IN A major setback to the Northern Railway, the multiple trials of ambitious Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Unit (DHMU) coaches, which were hired to run on the UNESCO-protected 90-km-long Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge, failed on Thursday.
The three coaches with six self-propelled engines were sent back to the private company, M/s San Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd in Bangalore, to find out the fault in the coaches. At least four trials of the DHMU were conducted from the Kalka railway station in the last one week. Sources said in all these trials, three DHMU coaches hardly managed to cover a distance of more than 100 metres to 500 metres.
