Sans train service, Kangra village cut off

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 5

Vice-pradhan of Dhar Dangar village in Dehra, Kangra district, Nitin Thakur has to walk 14 km to reach his house. “The village has been cut off from the rest of the town for the past more than three months now. The railway track is the only connecting link to our village. But the railway authorities stopped the train service in June,” he said.

Nitin alleged that 54 families from their village had temporarily left their home and moved to other areas due to lack of connectivity.

Raghav Guleria, a resident of Nandpur village, said: “The road to the village is cut off whenever the water level in the Pong dam rises. Since there are no rail services, we feel helpless.”

Seven to-and-fro trains used to ply to Kangra from Pathankot every day. Three trains go up to Jogindernagar in Mandi district, three up to Palampur and one till Ranital. Three trains that ply up to Jogindernagar were stopped in June, while the remaining four were stopped in August.

The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ferozepur, Vivek Kumar said this year, heavy rain was witnessed in Kangra. “There was a landslide alert, so the train service had to be stopped. As soon as the rainy season is over, the service will be resumed,” he said.

Residents of Dehra held a protest, saying the government was talking of constructing the Leh railway line, but was unable to maintain tracks constructed during the British era.

The worst affected are villages falling in the Pong wetland area. Due to a wildlife sanctuary, no roads can be constructed in here. Trains are the only mode of transportation. The narrow gauge Pathankot-Jogindernagar railway line, which transverses through Kangra, was constructed by the British in 1926. The construction of the railway line was started in 1926 and completed in 1929. Since then, not much change has been made to the railway track. The line has two tunnels, one of which is 250 ft (76 m) and the other 1,000 ft (300 m). Trains on this narrow gauge line are pulled by small and less powerful engines than on a broad gauge main line, therefore steep ascents have to be avoided. When the Maharana Pratap Sagar was constructed, the line had to be diverted between Jawanwala Shahr and Guler into higher grounds along the eastern shore of the new reservoir. In 1973, the section between these two stations, along with Anur, Jagatpur and Mangwal stations was abandoned, and the new alignment with several new stations opened three years later.