Guzerat Railway Company

The Guzerat Railways Company Limited was formed in 1911 owned and managed a group of four 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) railway lines -

• Champaner-Shivrajpur- Pani Light Railway opened in 1911 and extended up to 1916, a total of 31 miles(49km); it was served from Halol.
• Godhra-Lunavada Railway opened in 1913, a length of 26 miles(41km)and served from Gohdra.
• Nadiad-Kapadvanj Railway opened in 1913, a length of 28 miles(45m) and served from Nadiad.

• The Shivrajpur Light Railway was brought by The Guzerat Railways Company in 1917.

The management of these lines was taken over by Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR) in 1922

Records

Refer to FIBIS Fact File #4: “Research sources for Indian Railways, 1845-1947” - available from the Fibis shop. This Fact File contains invaluable advice on 'Researching ancestors in the UK records of Indian Railways' with particular reference to the India Office Records (IOR) held at the British Library

An on-line search of the IOR records relating to this railway gives 4 references. The most important being:-

• L/F/8/19/1433 “Guzerat Railways Company Limited, Contract in connection with acquisition and extension of the Shivrajpur Light Railway; 1917”
• L /F/8/20/1764 “Guzerat Railways Company Limited, Indenture supplemental to those dated 30th April 1914 and 6th December 1917; 1929.”
• L/F/8/17/1361 “Nadiad-Kapadvanj and Godhralunavada Railways, Agreement and indenture; 1914. (Note Catalogue typo error Godhra-Lunavada is correct)