Bombay Municipal Corporation Conservancy Railways
Bombay Municipal Corporation Conservancy Railways
Bombay Municipal Corporation
The Corporation was created in 1865 and was responsible for infrastructure improvements in the city - new roads, drainage systems, water supplies, waste disposal and housing projects. In 1888 it was declared the governing administration for the city with the Municipal Commissioner as chief executive.
Bombay City Improvement Trust (see seperate page).
The Trust was created on December 9, 1898, in response to the Bombay plague epidemic of 1896. It was created through an Act of the Parliament. The Municipal Corporation and the government handed over all vacant lands to this body.
Bombay City Rubbish Disposal
For some time prior to 1865 the city rubbish was transported by rail to a disposal area at Chembur, 9 miles(15km) north-east of the city centre, this site being east of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway(GIPR) mainline. [1]. No further information on this railway have been found.
In 1876 it was decided to reclaim an area at Mahalaxmi, four miles north-west of the city centre, this site being west of the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR) mainline. This area was reclaimed in the mid 1890's[1]. It is not known if this scheme involved a railway.
By the mid 1890's it was decided to open a new area for the disposal of the city's rubbish.
- One proposal that was put forward was for a 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) tramway from Colaba to Chemur. This was to have twenty-six locomotives and wagons designed to take rubbish bins. However this was proposal was rejected as too expensive [1] .
- A broad gauge(BG) system was adopted. A new 824 acre(3.3 sq.km) disposal site was obtained at Devnar, 2¼ miles(3.6km) east of the Chembur site and connected with a BG line of just over 3 miles(5km) to Kurla where it connected via the GIPR mainline to Mahalaxmi. Here there was two platforms with railway sidings were constructed to receive rubbish collected in carts and tipped into wagons and transferred to the dumping site. The operations commenced in 1899 and was by 1924 converted into the Kurla(Kerala)-Chembur Railway(see seperate page) finally becoming part of the Bombay Suburban Network.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compiled 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 MH49 page ....