( MR. RISHAV CHOUDHARY, DIRECTOR , DARJEELING HIMALAYAN RAILWAY)
*NIGHT LONG TOY TRAIN JOURNEY WITH TEA ESTATE VISIT ALONG WITH MIDNIGHT TEA PLUCKING SESSION , WITNESS CULTURAL EVENT AND ENJOY LOCAL GASTRONOMY , UNVEILS MR. RISHAV CHOUDHARY
BY DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
NEW DELHI | 12 MARCH 2026
DHR, a Unesco World Heritage site is planning to replicate the Maharani’s Great Escapade – a night long toy train journey specially curated along with visit to a tea estate and witness cultural programme and enjoy the local gourmet which is set to be introduced in this March – April, says Rishav Choudhary, Director of Darjeeling Himalayan Railways. It will happen on all full moons.
Mr. Rishav Choudhary, who was present in the SATTE 2026 at Yashobhoomi Convention Centre in New Delhi, where DHR had given a stall showcasing its various attractions along with the iconic model engine and coffee table book and also attending various crucial meetings of UNESCO here spoke exclusively to the www.thetravelandtourismtimes.com at the sidelines of the event about the future plans.
As part of its further ambitious move for global outreach, for the first time DHR has participated in SATTE -2026, the largest travel mart in South East Asia showcasing its rich culture and heritage through the stall.
“We have a special charter, premium charter event on all full moons, known as the Maharani’s Great Escapade, it is based on a legend of Maharani Indira Devi of Coochbehar , it is said that around 1900, the princess of Coochbehar she visited Hotel Wyndham in Darjeeling she didn’t like it there, so she called up the then general manager of DHR and requested him to arrange an overnight train for her, to travel from Darjeeling to Siliguri which is, you know, something which is not very done often, it didn’t work at night even then, it still doesn’t work, but for her it was arranged and she had a little party of her own on the train and in the next day’s newspaper, the headline was Maharani’s Great Escapade, right? So, on those lines, we are conducting a night, you know, train journey for the passengers, we have curated one, not only will they be able to ride on the train, they will also be, will terminate at Gulma Tea Estate and there they will be able to witness a cultural programme accompanied by lunch and the most special thing for them will be a midnight tea plucking session under the full moon,,” he explained.
Mr. Rishav Choudhury further added, “We have created a lot of experiences for all our tourists, so for example we have in Kurseong we have tied up with the Kurseong forest division, so now if a tourist wants not only can he visit the trail that we give him a heritage right from Kurseong to Mahanadi and back, but we will also be able to give him or her a trip to the mountains, a trip to Dow Hill in which there will be a guided trek for one to two to three hours, as many hours as the tourist would like, accompanied by forest officials, the forest rangers will accompany them, it will then culminate at the forest museum, the wonderful forest museum they have and will followed by lunch, the lunch will be also very special because it will be completely sourced from the products of forest and it will be prepared by the local tribals living inside the forest, so that will be served to them, after which they can come to Kurseong railway station, they will come to Kurseong railway station, visit the Kurseong archives and they’ll travel on the wonderful Kurseong Mahanadi charter and enjoy the sunset, fantastic sunset views, so we have developed a lot of tie-ups like that. It has has started, recently and has been fantastic, so I think a couple of weeks ago we did a charter in which we had a tie-up with the Tea state, Sepoy Dhura Tea Estate, what we have done is, we start from Tindaria, give a tour of the Tindharia workshop and then go up to Rongtong, at Rongtong we take the tourists by car to Shivkhola and after visiting Shivkhola, we bring them back to Sepoy Dhura Tea state at Sepoy Dhura Dura Tea Estate, we give them tour of the factory, tea testing session, tea plucking session and a lunch, again a completely organic lunch, accompanied by a cultural program as well, right? After that, we bring them back to Rongtong station and take them from Rongtong to Siliguri, similarly others also do.”
“So, all this is in our plans, the two that I spoke of in the first place have already started Maharani’s Great Escapade, we are looking to start in March or April, it will happen on all full moons,”he said.
“ And DHR is doing pretty well business since the past few years , year- on- year we are looking at a 16 % growth and also a 15 to 16 percent growth this time around on revenue and similar growth can be seen in footfall as well, so our plans are to maintain this heritage railways first and bring on more customers with more value added features,” Mr. Rishav Choudhary concluded.
Currently, restoration work is also undergoing in its 15 heritage coaches for further passenger attraction and comfort. While in 2025 the annual visitor footfall was 2.1 lakhs compared to 1.7 lakhs in 2024, similarly the business grew to Rs.24.6 crores in 2025 compared to Rs.21.2 crores in 2024.
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