The century-old kalka-shimla railway is a grand legacy that deserves the world heritage site status it will shortly be accorded

Crossing a narrow-gauge railway line on my way to school in the late 1980s, I would religiously place a one-rupee coin on the track every day, hoping it would turn into a magnet after being run over by the wheels of the train. Needless to say I never got back any of the coins I had lost this way. Almost 20 years later, as I return to walk along the tracks of the 96.6-km Kalka-Shimla Railway (KSR), at a time when this majestic narrow-gauge hill railway is set to be accorded the status of a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, coins may still not change into magnets but the magnetic pull of this 105-year-old railway is unmistakable.

THE BACK TRACK
The idea of a railway line to Shimla can be traced back to 1847, when it found a mention in The Delhi Gazette owing to the trend of British residents flocking to the mountains in the summer. In 1870, the Sind Punjab and Delhi Railway opened a 480-km line between Amritsar and Delhi via Ambala, which became the base station for travelling to Shimla, with the route comprising a 61-km run through the plains up to Kalka and traversing another 93 km over the steep gradient of the grand Hindustan-Tibet Road. Kalka, situated on the foothills of the Shivaliks, developed into a busy transit station for the journey uphill.
A favourable investment climate in Britain and support from private companies prompted the Government of India to undertake the construction of a railway line to Shimla. On June 29, 1898 the Secretary of State signed a contract with the Delhi Ambala Kalka Railway Company for a 610-mm line from Kalka to Shimla. Other than providing land free of cost, the government was not obliged to give any pecuniary aid or guarantee to build this line. Later, keeping in mind military requirements, it decided to increase the width of the gauge to 762 mm. The contract was revised on November 15, 1901 and the KSR opened to traffic on November 9, 1903.

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