Giving an ode: Siliguri Club portrays Town Station, DHR in its Puja pandal

Siliguri: In an ode to Durga Puja and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (DHR), both being world heritage, the Siliguri Town Club Puja has chosen the Siliguri Town Station — one of the oldest railway stations of Bengal — and part of the World Heritage DHR as the theme for this year’s Puja.

They have even placed a replica of the DHR train popular as the Toy Train to sensitise the masses that Siliguri Town Station was the start point of World Heritage DHR to Darjeeling. The Puja pandal has been set up on the road adjacent to the actual Town Station near Court More in Siliguri. This year is the 54th edition of Durga Puja of this club.

“This is one of the most historic railway stations of this region. At present the station is in a dilapidated condition. There are many who are still unaware about the importance of this station. The oldest station is gradually losing its importance. We chose our Durga Puja theme on this station to highlight its importance. We are trying to draw the attention of the government so that they do something for the station and preserve it,” said Bijay Biswas, president of the club. The station was established in the year 1880. This was the starting point for trains from Kolkata and the World famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) to and from Darjeeling. Many legendary people, including Poet Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi have visited the station.

With other railway stations like Siliguri Junction, New Jalpaiguri Railway Station, the number of halts of trains having come up, the Town station over the years has started to lose its importance with many trains not halting here. Owing to this passenger footfall is steadily on the decline. It has also become a haunt of substance abusers.

The pandal is an exact replica of the station and is made of iron and tin. A total of 24 artists from Kolkata and Siliguri have made this pandal that has been attracting huge crowds. The budget of the pandal is Rs 9 lakh. During the Puja, the history of the station will be highlighted through announcements. Old pictures of the station are being displayed at the pandal.

“This is the first time that we have made a pandal replicating a station. It took us about two months,” said a pandal artist. While the DHR was ascribed a world heritage site on December 2, 1999 by UNESCO, Durga Puja in Kolkata became the first Asian festival to be enlisted in the Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2021.