian railways have been successful in
her efforts. So, the present study particularly focussing on the following objectives.
Objectives:
(1) To study socio-economic status of foreign tourists travelling on Indian
Railways;
(2) To examine the role of Indian Railways in promoting foreign tourism and
(3) To analyse the problems faced by foreign tourists travelling on Indian
Railways.
Research Questions:
1. What is the socio- economic status of foreign tourists ravelling on Indian
Railways?
2. How much Indian railways are satisfying the foreign tourists through its
promotional measures?
3. What are the problems faced by foreign tourists while travelling on Indian
Railways?

III. Methodology:
For the present study, Luckow division in Northern Railways of Indian railways
was selected as a study area purposively. The sample size of 250 respondents was
selected for the present study. 50 respondents each were selected from tourist areas
by covering 5 trains in which majority of foreign tourists travel. Present study
adopts suitably non-probability sampling method particularly, convenience
sampling method. Both the primary and secondary are used in the present study.
The primary data was collected from 250 tourists respondents in 5 trains namely
Marudhar express, Bundel khand Express, Patna Mathura Express, Shiv Ganga
Express and Kamayani Express was conducted during August and September
2012. Since the tourists were from diverse backgrounds, the information was
collected from only those tourists who had the knowledge of English by
considering it Lingua franca.
Data Analysis: The collected data was checked and edited for completeness and
accuracy. For the purpose of analysis, we have divided all the result into five
subcategories and analyzed them in the following manner:
1. Analysis of present travelling experience over travelling past experiences:
Since Indian railways is constantly upgrading itself in terms of infrastructure and
provision of facilities, the initiatives taken to enhance present travelling experience
over that in past, which ultimately lead to enhancement of satisfaction level of
foreign tourists, have been considered as promotion. We have studied it by
comparing past travelling experience with the present one.
2. Analysis of travelling behaviour/patterns of tourists: The study considers the
knowledge about travelling behaviour of tourists as promotion since this will help
Indian railways to frame customer oriented policies which will lead to enhanced
satisfaction level of tourists. In order to understand travelling behaviour/ patterns
of tourists, we have examined travelling details of the tourists.
3. Analysis of Awareness regarding facilities of Indian Railways among foreign
tourists and utilisation of these facilities by them: Since an improvement in the
awareness about a product or service, we have considered the efforts of Indian
railways to spread awareness about its facilities as promotional measures. So, in
order to reflect the success of these promotional measures, we have examined the
awareness of foreign tourists about the facilities of Indian Railways and found out
whether they are using these facilities.
4. Analysis of satisfaction level of foreign tourists with the facilities provided by
Indian railways in general and special for them: Since the facilities provided by
Indian Railways aim at the customer‘s satisfaction; the study considers these
facilities as promotional measures. We have tried to measure the satisfaction level
of foreign tourists on these facilities so that in case of dissatisfaction, the necessary
steps may be taken by Indian Railways (IR) for the further improvement.
5. Analysis of Awareness regarding Rail Tour Packages provided by Indian
Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) among foreign tourists and
utilisation of the same by them: Improvement in awareness among foreign tourists
regarding Rail tour packages of IRCTC is a promotional agency. Increased
awareness about the facilities among those who were earlier unaware about them
will improve the chances of using this facility. So, we have examined the
awareness of foreign tourists about Rail Tour Packages of IRCTC and the level of
satisfaction of those who have used these packages so that necessary steps may be
taken in case of dissatisfaction of tourists with these packages.
Analysis of the main findings: Analysis of final data & its interpretation was done
in order to highlight the main findings of the study. Objective wise analysis of few
important tables and its interpretation has been presented in this section.
Table -1: No. of Percentage
Experience of Respondents
availed services
of Indian
Railways in
earlier visit to
India Overall
satisfaction Level
Very Poor 5 5.8
Poor 9 10.5
Average 24 27.9
Good 45 52.3
Excellent 3 3.5
Total 86 100.0

Indian Railways and Tourism

The Indian Railway system can be an enormous asset in the development of the
tourism and hospitality industry in the country. India has about 7,000 railway
stations and 11,000 trains. The railways have a special fascination for foreign
tourists who wish to experience the country both at leisure and close personal
contact with the indigenous people. The qualified success of the ―Palace-on-
Wheel‖ substantiates the contention. For the vast majority of domestic tourists, it is
the railways, which is the main affordable means of travel linking the length and
breadth of the vast and often enhancing subcontinent. Railway services are
equipped not only to meet the travel needs of domestic and foreign tourists, but
also have the infrastructure and land resource to contribute significantly to the
growth of hotel accommodation in the country.

