Darjeeling railway station lights up in UN blue

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), a World Heritage site and a key tourist attraction in West Bengal's Darjeeling, was lit United Nations (UN) blue at sunset on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the world body.

The DHR was constructed in 1879 on the hill cart road in Darjeeling in the hills of north Bengal, and opened two years later. It is the oldest hill passenger railway in India.

"The Darjeeling railway station was lit up blue on Friday and it will be lit up today (Saturday) as well around sunset," an official of DHR told IANS.

DHR, 134-year-old site, joins Unesco listed over 200 world's most iconic landmarks, including the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, under the UN Blue initiative.

The UN has its own official shade of light blue, which identifies the organisation around the world.

UN peacekeepers are unofficially known as blue helmets and blue berets, and the colour also forms the background of the UN flag.

October 24 marks the day the United Nations came into existence when China and a majority of the UN's 51 founding members ratified the UN Charter in San Francisco.

The United Nations Day marks the anniversary of entry of the UN into force in 1945 of the UN Charter.

With ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the UN officially came into being.