East Coast State Railway

The East Coast State Railway (ECSR) was a guaranteed company formed in 1890 to undertake the construction and working of a railway line on the from Bezwada(Vijaywada) junction point of Southern Mahratta Railway and to join the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway at Cuttack. It also provided an interchange with the metre gauge(MG) Bellary-Kistna State Railway at Kistna.

History

In 1899 the Survey of Rail line was ordered by the Government of Madras. The construction of this broad gauge(BG) line in the title of East Coast Railway was sanctioned in 1890.

The route included the construction of the Kistna Bridge at Bezwada to cross the River Kistna. This bridge was designed by Sir Alexander Rendel with F J E Spring as Engineer-in-Chief and Ernest Ifill Shadbolt as Executive Engineer on construction.

The ECSR opened the line from Cuttack via Khurda Road to Puri in 1893, having a comparatively brief existence before being divided. Francis Joseph Edward Spring was Manager of the ECSR at this time.

The Southern part of ECSR was transferred to the Madras Railway(MR) in 1901; subsequently renamed Madras (North-East) Railway, becoming part of Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway(M&SMR) in 1908.

The other part of ECSR was absorbed by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in 1902.

Records

Unfortunately, there are no ECSR Staff appointments held in the India Office Records at the British Library.

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

• L/F/8/16/1091; "Bengal-Nagpur Railway, Contract as to taking over a part of East Coast State Railway and construction of extensions and branch lines"; 23 Jan 1902
• L/F/8/16/1104; "Madras Railway Company, Contract as to maintenance, management and working of a portion of the East Coast Railway by the Company"; 31 Dec 1902