Tourism Services by Indian Railways:

Indian railway has provided a number of tourism services for the general public.
Existing Range of IRCTC Tourism Products are mainly (1) Rail Tour Packages (2)
Bharat Darshan (3) Educational Tours (4) Hill Charters (5) Train/Coach Charters
(6) Buddhist Circuit Special Train (7) Maharajas‘ Express (8) Online Air, Cab,
Hotel Bookings (9) LTC Tour Packages (10) Inbound Travel (11) Corporate Travel
(12) Tourism Portal (railtourismindia.com). Indian Railways has a huge network
that covers the entire subcontinent. Thus it happens to be a convenient means of
transportation for people who wish to visit numerous Tourist Places in India. Some
of the hill stations that are of immense importance are Dalhousie, Auli, Gangtok,
Dehradun, Kullu and Khandala. Heritage sites like Khujraho, Taj Mahal, Konark,
AjantaEllora, Nalanda, Mahabalipuram and Mahabaleshwar etc can also be 123
reached via railway network. In addition to this, there are various wildlife sites in
India like Kaziranga National Park, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Sariska Tiger
Reserve, Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, Bandhavagarh National Park, Kanha National
Park and India is also a home to a number of pilgrimage spots such as golden
temple, Varanasi, Mathura, Haridwar, Bodhgaya and Shirdi. Vacationers can easily
find access to these places by Indian railway government at reasonable prices.
Various train tourism facilities have also been organized by the Indian government.
The travels through trains like the Royal orient and the palace on wheels in Gujarat
and Rajasthan give passengers an unforgettable experience. The Places to Visit in
India is truly a palace running on wheels and it offers its guests a splendid and
royal treatment. This train is provided with royal comforts which are displayed in
the form of the interior, the facilities and the interior style. The royal orient is one
among the most striking trains in the whole world. It is jointly administered by the
tourism corporation of Gujarat limited and the Indian railways. It crosses a number
of tourist attractions which still house the memories of opulence of ancient period
including Chittaurgarh, Delhi, Somnath, Veraval, Junagarh, Ahmedpur, Sasan Gir,
Sarkhej/Palitana/Mandvi, Jaipur and Ahemdabad. Apart from these, there are toy
trains which are available which run on the narrow lines. Toy trains cover a path of
4500 kms traversing the famous hill stations like Darjeeling, Shimla, Ooty,
Matheran and Ootacamund. Another attraction is the Matheran Light Railway
which commences from Neraj and is connected to Mumbai uptown trains. The
journey presents panoramic scenery to the passengers which add to the thrill of the
trip. Though please note that travelling on these trains will be costlier than
travelling on Book flight to India . So such holidays are not suitable for people
looking for Tourist Attractions in India.

Mountain Railways of India:

