Barog is a place, now a major tourist location in Himachal Pradesh. This place has the history of colonial past. Barog is not only a hill station, but also it provides the early English settlement in this hilly terrain village.
The 96.54-km long Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge track has 102 operational tunnels that constitute about 8 per cent of the total length of the route. This rail track or the Barog tank, which was open to passengers on November 9, 1903, is a living tribute to those engineers who dared to bore a total of 107 tunnels and set an example of how a railway line could pass through a rough mountainous terrain without destroying the splendour and beauty of the hills of Barog. The tunnels were renumbered in the year 1930, as some of them were found to be defunct. From 107, their number was reduced to 103, and this was further came down to 102 when tunnel no. 46 near the Solan Brewery had to be demolished.
Barog was settled in the early 20th century during the building of the narrow gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway.
Barog is named after Colonel Barog, an engineer involved in building the railway track in the year 1903. Currently, there are many semi residents have there long stays in there houses and flats in Barog. Mostly they are Sikh`s from Punjab residing there.
Barog Tunnel Entrance
Barog is the engineer, was responsible for designing a tunnel near the railway station. He commenced digging the tunnel from both sides of the mountain, which is quite common as it speeds up construction. However, he made mistakes in his calculation and while constructing the tunnel, it was found that the two ends of the tunnel did not meet. Barog was fined an amount of one rupee by the British Government in India. Unable to withstand the humiliation, Engineer Barog committed suicide. He was buried near the incomplete tunnel. The area came to be known as Barog after him. Later it was constructed under Chief Engineer H.S. Harrington`s supervision guided by a local sage, Bhalku, in a short period from July 1900 to September 1903 at cost of 840,000 rupees.
Barog Tunnel is the longest of the 103 operational tunnels on the route of the Shimla-Kalka Railway, which is 1143.61m long.
Barog Station
Barog Station in Barog is immediately after the Barog tunnel. Barog tunnel is the straightest tunnel in the world and one of the popular tourist locations in Barog. The trains take about 2.5 minutes to cross this tunnel, running at 25 kilometres per hour.
