The upgrade of the Matheran Hill Railway is set to be delayed. The conversion of the once multi-gauge Indian Railways into broad gauge across the country has increasingly left narrower railways isolated. As a result, the planned upgrades to the Matheran Hill Railway are taking time as the 2-foot-wide narrow gauge has become “rare” with its assets not easily available.

Besides the Indian broad gauge of (1,676 mm) which is universal, the Indian Railways once had other major gauges--metre gauge (1,000 mm) and narrow gauge of two dimensions, i.e. 762 mm and 610 mm. The Delhi  Metro uses standard gauge (1,435 mm). With the Indian Railways now eliminating different gauges under ‘Project Unigauge’ to convert all smaller lines into broad gauge, the smaller heritage lines are getting increasingly isolated. The new Metro lines coming up are also of standard gauge.