Mountain railways of India are the six or seven odd "chhotey" (Hindi for small)
lines, out of around twenty similar such narrow or metre gauge lines around the
world. Built during the nineteenth and early twentieth century of the British
colonial rule, the Raj, these lines have been running since then. Today the Indian
Railways runs them, along with the Kashmir Railway, operational since 2005.
While four of these seven: the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (1881), the Kalka–
Shimla Railway (1898), the Kangra Valley Railway (1924), and the Kashmir
Railway (2005), are in the rugged hill regions of the Himalayas of Northern India,
two are further down south in the Western Ghats: the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in
Southern India, and the Matheran Hill Railway in Maharashtra; while the
Lumding–Silchar line, built at the turn of the 20th century, lies deep inside Assam,
in the Barak river valley of the Cachar Hills. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway,
the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka–Shimla Railway have collectively
been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These lines connect important
hill resorts with the foot hills, winding their way up through rugged yet scenic
mountainous landscape. Given the terrain they were constructed on during the
British colonial period, they were considered "outstanding examples of the
interchange of values on developments in technology" and engineering marvels.
The mountain railways in the hills emerged as a result of the delayed interest
evinced during the British Raj for establishing control over the Himalayas and
other mountain ranges of India. It was in 1844 that Sir John Lawrence, the then
Viceroy of India, had mooted the idea of a phased colonization of the hills,
particularly as military garrisons. The British, in a proposal termed simply as ‗Hill
Railway‘, considered establishing geographically and culturally rich, stations
across the country. The hill stations chosen for this purpose were Shimla, the then
125 'summer capital' of British India; Darjeeling, known for its tea gardens and
scenic views of the eastern Himalayas in the state of West Bengal, the Kangra
Valley in Himachal Pradesh, Ootacamund in the Nilgiri mountains of Tamil Nadu
and the Matheran hill station in the Western Ghats near Mumbai were considered.
The pioneering effort to link the mountainous terrain of enchanting beauty with a
hill passenger railway commenced in 1878 with the building of the Darjeeling
Himalayan Railway line, when Franklin Prestage of the then Eastern Bengal
Railway initiated plans for the building of a hill tramway along the alignment of
the Hill Cart Road from Siliguri to Darjeeling. Construction subsequently began,
and in 1881 the line was commissioned up to Darjeeling. The next project
launched was of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in South India, initially proposed in
1854. Work started in 1894, but the railway was not completed until 1908, as the
terrain was very difficult, given the big difference in altitude ranging between 326
meters (1,070 ft) and 2,203 meters (7,228 ft) over a distance of 46 kilometers (29
mi). The building of the 96 kilometers (60 mi) Kalka–Shimla railway link
commenced in 1898 to open up the remote hill regions to the rest of the country
and was inaugurated by the then Viceroy, Lord Curzon, in November 1903. The
Matheran–Neral 'toy train' was commissioned in 1907; Matheran is a hill station
108 kilometers (67 mi) away from Mumbai. The Kangra line was built in 1929 in
the picturesque Kangra valley. The UNESCO's 'World Heritage site' recognition to
three of the mountain railways of India has been for "outstanding examples of
bold, ingenious engineering solutions for the problem of establishing an effective
rail link through a rugged, mountainous terrain." The Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway got it first in 1999, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway followed suit in 2005,
and the Kalka–Shimla Railway, in 2008; the three 126 together have been titled as
'Mountain Railways of India' under Criteria: ii, iv under the region in the Asia-
Pacific.

Nilgiri Mountain Railways:

The Indian Railways have five magnificent hill railways three of, which are located
on the Himalayan range. One is located on the Western Ghats and the only metre
gauge hill railway, which is also perhaps the most unique from the technological
angle, is located on the Nilgiri Hills in South India. This railway is a wonderful
example of excellence in engineering achieved by the Indian Railway engineers at
a time when the engineering skills were rather primitive (Lohani, 1999). The
Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a single track, 46 kilometers (29 mi) long metre gauge
single line. Coonoor was initially the final hill station on the line in June 1899 but
this was extended up to Fernhill in September 1908 and up to Udagmandalam by
October 15, 1908. It now connects the town of Mettupalayam with the hill station
of Udagamandalam (Ootacamund), in the Nilgiri hills, popularly known as the
'Blue Mountains' of Southern India. Both towns are in the state of Tamil Nadu. The
only rack railway in India, it uses the alternate biting system (Abt) commonly
termed as 'rack and pinion' rail system and is operated with special steam
locomotives. The trains that run on this line cover a distance of 46 kilometers (29
mi), travel through 208 curves, 16 tunnels, and 250 bridges. The uphill journey
takes around 290 minutes (4.8 hours), and the downhill journey takes 215 minutes
(3.6 hours). The Nilgiri Mountain Railway was inscribed as World Heritage Site
by UNESCO in July 2005. The unique feature of this line, which is still fully
operational, is its oldest and the steepest ‗rack and pinion technology‘. As it now
operates, the line has a metre gauge section for 7.2 kilometers (4.5 mi) up to the
foothill station of Kallar from where the rack rail system begins and runs hugging
the hills, passing through tunnels, 12 in number with the longest tunnel measuring
97 meters (318 ft), for 127 7.2 kilometers (4.5 mi) up the hills at a gradient of
1:12.5 up to Coonoor. Steam locomotives are used in this section. Beyond
Coonoor, up to the last station at Ooty or Oottacamund, the track has a ruling
gradient of 1:23.

