Darjeeling, Feb 12: The UNESCO World Heritage Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) has got its first woman Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) in its 145-year history.
Sarita Yolmo, a veteran employee of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), conducted the toy train from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling for the first time in her new role on February 5.
“I am proud to be the first woman TTE in a Darjeeling Himalayan Railway toy train in its history,” Yolmo told PTI over the phone.
DHR official Prateeksha Chhetri confirmed that Yolmo is serving as the first woman TTE in the toy train service.
Yolmo said she felt both thrilled and anxious when she was offered the opportunity to work in the UNESCO heritage railway service.
“I am from Darjeeling, but I had no prior experience working in the DHR,” she said, adding that she had earlier travelled on the toy train only as a passenger.
She is currently the only woman TTE on the NJP-Darjeeling route, a journey that takes around eight hours one way and can sometimes take longer due to delays en route.
Yolmo works on the daily service between NJP and Darjeeling on a rotational basis. She conducts the morning train from NJP and returns the following day after an overnight halt in the hill town, often referred to as the ‘Queen of the Hills’.
TTEs for the NJP-Darjeeling route are deputed by the Chief Travelling Ticket Inspector (CTTI) office at NJP, where Yolmo is posted.
“Though I had no prior experience of working as a TTE in trains, I gathered courage and took responsibility for the passengers as the first woman TTE in the toy train service,” she said.
“I was a little anxious on my first journey, but I felt very good after completing the route and reaching Darjeeling,” she added.
Yolmo joined the NFR in April 1991 in the printing press department at Kurseong. After the railway press was shut down, she was posted to the commercial department at NJP, where she worked in the enquiry, station checking and announcement wings.
A resident of Siliguri, known as the gateway to the hills and the Northeast, Yolmo is the mother of a daughter who is studying while also working abroad.
Her husband is a retired DHR employee who served as an engineer at the Tindharia workshop before being posted to Siliguri.(PTI)
