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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, in about 1863 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 and the outcome was that the Metre Gauge (MG) would be adopted for all new constructions undertaken by the State .
This highly controversial decision by the ‘Rail Gauge Committee’ is examined in detail on a separate page.

Metre Gauge Survey and Construction

By June 1871 it was reported that the Metre Gauge “Indus Valley Railway ...northern portion had been laid out, and is about to be commenced .... the lower division is beset with difficulties from inundations. A committee is investigating the route on either side of the river, and will report which they consider to be the more favourable . The final route chosen was the the 3rd Route from Kotree(Kotri) crossing the river at Sukkur to Mooltan(Multan) and construction of commenced in Nov 1871.

The construction continued through until July 1974 when Metre Gauge construction was abandoned
See separate page ‘Metre Gauge Construction’ for full details

Break of Gauge Deliberations

Meanwhile the consequences of the break of Gauge from BG to MG at Kotree(Kotri), and MG to BG at Mooltan(Multan) caused heated argument, papers and letters.
These 'Rail Gauge Deliberations' were complex and are the subject of a separate page
But can be summarised as follows:-.

• A debate in the British Parliament in March 1873, after many counter arguments, concluded that the decision should rest with the Government in India.
• A paper by the India Office Public Works Department titled “The relative advantages of the 5ft 6in gauge and of the Metre Gauge for the State Railways of India, and particularly those of the Punjab” was presented at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London in June 1873. This presentation and the following discussion l lasted over seven evenings but failed to reach a conclusion and passed the matter back to the Indian Government .
• The decision was finally reached in 1874 by the Indian Government that changes of Gauge were unacceptable and therefore instructed that the IVSR should be re-engineered to Broad Gauge(BG). As a consequence the sections under construction were to be converted from MG to BG .