North-East Railways:

This is sheer coincidence that the year 1999-2000 has been declared as ―Visit
India Year‖ and ―Passenger Year‖ by the Government of India and Ministry of
Railways respectively. As is expected, the Government of India would channelize
all its efforts to attract more and more tourists, inland as well as overseas, to visit
various places of tourist interest in the country and the Indian Railways, being the
prime mode of reliable and economical transport, are bound to play the pivotal role
in making this occasion a grand success. By all reckoning, Visit India Year is
going to help the Indian Railways in a big way in achieving its target for the
Passenger Year 1999-2000. The area served by the North Eastern Railway is
replete with places of heritage value and connects various important tourist centres
like Varanasi, Sarnath, Allahabad, Lucknow, Sravasti, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar,
Ayodhya, Maghar, Vaishali, Sonpur etc. Besides, NE Railway also takes the
tourists to the laps of natural beauty of Nainital, Ranikhet, Almora etc. to make
them feel the magic of landscape and the richness of its flora and fauna. Aryans,
this region boasts of the Mandla Fort – the capital of the Gond Kings and Chanda
Fort, both of which have survived the ravages of time. About 64 kms., from the
little township of Mandla is Sahasradhara, where the river Narmada flows in a
thousand steams. Chanda Fort is now accessible on broad gauge after
commissioning of the Naghbir-Chanda Fort Broad Gauge Line (Pandey, 1999).
The Northeast Frontier Railway plans to preserve the 120 km-long Mahur–
Harangajao hill section while the metre-gauge track on the Lumding– Silchar line
gets converted into broad gauge. It has 37 tunnels, 586 128 bridges and 24 stations
on the way with the steepest gradient of 1 in 37 on the Harangajao–Jatinga section.

South-East Railways:

With a total route length of 7400 kms., and meandering through six mineral states
of West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra
with diverse language, culture, customs and traditions, South Eastern Railway
epitomizes the true spirit of India – bringing unity in diversity. It encompasses a
magnificent region, a veritable melting pot of fascinating cultures, history,
folklores and people. Talking about the place of tourist interest in South East India,
one cannot escape the majesty of the mountain ranges, the beauty of its landscapes,
the richness of the flora and fauna or the picturesqueness of golden sea beaches
that dot the map of South East Railway. This is a land teeming with hoary
traditions and ageless history kept alive in carved stones, stuccoes and marbles.
Ruins of ancient cities, temples, forts, mosques of yore bear mute testimony to the
glorious history and rich cultural heritage of this region (Malhotra, 1999).

Eastern Railway:

Our country is the favourite playground of the God Almighty. It is this land which
has, perhaps the oldest history of civilization, the glorious achievements of the
mankind and natural beauties. The sheer view of all these fill the heart with a
fountain of joy. This is perhaps the reason why our country has attracted many a
celebrity from all over the world from ancient times. We all nurse the intention of
enjoying the beauty to our heart‘s content. But the people in general do not have
either the means or the capabilities to travel to all those places on their own. Indian
Railways have laid its tracks connecting various corners of the beautiful country to
act as the bridge between such intention and 129 capabilities. That is why the
railway is not only a transport mode; it is indeed everybody‘s companion (Indian
Railways, Nov., 1999).

