Darjeeling

History at a glance

1. 1870s
   The line is commissioned by an agent of British India's Eastern Bengal Railway, under Franklin Prestage. The alignment initially follows the Cart Road.
2. 1881
   The line opens. One source gives 3 July as the official opening to Darjeeling; Ghum station's own record says 4 April 1881.
3. 1882
   Loops and zig-zag reverses are added between Sukna and Gayabari, because the locomotives could not manage the gradient.
4. 1886-1915
   Extended to Darjeeling Bazaar in 1886; Darjeeling station renovated 1891; Kurseong station and storage shed built 1896; lines extended to Geilkhola and works relocated to Tindharia between 1909 and 1915.
5. 1919
   The Batasia Loop is built below Ghum to ease the gradient on the descent into Darjeeling. It is a double loop and encircles a memorial garden.
6. 1942 and 1991
   Loop 2 at Rangtong and Loop 1 above Sukna are destroyed by floods, and never rebuilt.
7. 1947-1952
   The DHR is purchased by the Indian Government, managed by the Assam Railways Organisation, and in 1952 becomes part of the North Eastern Railway Zone.
8. 1988-1989
   Eighteen months of Gorkhaland unrest shut the line.
9. December 1999
   The DHR is inscribed at the 23rd Session — the first of the Mountain Railways and the second railway in the world, after the Semmering Railway in Austria.
10. July 2024 - 17 November 2024
    A landslide suspends the through-service for four months. It resumes on 17 November 2024.

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