Digboi Oil Refinery Railway
Digboi Oil Refinery Railway was a metre gauge(MG) railway serving the oil fields and refinery at Digboi which had been developed by the Assam Railways and Trading Company (AR&TC).
History
Oil had been discovered in 1866 by a Mr Goodenough of McKillop, Stewart & Co and a concession was granted November 1866, at Nahorpung about 30 miles (48 km) south east of Digboi. The AR&TC had found oil coming to the surface while constructing the Dibru-Sadiya Railway between Dibrugarh and Margherita in 1867 [1] and were granted a concession. At this time the AR&TC was more interested in the building of the railway and developing its collieries [2].
In 1889 oil was struck at Digboi by the AR&TC and they constructed the Digboi station on their Dibru-Sadiya Railway, in 1892 another strike was made and by 1893 the boundry of the company's land was agreed with the Government. A small refinery was built at Margherita. By 1893 there were six wells producing oil. In 1899 AR&TC promoted a new company Assam Oil Company, which was sold to Burmah Oil Company in 1921 [2].
The records show that MG locomotives locomotives were supplied to the Digboi Refinery operation from 1896 onwards [2]. The extent of the track has not been determined.
References
- ↑ Wikipedia "Digboi"); Retrieved 5 Feb 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compliled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. ISBN 978 1 901556 82-7. Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry AS90 pages 103-104