OOTY: Monday, July 15, was a golden letter day in the annals of the Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) as on this day in 2005, it was accorded the World Heritage Site status by the UNESCO.
When the 14th anniversary of the Heritage Day of NMR was being celebrated on Monday, the Heritage Steam Chariot Trust (HSCT), an organisation of NMR
aficionados, called for community involvement in NMR based tourism and employment generation.
K. Natarajan, president of HSCT, said that the Southern Railway has now begun to operate summer specials, special fare weekend specials, Ooty-Ketti picnic round trips and Coonoor-Runnymede picnic round rounds to boost tourism and these have proved to be a grand success.
Now, there is the need to involve the local community on “my village, my train” and “heritage train and employment opportunities” concept to explore the
possibilities for income generation for local communities through heritage NMR picnic trips.
“During the picnic special round trips, the railways distributed snacks and other value added products to the passengers as a package, for which money was collected along with ticket fare.
The railways should hand over the catering to villagers, especially women’s self-help groups or unemployed youth in Hullada Badaga village near Ketti railway station. The amount collected from snacks and refreshment will go to the villagers and the tourists will be given an exposure to Badaga ethnic snacks.
If possible, arrangements may be made for an ethnic lunch and sale of Nilgiri products in the village to give exposure to the tourists to experience ethnicity,” he urged.
