Heritage conservation in Indian Railways

The Ministry of Railways has initiated several steps to promote heritage conservation. The conservation measures undertaken by railways include a revival of Steam Locomotives, up-keeping Hill Railways, a special delegation of powers to Divisions for promoting Hill and Steam tourism, strengthening Railway museums, conservation of built heritage, digitization of Railway Heritage and bringing it online for universal access etc.

Measures undertaken for Heritage conservation

The measures undertaken for heritage conservation are:

• Zonal Railways/Production Units are organising drives from time to time for identification and preservation of Railway heritage assets like buildings, bridges, rolling stocks, documents, photographs, artefacts, equipment, clocks, benches etc, which currently lying unnoticed or overlooked at different locations.
• A specific provision was made by the Ministry of Railways in the budget outlay for 2018-19 for the revival of steam locomotives including restoration and procurement of spares.
• A weekly regular timetabled train on steam traction has been made operational between Garhi Harsaru and Farukhnagar.
• Maintenance of five hill railways of India [Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), Kalka Shimla Railway (KSR), Matheran Light Railway(MLR) and Kangra Valley Railway (KVR)] are undertaken as per codal provision of Indian Railways and UNESCO Guidelines.
• Special powers have been delegated to  Divisional Railway Managers of five hill railways for promoting tourism in these five hill railways.

Ministry of Railways had also organised a day-long event of heritage officers of Zonal Railways and Production Units to give complete attention to the century-old rich heritage of Indian Railways and to train them in heritage conservation approaches.