CHENNAI: After eight months, train services in Mettupalayam -Udagamandalam (Ooty) section of Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) will resume on a daily basis from Thursday. Upon resumption, the NMR
services will be operated as Fully Reserved Special Trains and advance reservation for the train will be opened at 8 am on Wednesday.
The ticket fare on NMR route was hiked by 300 per cent and came into effect on March 1. However, train services were suspended on March 24 on account of Covid 19 lockdown. For covering 45.8 km between
Mettupalayam and Udagamandalam, the fare was hiked from Rs. 175 to 600 for first-class and Rs. 75 to 295 for second class.
Since the railways allowed only reserved passengers with revised higher fares, the train is expected to get patronised by tourists and visitors. The hill route, which is one of the tourist's attractions in the State, receive domestic and international visitors throughout the year.
"One pair of fully reserved special trains will be run between Mettupalayam and Udagamandalam and three pairs of fully reserved special trains will be operated between Coonoor and Udagamandalam," said railways in a statement on Tuesday.
Recently the railways have come under the severe attack from political parties including ruling AIADMK and rail passengers after it allowed a private company to run charted service of toy train on NMR route. The private company which renamed the train as TN - 43 had charged Rs. 3000 per ticket.
Following the accusations that the national transporter testing waters for privatisation of the hill route, the railways have directed the company to operate the remaining charted services without using its brand name 'TN - 43' and also declined permission for additional charted services.
The Mettupalayam - Ooty reserved special will leave Mettupalayam at 7.10 am and reach Ooty at 11.55 am. Similarly, in the return direction, the train will leave Ooty at 2 pm and reach Mettupalayam at 5.30 pm.
In addition, three pairs of reserved special will leave Coonoor at 7.45 am, 12.35 pm and 4 pm and reach Ooty at 9 am, 1.45 pm and 5.10 pm respectively.
Similarly, during the return journey, the trains will leave Ooty at 9 .15 am, 12.15 pm and 5.30 pm and reach Coonoor at 10.20 am, 1.15 pm and 6.35 pm respectively.
Prior to fare hike in March, the rate of return through passenger traffic was ten per cent of operational cost, said railways.