Decision 47 COM 7B.72

Mountain Railways of India (India)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/25/47.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 43 COM 7B.62, 44 COM 7B.26 and 45 COM 7B.161, adopted at its 43rd session (Baku, 2019) and extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) and extended 45th (Riyadh, 2023) sessions respectively,
3. Reiterates again its request that the State Party establish full-time, in-house heritage conservation expertise to strengthen the management and conservation of the property;
4. Notes the submission by the State Party of the Draft Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP) for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) and requests the State Party to provide information confirming its commitment to the policies in that document as well as a timeframe for implementing each of the policies, as follows, before the Plan is formally adopted:
   1. Supporting the proposed buffer zone and amended property boundaries recommended in the CCMP,
   2. Developing a Coordination Committee to facilitate liaison with the authorities responsible for spatial planning in the proposed buffer zone,
   3. Agreeing Memorandum of Understanding with those authorities on the protection of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and management in the buffer zone,
   4. Establishing a ‘heritage conservation unit’ with full-time professional heritage staff within the DHR or Zonal North Frontier Railway,
   5. Establishing a Mountain Railways of India Coordination Committee to liaise on matters of interest to the three components of the property,
   6. Adopting Heritage Impact Assessment processes for developments that have a potential to adversely impact on OUV,
   7. Skills retention and capacity building in railway maintenance and operations;
5. Further requests the State Party to provide, as a matter of urgency, comprehensive information about the following:
   1. The civil works carried out at Ghum, Darjeeling and Kurseong railway stations of the DHR, including photographs,
   2. The maintenance and conservation of mechanical heritage components, such as the property’s historic rolling stock and steam locomotives,
   3. The implementation of the National Monetisation Pipeline 2021, as it may affect the property, and any guidelines established to safeguard the property’s OUV;
6. Urges the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, information regarding all proposed major conservation, renovation, refurbishment and redevelopment works planned for the property, as well as any planned or ongoing infrastructure development projects that may have an impact on the property and its OUV, for review by the Centre and the Advisory Bodies before any decision is made that would be difficult to reverse;
7. Requests furthermore the State Party to provide a timeline for the following activities and urges the State Party to expedite these processes:
   1. The completion of the mapping of the property’s boundaries and buffer zones of the Nigiri Mountain Railway (NMR) and the Kalka Shimla Railway (KSR),
   2. The preparation and implementation of CCMP along with finalised Built Heritage Manuals for all three railways — DHR, NMR and KSR;
8. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2026, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 49th session.