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Indus Valley State Railway

Spelling Note

• The spellings used for town names in the 1850-60 is variable. We have given the name as stated in the documents of that time and with the later name in (brackets).

Indus Valley State Railway

The Indus Valley State Railway(IVSR) was constructed by the Government to provide a rail link between Kotree(Kotri) and Mooltan((Multan). This was to complete a rail connection from the port of Karachi to Lahore by linking two lines:-

• The broad gauge(BG) line from the coast at Karachi to Kotri , named the ‘Scinde Railway’ had been built by the ‘Scinde Railway Company’ and opened in 1861 .
• The broad gauge(BG) line from Mooltan((Multan) to Lahore, named the ‘Punjaub Railway had been built by the ‘Scinde Railway Company’ and opened in Apr 1865 .

The section between Kotree(Kotri) and Mooltan((Multan) was linked by the ‘Indus Flotilla’ also owned by the ‘Scinde Railway Company’ thus providing a through service from Karachi to Lahore.

Background

The ‘Scinde Railway Company’ with Mr W P Andrew as its Chairman made application to the Government for a concession to construct a railway from Kotree(Kotri) and Mooltan((Multan) to provide an unbroken rail link.

The following is recorded in a letter dated 4 June 1869 to the Duke of Argyll, Secretary of State for India” from Mr W P Andrew, Chairman ‘Scinde Railway Company’ .
“The Secretary of State for India authorised the Scinde Railway Company’, in the year 1863, to engage a staff of engineers for the purpose of surveying the country between Kotree(Kotri) and Mooltan((Multan).

Therefore 6 years had passed and clearly no decision had been reached by the Government authorising the railway to be constructed, meanwhile of course, the ‘Indus Flotilla’ was providing the “missing link” (as it came to be known).

The reasons for the Government to fail to come to a decision are several, all analysed in the later pages of this letter. There were three possible routes each with their own “political aspects; the commercial and the engineering features”:-,

• 1st. Entirely on the left bank of the Indus
• 2nd. Entirely on the right bank
• 3rd. On the right bank from Kotree(Kotri) to Sukkur (about half the whole distance) and crossing the Indus River at Sukkur, thence to Mooltan((Multan) by the left bank”.

There were significant differences of opinion on the merits of each route with heated discussions and letters. As a consequence by June 1869 there was still no prospect of a decision. By this time it was clear that the construction of this railway would be a State venture and became named the ‘Indus Valley State Railway’

Later in 1869 the Government of India ordered that a ‘Rail Gauge Committee’ be established in order to recommend the future ‘Rail Gauge’ for the railways of India. There were extreme differences of opinion on this matter which are the subject of a separate page. The outcome was that it was determined that the Metre Gauge would be adopted for all new constructions undertaken by the State.

Metre Gauge Survey and Construction

Hence, when the final route was chosen (the 3rd Route), construction commenced in Nov 1871 to build a Metre Gauge railway from Kotree(Kotri) crossing the river at Sukkur to Mooltan(Multan). See separate page for details