Indo-Burma Railway Connection Project

The Indo-Burma Railway Connection was a project undertaken by the Goverment of Burma to connect Chittagong, Assam to Rangoon, Burma. It was a fresh proposal following on from the Chittagong-Akyab-Minhla Railway Survey undertaken from 1893.

The proposed route was from Chittagong, Assam (now in Bangladesh); Akyab, Burma (now Sittwe, Myanmar); Magwee, Burma (now Myanmar) and then crossing the Irrewaddy River and southwards to Rangoon. This proposal dating from 1915 is covered by 5 records in the the India Office Records (IOR) held at the British Library – see Records below.

This project did not proceed. The Burma Railway network only extended as far as the Irrewaddy River.

Records

An on-line search of the India Office Records (IOR) records held at the British Library relating to this railway gives the followingl entries, the most relevant as follows: -

• V/27/722/12; “Richards, George, Indo-Burma connection railway, coast route. Report and estimates, 1915: Section 1. Chittagong to Akyab. Rangoon, 1915”
• V/27/722/13; “Richards, George, Indo-Burma connection railway, coast route. Report and estimates, 1915: Section 2 and 3. Akyab Junction to Satya. Rangoon, 1915”
• V/27/722/14; “Richards, George, Indo-Burma connection railway, coast route. Report and estimates, 1915: Section 4. Satya to Magwe. Rangoon, 1915”
• V/27/722/15; “Richards, George, Indo-Burma connection railway, coast route. Report and estimates, 1915: Section 5. Lines east of Irrewaddy River. Rangoon, 1915