Scinde Railway

Scinde Railway

Note

• Some documents and references refer to the ‘Sind Railway’ which is not the correct spelling.'
• Not to be confused with the ‘Sind Light Railway’ which is a separate narrow gauge railway.

History

The Scinde Railway Company was first established by deed of settlement in March 1855 and incorporated by the ‘Scinde Railway Act’ of Parliament in July 1855. The company contracted with the Government of India (GoI) to construct a line between Karachi and Kotri. The company was granted a 5% return on investment up to a maximum of £1 million in order to build the 120-mile line.

The Karachi-Kotri (Indus River) Railway work commenced in April 1858 and on 13 May 1861 succeeded in connecting Karachi to Kotri. This was the first railway line for public traffic between Karachi City and Kotri, a distance of 108 miles (174 km).

The company was involved in a number of additional railway line projects, as well as the establishment of the Indus Flotilla Company on the river Indus. The ‘Scinde Railway Act' of 1857 granted it the opportunity to extend its operations.

In 1870, the Scinde Railway Company was amalgamated with the Punjab Railway and Delhi Railway Companies and renamed as the Scinde, Punjaub and Delhi Railway Company. This was covered by the ‘Scinde Railway Company's Amalgamation Act‘ of 1869. See Footnote

In 1886, the contracts expired and responsibility for the railway was transferred entirely to the Government of India(GoI). The GoI merged the Scinde, Punjaub & Delhi Railway with other smaller state-owned railways to create the North Western Railway

Footnote

• The spelling of Scinde, Punjaub & Delhi Railway is variable. Scinde and Punjaub are the spellings adopted in the legislation - see "Government Statute Law Repeals 2012" pages 134-135, paragraphs 3.78-3.83

Records

An on-line search of the India Office Records (IOR) records held at the British Library relating to this railway gives the following:-

• Z/E/4/25/I53; “Indus River, Railway line to be constructed from Karachi to a point on.”; 1854-55
• Z/E/4/25/R766; “Rivers, Indus, Railway line to be constructed from Karachi to a point on.”; 1854-55
• L/AG/46/17/1-13; “1. Scinde Railway Company”; 1855-1878

Personnel

• John Brunton; 1857, Appointed Chief Resident Engineer of Scinde Railway (Sind Railway) ; 1858-62, 'Supervised the construction of the 108 miles(174km) of the Scinde Railway between Karachi and Kotri until its completion in 1862. His detailed "Description of the line and works of the Scinde Railway" itemise the problems of building in the tropics.'
• William Arthur Brunton, the son of the above; 1857 at age 17, Assistant Engineer; then Area Surveyor on the Scinde Railway (Sind Railway) and the Indus Valley Railway; 1859-1961, responsible for the erection of the thirty-two 45 foot (13.7M) spans of the Bahrun Valley Viaduct . This is the longest bridge on the Karachi-Kotri section and is a viaduct across the Bahrun River. Construction on this bridge was started on 5 March 1859 and completed on 26 January 1861 .
• Willoughby Charles Furnivall District Engineer in charge of construction under John Brunton c.1860-7 .

Historical books online

• "The Scinde railway, and its relations to the Euphrates valley, and other routes to India" by W P Andrews, Chairman of the Scinde Railway Company 1856 Google Books
• "Report of proceedings of an extraordinary general meeting of the Scinde Railway Company, held on Friday the 24th July, 1857" Google Books
• Brunton, John, "Description of the Line and Works of the Scinde Railway". 1863. Available in Full View Google Books or pdf from Panhwar.com

External links

• "Karachi to Kotri: The First Railways in Pakistan". 17/09/2009. All things Pakistan, now an archived website
• "History of Rail Transport in Pakistan" wikipedia

Further Information

See Karachi-Kotri (Indus River) Railway for period up to 1861.

and Scinde, Punjaub & Delhi Railway following amalgamation in 1885.