Ghum

Awesome place

Ordinary small railway station. Just famous for its height. No attraction there

The UNESCO accepted Darjeeling Himalayan Railway toy train that passes from here as a world heritage site. The train makes steep climbs through a number of reverses and loops promising an enthralling view. One of the most heart-stirring being the Batasia Loop between Ghum and Darjeeling. Construction of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway began in 1879 and the railway track reached Ghum on 4 April 1881. Until 1878, the journey from Kolkata to Darjeeling took a week’s time. When Siliguri was put on the railway map of India the journey time reduced to two days. Thereafter, it became a 3–4 hours journey to Ghum by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. This station is nothing less than a beauty personified! A decade of painstaking hard work that flaunts one of the most exemplified architectures of Indian history. No wonder UNESCO was wowed by it and bestowed it with a heritage status. It is India’s busiest railway station. After climbing from Siliguri to Ghum, the train starts descending about 1,000 ft (300 m) to Darjeeling, first crossing the graceful double loop at Batasia (meaning windy place). Ghum is (falsely) claimed by some tourist literature to be the highest railway station in the world. It never was. Chicla station at 3,724 m (12,218 ft) in Peru opened in 1878. The Tanggula railway station on the Qingzang railway in China and Tibet, opened in 2006, is at5,068 m (16,627 feet). In Switzerland, the Jungfraubahn (JB) is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) rack railway which runs 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch (elevation 3,471 m, 11,388 ft).

Ghum railway station of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is the highest railway station in the India. It is situated at an altitude of 2,258 metres. The place is the home of the Ghum Monastery and the Batasia Loop, a bend of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

The Ghum Railway Station is the highest railway station in India and is the 14th highest in the world. This is also believed to be a part of the Darjeeling toy train railways. Though it is the smallest railway station it is still considered to be one of the most beautiful railway station in India.