Porbandar State Railway

Porbandar State Railway
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Line of route
Jamjodhpur to Porbandar
Gauge / mileage
Metre gauge	41 miles (1922)
Timeline
1888	Opened to traffic
Key locations
Presidency	Bombay
Stations	Jamjodhpur, Porbandar
System agency
1888	Bhavnagar-Gondal-Junagad-Porbandar Railway
1919	Gondal Railways
How to interpret this infobox

Porbanda State Railway

The Porbandar State Railway (PSR) was a metre gauge line owned by the Princely Porbandar State and intially worked by the Bhavnagar-Gondal-Junagad-Porbandar Railway(BGJPR).

From 1911 until 1919 it was worked jointly with Gondal State thus forming the Gondal-Porbandar Railway

From 1919 it was worked by Gondal Railways(GSR) until 1948 when it became part of the newly formed Saurashtra Railway.

History

• 1886. The British Administrator , Mr Lely, in charge of Porbandar State proposed to build a Railway from Porbandar to Dhoraji via Kandorna and Kutiana and started the survey but the Durbar decided that although they had the capital, they would not spend it on the project. The Indian Government seeing the need for the railway to open up the State went to the Thakor of Gondal to raise support, and various meetings were held between the Agent and the Thakor of Gondal regarding the route. The Thakor was not happy at the proposed route through Bhayawadar to Jamjodhpur. This after a survey and costing by Mr. Shadbolt proved to be the better route .
• 1887. An Agreement to construct the railway was signed between the States so that construction could start after the monsoon season in September although Gondal said it could only build the section in its own territory and Porbandar had only Rs 9,000 spare to build the railway. Gondal initially paid Rs 10 Lacs but was also to add at reasonable intervals up to 50% of the cost of the line. This also made Porbandar State a partner in ‘Bhavnagar-Gondal-Junagadh-Veraval-Railway’ being the final State to join the operational union. This coalition became the ‘Bhavnagar-Gondal-Junagad-Porbandar Railway’’,

PSR Railway System

• ‘Mainline’ Porbandar to Jamjodhpur, opened 1889, 41 miles(66km) .

From Porbandar the line connected to the ‘Gondal State Railway’

• ‘Quarry Branch’ was a short branch opened 1889, 3.7 miles(6km)

The branch ran from Ranavav, about 20km east of Porabandar to a quarry

• ‘Porbadar Harbour Extension’, opened 1890, 3.7 miles(6km)

Porbandar to Porbander Bandar

Records

An on-line search of the India Office Records (IOR) records held at the British Library relating to this railway gives the following:-

• L/PS/10/257; “ File 1073/1912 Railways: Native States; Gondal-Porbandar State Railway”; 1912-19
• R/2/635/288 ; “File 1933 C/589-A Gondal-Porbandar-Grant of running powers to thePorbandar State railway over the Gondal Rly.”; 1933

Further Information

See Bhavnagar-Gondal-Junagad-Porbandar Railway up to 1911
See Gondal-Porbandar Railway from 1911 onward
And Kathiawar Peninsula Railway and Tramway Systems gives a map, timeline and relates this railway to others in the Kathiawar Peninsula.