The
Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a railway in
Tamil Nadu,
India, built by the
British in 1908, and was initially operated by the
Madras Railway. The railway still relies on its fleet of
steam locomotives. NMR comes under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Salem Division. In July 2005,
UNESCO added the Nilgiri Mountain Railway as an extension to the
World Heritage Site of
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the site then became known as "Mountain Railways of India" after it satisfied the necessary criteria, thus forcing abandonment of the modernisation plans. For the past several years diesel locomotives have taken over from steam on the section between
Coonoor and
Udhagamandalam. Local people and tourists have led a demand for steam locos to once again haul this section.