Question : Heritage Preservation in Railways

(a) whether the Government has decided to take certain reformative measures to promote heritage preservation in Indian Railways and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Railway board is now preparing to launch a special drive to identify various heritage items or artefacts that are currently lying unnoticed or overlooked at different locations and if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether there is a proposal for the revival of Steam Locomotives and run regular time-tabled trains on Steam Traction and if so, the details thereof;
(d) whether the Government has any proposal for maintenance of railways in hilly areas and bringing them to world standard to promote tourism; and
(e) if so, the steps taken by the Government in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

(a) Ministry of Railways have initiated several reformative measures to
promote heritage preservation in Indian Railways. These include launching of a special drive to identify various heritage items/artefacts that are currently lying unnoticed at different locations; open a logbook of all major events, both at Zonal Railways and National Rail Museum to record the timelines of Railways history, revival of Steam Locomotives; upkeeping Hill Railways, strengthening Railway museums, conservation of built heritage etc.

(b) Ministry of Railways have directed all Zonal Railways/Production Units to launch a special drive between 1-15 March, 2018 for identification and preservation of Railway heritage assets like buildings, bridges, rolling stocks, documents, photographs, artefacts, equipments, clocks, benches etc.

(c) Ministry of Railways has made a specific provision in the budget outlay for 2018-19 for revival of steam locomotives including restoration and procurement of spares. There is no proposal at present to run regular time-tabled trains on Steam Traction.

(d) & (e) Ministry of Railways have launched a month long drive to bring the 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)] in immaculate state for promoting tourism.
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