Demodara Loop

Engineering curiosity where the railway crosses over itself

A few stations up the line from Ella, the railway performs one of the more inventive feats of colonial engineering in South Asia. The track spirals around a hill and dives into a tunnel that emerges directly beneath its own embankment, allowing the line to lose about thirty metres of altitude in the space of a sharp bend. You can watch from a viewing point near Demodara station.

It is a quirky stop rather than a must-see, but if you are walking the tracks between Ella and Demodara — about two hours each way — the loop is a natural turnaround point. The Nine Arches Bridge sits roughly halfway, so a one-way walk takes in both sights.

things to do sight
A story
When the British engineers reached Demodara in 1921 they ran out of space to descend the steep slope at a workable gradient. Their solution was a spiral loop in which the line crosses over itself by passing through a tunnel directly beneath its own track — the only railway loop of this kind in Sri Lanka.