New Delhi: India and Taiwan, both endowed with impressive heritage mountain railways, have exchanged knowledge and experience in preserving and maintaining their tangible and intangible rail inventory amid increasing natural disasters due to climate change, officials said on Monday.
While Indian Railways, with its UNESCO World Heritage railway routes, remains a model for technical caretaking and management, the Taiwanese experience in creating an ecologically sensitive tourism model is notable, they said. The two sides recently took part in a virtual seminar — India-Taiwan Online Forum — on Railway Cultural Heritage Conservation and discussed promotion of thematic heritage tourism.
The forum was organised and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, and co-organised by the Heritage Directorate, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways here. Indian has three mountain railways, the Kalka-Shimla Railway, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Niligiri Mountain Railway, while Taiwan has Alishan Forest Railway.
“Senior officials from Alishan mountain railways and Takao Railway Museum led the discussion and shared their experience in the field of preservation, interpretation and management of their tangible and intangible railway inventory,” said Moulshri Joshi, an industrial heritage expert who attended the seminar.
“Both sides agreed to share knowledge through virtual forums and academic programs around these areas of strength,” said Joshi, an architect and also Advisory Board Member of Taiwan-based Asian Network of Industrial Heritage (ANIH).
Director Miao-Hsiu Huang of Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office described a gap in conducting historical research and noted that the same could be an area of cooperation.
The event was curated by Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India and SpaceMatters, Delhi-based design consultancy specialising in industrial heritage. (PTI)
