Ahead of the tourist season, Northern Railways Ambala Division, is introducing new hop-on hop-off the train service on UNESCO declared World Heritage Kalka-Shimla section from 25 October.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Ambala Praveen Gaur Dwivedi said that the service will be introduced for six months on trial basis on all trains running on Kalka-Shimla section.
“The introduction of this service will enable the tourist to visit all the places of tourist’s interest of Kalka – Shimla section, on a single ticket,” he said. Under the service the passengers can board any coach of any train subject to availability of seats, they can board or de-board at or from any station in all the trains, he informed.
However, the passengers will not entitled to avail other paid or value-added services in the train, he added.
According to the fare structure and validity period of ticket for a single day the full fare for the adult is Rs 500 where as for a child it is Rs 250.
While the two-day validity charges for full fare is Rs 800 while for a child is Rs 400, for a period of three days the charges fixed is Rs 1000 for full fare and Rs 500 for a child.
At the time of booking the passenger will have to submit a photocopy of identity (ID) proof and the original ID proof, copy of which was submitted at the time of booking will have to be produced by the passenger on demand.
The failure in producing the identity will be treated as Without Ticket passenger and the passenger will be charged as per extant Railway rules, he revealed.
Other conditions of the service include, the ticket is nontransferable, no refund of fare is permitted on the hop-on, hop off service ticket in any case, besides no concession in fare is allowed.
The tickets can be purchased from the booking offices of any station on Kalka-Shimla section.
The Union Railway Ministry had on 30 July hinted of introducing hop-on, hop-off services to ply between the Kalka- Shimla section.
The Kalka-Shimla railway is a narrow-gauge railway which transverses through the mountainous route between Kalka to Shimla and is one of the attractions for the domestic, as well as foreign tourists.
The Kalka-Shimla railway line listed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 2008. Built during the British Raj days the railway lines to the summer capital of the Britishers were commissioned in the year 1903.
The heritage rail line, an engineering marvel is 96 kms long narrow gauge track and the train ride from Shimla to Kalka takes five to six hours as it transverses through the hills at a pace of 25 kms per hour.
It has total 102 tunnels left out of the 107, which had once been constructed.