Steam Safari being revived to promote tourism

PESHAWAR: The historic Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Steam Safari is being revived after a long time to promote tourism in the province.

The provincial government has approved the steam safari to be executed through the KP Tourism Authority with Pakistan Railways. “The chief minister has approved the revival of the steam safari. On one route, the steam safari will take passengers from Peshawar to Attock Khurd while on the other route it will take tourists from the provincial capital to the archeological sites in Takht Bhai,” Secretary Tourism and Culture Abid Majeed told The News. The Khyber Steam Safari to Landikotal was one of the main tourist attractions in the province and ex-Fata for foreign and domestic tourists for decades.

It was stopped many years back and the track was never used since then. It could not be revived in last many years due to terrorism in the region.

Currently two bridges on the track in Khyber are destroyed and authorities will have to reconstruct them before the revival of the steam safari to Landikotal. Because of these reasons, the safari steam is now being introduced to Attock and Takht Bhai. According to officials, the Peshawar to Attock Khurd trip’s distance is 184 kilometers from both sides and one side travel take around 90 minutes. The second route round trip is around 162 kilometres.

The safari steam passengers, according to officials, will be entertained with live music, camel ride, games, traditional food, visit to old Attock Bridge and Buddhist archeological sites in Takht Bhai. “Heavy Good (HG/S) class steam locomotives are still active in Pakistan. These three locomotives were manufactured by Vulcan Foundry and Kitson & Company in 1923 & 1916 respectively. These locomotives remained property of North West Railway in early 20th century & were handed over to Pakistan in 1947. Initially these were used for Khyber Pass Railway. These were used for Khyber Steam Safari and Khyber Train Safari,” an official said. He said that currently one steam engine was in Peshawar locomotive shed while two at Rawalpindi shed. Two activities of Steam Train Safari have been arranged in the last 9 months.

The Rail Heritage Tourism was run through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with century old Khyber Steam Safari engines. The authorities are planning an initiative to revitalize the train trip through historical sites. This will also strengthen religious tourism and strengthen inter-faith cohesion, officials said. In November, 2019 a five-day trip was organized by Pakistan Railways as a joint venture with a private company.

Another trip was arranged in February, 2020 in which the steam engine malfunctioned in Pabbi. An official said they would have reserved diesel engines to avoid any issue in the steam safari. He continued that Railways has been taken on board and the safari would start next month when the weather improved.