Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway
The Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway(DKR) Company was formed in 1889. The broad gauge(BG) line ran north from Delhi via Umballa+(Ambala) to Kalka in the Himalayan foothills where it joined the Kalka-Simla Railway. [1] [2] The line was worked by the East Indian Railway(EIR) and taken over by the Government of India(GoI) in 1925.
The DKR Company signed a contact in 1898 with GoI for the construction and working of a 2ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG) line from Kalka to Simla. The line was opened to traffic in 1903 and as a result of high capital cost and high maintenance cost the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway Company was by 1904 in severe financial crisis. The Kalka-Simla Railway was purchased by GoI in January 1906. The line was later converted to 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge.
+Note:
Umballa is used in this text as it was the name of the Railway Company.
Amballa and Ambala are also recorded in different documents as various spellings .
None of these three place names appear in the The Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908 which is normally taken to be the definitive source
Records
Refer to FIBIS Fact File #4: “Research sources for Indian Railways, 1845-1947” - available from the Fibis shop. This Fact File contains invaluable advice on 'Researching ancestors in the UK records of Indian Railways' with particular reference to the India Office Records (IOR) held at the British Library
An on-line search of the IOR records relating to this railway [3] gives 23 references. The most important being:-
- L/F/8/13/945/1 “Delhi Umballa Kalka Railway Company Limited, Contract for the construction of the Delhi Umballa Kalka Railway; 1889”
- L/AG/46/9 “Records of the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway Company; 1898-1907”
- L/AG/46/29 “Records of the India Office relating to the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway; 1889-1926”
External Links
- Delhi-Kalka Line" Wikipedia
References
- ↑ National Archives "Records of the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway Company" IOR/L/AG/46/9; Retrieved 10 Dec 2015
- ↑ " Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 60; Retrieved 2 Feb 2016
- ↑ British Library “British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue” - Search; Retrieved 20 Jan 2016
