Matheran line likely to open by December

Workers get concrete sleepers to lay on the track. File pic

The work on the heritage narrow-gauge Matheran line, which was shut down three years ago due to rains and damage, will be complete by this year, and the line is planned to be thrown open by December. The work sped up after the disbursal of funds in the railway budget last week. As reported by mid-day in December 2021, the Matheran Railway is being rebuilt all over again and Rs 5 crore has been earmarked for the project.

"The work on building barricades and construction of walls has been targeted to be completed before monsoon by May 2022. Work on track laying is on and it will be complete for the 20-km stretch by December 2022. We should be able to commission the line once all the work is complete," said Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer, Central Railway.

"The narrow gauge line requires about 37,500 concrete sleepers. In addition to sleepers, 800m of retaining wall, 1,300m of gabion walls are being built and approaches being strengthened," he said. The 2-feet narrow-gauge Neral-Matheran line was built over a century ago in 1907 as a family enterprise of the Peerbhoys and is now in the UNESCO tentative list for Mountain Railways of India. The existing line is of a mix of old iron, steel and wooden sleepers of the old Great Indian Peninsula Railway and will now be upgraded with concrete sleepers.

The sleepers are specially made at Khurda rail factory in Madhya Pradesh and are being transported to the site. The line has been running intermittently since the turn of the century following heavy rainfall and had been extensively damaged in monsoon and has been shut since June 2019. A small stretch between Aman Lodge and Matheran was restored in December 2019.

Rs 5cr
The cost of the project