Salkhia Salt Depot Tramway
Salkhia Salt Depot Tramway
A salt depot had been constructed by the Government of India at Salhkia (see spelling note), near Howrah on the Hooghly River. A 140 feet (42mtr) long by 29 feet (8.8mtr) wide timber jetty was built on the Hooghly River where two salt vessels could moor and unload alongside the jetty and discharge cargo simultaneously. It was in use by 1861-62 and was built with a tramway linking the jetty with the salt depot [1].
The tramway was 8,424 foot (2567mtr) long with a unique gauge of 3ft 0½ inches (927cm). The track composed of light angle iron laid on longitudinal sleepers tied by cross sleepers at ever 10 feet(3mtr). It had 27 turntables, four of which were on the jetty ramway and was hand-worked using 26 wagons. It is not known how long the system was in use
In 1909 the “Bengal District Gazetteer - Howrah “ for 1909 [2] states ‘the salt godowns at Salkhia which contain enormous stocks of salt and are served by a siding of the East Indian Railway’. This would be a broad gauge(BG) link to the EIR network.
Spelling Note
Salhkia, a suburb of Howrah, also with spelling Sulkea [3] and Sulkia [1]
No further information has been found.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “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 WB42 page ....
- ↑ “Bengal District Gazetteers - Howrah” page 166; Retrieved 1 Sep 2017
- ↑ “Imperial Gazetteer of India”, v. 23, p. 130; Retrieved 1 Sep 2017
