Nilgiris Mountain Railway fan goes on hunger strike at Ooty rail station

OOTY: The raging confrontation between the railway administration and Nilgiris Mountain Railway (NMR) fans resurfaced here on Tuesday over the removal of old rails in the railway station yards here, even as police picked up an NMR fan for observing a fast in the railway station.

The removal of an old overhead tank in the railway station here was initially a point of confrontation though the Railways’ Salem division clearly denied it was a heritage structure; but today, the battle was against move to remove old rails.

K. Natarajan, president of the Heritage Steam Chariot Trust, an organisation of NMR aficionados, sat near the portico of the railway station this morning to observe a fast to register his protest.

Railway police picked up Mr. Natarajan, took him to the police station nearby and tried to convince him to give up his stir. Mr. Natarajan, who came out of the police station in the afternoon, said that his trust would move the court to conserve the NMR in its glory.

However, Railway sources said that old rails in the abandoned good-shed area in Ooty were being removed as a construction to house a training centre is proposed there. The old railings will be shifted to the railway museum in Mettupalayam, sources added.