Oude Tramway
Oude Province covers the districts of Khyrabad, Fyzabad, Lucknow and Baiswara as can be seen on the 1871 map
The term Oude Tramway is used in the India Office Records (IOR) stated below. The records refer to Tramways in the Oude Province as follows:-
- 1852 “Roads, Oude, completion of tramway by Messrs Greenway” [1]; this refers to the Temporary Riverbed Crossing Tramway laid down by the contractors ‘Messers Greenway’ of Cawnpore.
The Side Note states ‘Completion by Messer’s Greenway of Cawnpore of a tramroad over the heavy sands leading from the Bridge of Boats in the underside of the river under arrangement with the Oude Government, that Messer’s Greenway should have the road for 6 years free of payment with permission to levy duties at certain rates. This seems a beneficial arrangement, but we approve the intimation made that to Messer’s Greenway that they have no guarantee from your government.’
The ‘Bridge of Boats’ refers to the Ganges River Crossing at Jajmau near Cawnpore – see separate page
- 1857 “Oude: Tramways, proposal to establish in” [2]; the correspondence shows that several different proposals were under consideration for the Oude Province, one of these being a Tramway – this was not adopted.
The ‘India Financial (Railway) Department’ correspondence states:- ‘... that one company has come forward with proposals to establish tramways in the Districts (Oude) in question in contradistinction to railways...’
Railways in the Province started very slowly with the Indian Branch Railway completing the ‘Cawnpore-Fyzabad Railway’ in 1867. Further development only taking place after 1872 following the formation of the successor company the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway (O&RR) .