Vanbala, the toy train, which is the pride of Seminary Hills territorial forest and source of great entertainment for the youngsters, has once again started chugging at Balodyan in Seminary Hills from Thursday. Tusharkant Pandey, DRM, Central Railway, Nagpur Division, flagged off Vanbala on Thursday morning whereas Sreelakshmi A, Conservator of Forest (Territorial), Nagpur; Dr Vipin Itankar, Collector; Aanchal Sood, Additional Municipal Commissioner; and Dr Bharat Singh Hada, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Nagpur, were present. The toy train was non-functional since 2016. The Forest Department planned to restart it in 2019, but the plan fizzled out due to Covid-19. Even before that, it used to run intermittently due to technical issues. With funding support from District Planning Development Council (DPDC) and technical support from Central Railway, the Nagpur’s iconic toy train will now run daily. Around Rs 1.20 crore has been spent on the project, which will include adventure sports. “We are planning to start a non-sound movie theatre where films on wildlife will be shown to the visitors. Along with this, the walking trail and the rides in the Balodyan will be renovated soon. A tender has already been floated,” Dr Bharat Singh Hada told ‘The Hitavada.’ Before starting the Vanbala, CR replaced the old tracks and slippers with new one on the 1.9 km stretch.

 

The maintenance of the train was also done by the CR. The Public Works Department too cleaned and strengthened the Vanbala station and got it painted to give it a new look. There are plans to instal gates in front of Balodyan. Before flagging-off the toy train, there were four trial runs were conducted. After the successful trial runs, the CR gave approval to run the train on the track. The toy train is 45-year-old and covers a 2.5 km circuit. It was first launched in December 1978 by former chief minister Sharad Pawar. Since then many times this train for children has been shut for months, with popular demand forcing officials to restart it everytime.

 

Citizens can enjoy the toy train ride daily except Mondays. The timing for the joy ride will be 10 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm in all days. Whereas, the ticket rates are Rs 20 for children and Rs 50 for adults. During this joy ride, citizens can witness the rich nature of Seminary Hills which is situated in the centre of the city. A decade ago this toy train was a tourist attraction in the city but it lost its glory with passage oftime due to its poor maintenance. Vijaykumar Gangawane, Assistant Conservator of Forest (Tendu and Campa), Nagpur; Sarika Wairagade, Range Forest Officer, Seminary Hills; Ajinkya Bhatkar, Honorary Wildlife Warden (Nagpur); Vinit Thakre; Vivek Nagbhire; Vinit Arora; Ashok Gade; Panchal and others were also present during the flagging-off event.