Holkar State Railway

The Holkar State Railway, opened 1874 as a metre gauge(MG) line from Khandwa reaching Indore, 1876. The line was owned by the Princely Holkar State and initially operated as the Holkar & Scindia-Neemuch Railway.

Holkar State is also known as Indore State and some early records describe this railway as the Indore State Railway.

Horace Bell and Archibald Crellin Cregeen were deployed in 1870 from the newly formed Railway Branch of the Public Works Department to the Indore State Railway as Executive Engineers during the construction and the railway opened in 1874.

Ernest Ifill Shadbolt, who later became Director of Railway Construction for the Government of India, was Assistant Engineer, Construction.

James Condor was appointed Manager of Holkar State Railway in 1881. He was, at the same time Manager of Sindia-Neemuch Railway and Neemuch Nasirabad State Railway..

In 1881-82, the railway joined with others to form the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway (see'Algamation' below)

The railway had been worked by the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR) from the beginning and was finally mergerd into BB&CIR in 1900.

Early History

The Maharaja of Holkar, in 1870, offered a loan for the construction of a rail-line to his capital city of Indore, taking off from the Great Indian Peninsula Railway(GIPR) mainline at Khandwa.

The alignment was to pass through Sanawad, Kheree Ghat on the Narmada and then by way of the Choral Valley up the slopes of the Vindhyas to Indore. Maharaja Holkar’s contribution accelerated the construction of rail-lines in Malwa region.

The Holkar Railway required very heavy works due to very steep gradients(u pto 1 in 40) on the Vindhya Ghats. It also involved digging of 4 tunnels, deep cuttings and heavy retaining walls. The River Narmada was crossed by a brigde of 14 spans, 197 feet each and piers 80 feet above low water level. There are 14 other large bridges with high piers, the highest pier being 152 feet above the bottom of the ravine.

The first section Khandwa-Sanawad was opened for traffic on 1.12.1874. The Narmada Bridge was opened for traffic on 5.10.1876 it was named the ‘Holkar-Narmada Bridge’.

Amalgamation

In 1881-82, the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway (RMSR) was created joining under single management, existing State Railways:-

• Rajputana State Railway (RSR)
• Holkar State Railway
• Scindia-Neemuch Railway
• Neemuch Nasirabad State Railway
• Western Rajputana State Railway

All these railways were worked by the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR).

In 1900 the RMSR was merged into the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR), becoming the latter's Metre Gauge(MG) section; known as Ratlam Division of BB&CIR.

Records

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

• V/24/3585; "Public Works Department: Administration report on the Holkar State Railway, 1874/75"
• V/24/3590; "Public Works Department: Railways" which contains "Administration report on the Holkar State Railway, 1878/79"

Further Information

See Rajputana-Malwa State Railway and Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway