--- After train services reached the plains of Siliguri in 1878, Franklin Prestage, agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway, foresaw the utility of a rail-link between the hills of Darjeeling and the plains. He submitted a scheme for the construction of a two feet gauge railway line from Siliguri to Darjeeling. His scheme was mainly driven by raw economic considerations especially the huge difference in the cost of essential commodities between Darjeeling and Siliguri, the need to carry out tea for export and the inability of the existing road to handle the growing traffic. Prestage received final sanction for his project on April 8, 1879 and formed the Darjeeling Steam Tramway Co. However, the idea of operating the line as a steam tramway was soon abandoned and, on September 15, 1881, the company adopted the designation of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Co. (DHR), which remained effective until it was taken over by the Government of free India on October 20, 1948. Throughout that period Gillanders Artbuthnot & Co. in Calcutta, handled its financial, legal and purchasing interests.