South-Central Railway:

The South Central Railway covers an extensive network stretching across the
Deccan Peninsula from Bay of Bengal in the east of Arabian Sea on the west
traversing through a region richly steeped in tradition providing a many splendored
panorama of history, art, religion and culture. The network which traverses through
the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa besides a small stretch
of Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu beckons tourists to encounter an enlightened
experience worth cherishing a life time, a passage through a journey that never
ends (Sinha, 1999).

Northern Railway:

The Northern Railway Zone of Indian Railways is the largest amongst all the
zones in size, covering as it does a route kilometer age of 11,023.03 kms. It also
covers the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi
and the Union Territory of Chandigarh along with significantly portions of
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The terrain that falls in Northern Railway is also
varies from the mountainous Shivalik range to the undulating deserts of Thar, the
lush Tarai region and the majestic Gangetic plains. The trains running on Northern
Railway also serve one of the most densely populated regions of the country. In
such a varied land, there are bound to be several places of tourist interest. Some of
the most popular holiday resorts pilgrimage towns, historical places, modern cities,
administrative centres and seats of learning of the country fall within this Zone.
Northern Railway provides convenient train services to these destinations for all
class of travelers. Some of these destinations may be reached directly by a train,
while for others; the passengers may 130 need to use road transport from the most
conveniently located rail-head (Mehta, 1999).

Kashmir Railway:

The Kashmir Railway is a railway line being built in India to connect the state of
Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. Officially termed the 'Jammu
Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link' (JUSBRL), the railway starts from
Jammu and, when completed, will travel for 345 kilometres (214 mi) to the city of
Baramulla on the northwestern edge of the Kashmir Valley. The route crosses
major earthquake zones, and is subjected to extreme temperatures of cold and heat,
as well as inhospitable terrain, making it an extremely challenging engineering
project. The project has had a long and chequered history but serious progress was
made only after it was declared a National Project in 2002. The scheduled date of
completion was August 15, 2007. However, several unforeseen complications have
pushed back the final completion deadline to 2017 at the earliest so a through
service from central India to Kashmir will not be possible.

Kangra Valley Railway:

No one could have thought of making a finer selection of territory for building a
new mountain railway in India than the Kangra Valley. Few places can match this
scenic region in the sub-Himalayas. Indeed, for sheer charm, for the magnificence
of its scenery, for the majesty of its northern mountain barrier, for the beauty of its
glens and grandeur of its streams, this valley can compare with any in the world.
You will stumble across a land that has cast its magic spell upon those who
planned the railway, and those who built the line. The result is there for all to see –
an achievement that in every way makes one proud of the fine record that the
history of Indian Railways has always had (Shaili, 1999). 131 The Kangra Valley
Railway lies in the sub-Himalayan region and covers a distance of 163 kilometers
(101 mi) between Pathankot and Joginder Nagar, a valley known for its natural
beauty and ancient Hindu shrines. The line, which is part of the Northern Railway
and is made with a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge, was planned in May 1926 and
commissioned in 1929 and is popularly known as the ―Kangra Toy Train‖. The
highest point on this line is at Ahju station at an elevation of 1,291 meters (4,236
ft) and the terminus at Joginder Nagar is at 1,189 meters (3,901 ft). The line has
971 uniquely designed bridges and two tunnels. Two particularly important bridge
structures are the steel arch bridge over the Reond nalah and the girder bridge over
the Banganga River. Though the gradient of the line is generally gentle, the critical
reach with steep slopes is at the 142 kilometers (88 mi) stretch, which is of 210
meters (690 ft) width with 1:19 slope with approach slopes of 1:31 and 1:25. The
terminus stretch between Baijnath and Jogindernagar is 1:25. The train journey on
this line provides beautiful views of peaks of the Dhauladhar mountain range,
particularly in the stretch between Kangra and Mangwal, and also the ruins of the
Kangra Fort

Submitted By- JATIN GANDHI

Course- TOURISM (B), 5th
SEM
Roll No.- 1336
Sub- TOURISM
UNDERTAKING