Nilgiri Mountain Railway

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) connects the town of Mettupalayam with the hill station of Udagamandalam (Ootacamund), in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. Both towns are in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is the only rack railway in India, and uses the Abt system.

History

Plaque commemorating NMR as World Heritage Site at Coonoor railway station

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is one of the oldest mountain railways in India. Under consideration since 1845, the line was finally opened by the British in 1899, and was initially operated by the Madras Railway Company. The railway is one of the few in the world that is dependent on steam locomotives.^{[citation needed]}

The Southern Railway India, with headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu which operates the NMR, incurs an annual shortfall of Rs 4 crores, (~1 million USD). NMR comes under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Salem Division. During the Centenary celebrations of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in 1999, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the line would soon be electrified.

In July 2005, UNESCO added the Nilgiri Mountain Railway as an extension to the World Heritage Site of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the site then became known as "Mountain Railways of India."^[1] after it satisfied the necessary criteria, thus forcing abandonment of the modernisation plans.

Now many tourist and people of Nilgiris demanded to operate the steam loco again in between Coonoor and Udhagamandalam as before.