Ajmer is soon going to have an all-new Railway Museum that will serve as a tourist attraction. It will be the first of its kind museum in the railway division. It will have metre gauge trains and tracks on display, as reported by officials. As per Tarun Jain, North West Railway Chief Public Relations Officer, the Ajmer Municipal Corporation will submit its detailed project report this month.
Reportedly the project will be worth INR 3.5 Crores to INR 4 Crores and will be built with the joint efforts of Union Ministry of Urban Development and the state government. The museum will have a saloon which will be converted into a restaurant general coach. Besides, it will have a toy train, steam crane dummy, locomotives, metre gauge tracks, and so on.
The railway museum will also include heritage items like wheelsets, bogies, trolleys, expressers, pistons, diesel components-engine blocks, etc. It will be built in the existing electrical production unit at Nasirabad Road in Ajmer that will showcase the centuries-old railway heritage.
Metre Gauge Steam Locomotive used by Rajputana-Malwa Railway (Source: mapio.net)
Sources suggest that the existing building spread across an area of more than 2000 square metres will be renovated and the surrounding area of 6,335 square metres will be re-developed to give the place a heritage look. Apparently, Ajmer has been chosen to establish this museum because the Ajmer division of North Western Railway has a rich historical background.
The Rajputana-Malwa Railway was the first railway in India to be constructed on metre gauge line that started in 1869. Its headquarters was shifted from Agra to Ajmer in 1884. This heritage building became the office of the engineer-in-chief of Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway.
Later in 1887, Ajmer loco workshop was established by the British India and made a valuable contribution in its long years of service. The Ajmer workshop has built as many as 467 class steam locomotives for the Indian Railways.
