Cauvery-Pattam to Caroor Railway Proposal 1831-32
Cauvery-Pattam to Caroor Railway Proposal 1831-32
The first proposal for railways in India was in the Madras Presidency in 1831-32 when a paper was put before the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company :- ‘In consideration of the deplorable state of communication and commerce in that part of the country both canals and railroads should be undertaken so that the whole peninsula might be crossed from sea to sea.’ The line that was contemplated was 150 miles along the embankment of the river Cauvery from Cauvery-Pattam (see note) to Caroor, at a cost of Rs.8000 per mile. The scheme was for laying flat parallel rails on a portion of improved road, and evidently the vehicles were to be drawn by animals alone [1].
However the proposal was not adopted and Caroor (later named Karur) was finally connected in 1866 to the coast at Negapatam with the extension of the South Indian Railway(SIR) from Trichinopoly.
Note - Place Names
Cauvery-Pattam is where the Cauvery River [2] discharged at this time into the Bay of Bengal at Karikal.
Caroor became known as Karur
Further Information
See Early Railway Experiments and Proposals for more information and background.
References
- ↑ ”Development of the Indian Railways” by Nalinaskha Sanyal, University of Calcutta, 1930 pages 3-4, pdf pages 19-20 quoting from “Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company 1831-32, Vol.III, pp 671-75” ; Retrieved 21 Oct 2016
- ↑ “The Madras Road Book, 1833” page 60” ; Retrieved 21 Oct 2016