 | |
 Nizam State Railway map | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Secunderabad (1870–1916) London (1883–1941)[1] Kachiguda (1916–1950) |
| Locale | Hyderabad State, India |
| Dates of operation | 1870 to 1883, fully owned byNizam. Owned byHyderabad State from 1930 to 1951.[1]–1950 (nationalised and merged withIndian Railways) |
| Predecessor | Nizam State Railways (1873–1883)[1] |
| Successor | Central Railway(1951) South Central Railway(1966) |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | Broad gauge metre gauge |
| Length | 351 miles (565 km) (1905) 688 miles (1,107 km) (1943) 2,351 kilometres (1,461 mi) (1951)[2] |
Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR) was arailway company operating inIndia from 1883 to 1950. The company began with aline built privately by theHEH, theNizam, which was owned and operated by the company under a guarantee from theHyderabad State.Capital for the line was raised by issuing redeemable mortgagedebentures. The Nizam'srailway was eventuallyconsolidated with theHyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway (HGVR). In 1951, both the NGSR and the HGVR werenationalised andmerged intoIndian Railways.
TheGIPR line connecting Bombay with Madras had bypassed the Nizam's territories.[3] The Britishers were interested in joining the GIPR line with Hyderabad and make the Nizam incur all the expenses and pay a guaranteed interest to GIPR. On 19 May 1870 an agreement was signed by Governor GeneralLord Mayo with the Nizams. As per this agreement, the new company would be owned by the Nizams and be known as Nizam's State Railway. The capital to set it up would be provided by theNizam,[4] but will be constructed and operated byGovernment of India through British Resident at Hyderabad. Hyderabad was connected to GIPR and a new line fromWadi toSecunderabad was finalised. The construction of 192 km (119 mi) line started on 25 March 1871 and was completed on 9 October 1874. The line was split atBegumpet with one going toSecunderabad and another line going toHyderabad. The 140 kilometres (87 mi) line from Secunderabad toWarangal was opened on 8 April 1886. Later, starting from 1889, metre-gauge lines were laid fromManmad Junction railway station to Secunderabad, connecting Aurangabad, Jalna, Nanded and Nizamabad. Financial deterioration of NSR coupled with the need to extend the railways toSingareni to carry coal to the GIPR forced Salar Jung to seek funds in the London financial markets. Nizam State Railways was taken over by Morton, Rose & Co, a joint stock company based in London and renamed as Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway on 27 December 1883.[2][1]
Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway was formed on 27 December 1883 after the Nizam State Railways was taken over by Morton, Rose & Co. As per the agreement signed the Nizam's government had to deliver all existing railway lines free of all encumbrances to the newly formed company. The Nizams had to pay annuity for 20 years to the newly formed company. This company had ten directors out of whom only one was an Indian. The lone Indian member was Sardar Diler Jung Bahadur who was the Secretary of the Railways Department of Nizam's Government. On 1 April 1930 the NGSR was brought under the direct control of Hyderabad State withSir Akbar Hydari as the president. The remaining members of the board of the nationalised company were Britishers and the headquarters of H. H. Nizam's State Railways remained at London. The office was relocated to Hyderabad on 1 November 1941, as the ongoing war was making it difficult to work over such a long distance. Hyderabad was integrated with India in 1948 and on 5 November 1951 NGSR, along with GIPR and some other small railway companies were merged to form Central Railways. On 2 October 1966,South Central Railway was carved out of Central Railway with areas of erstwhile NGSR under its jurisdiction andKacheguda as its headquarters. At the time of merger, the total length of Nizam State Railway system was 2,351 kilometres (1,461 mi) and was the largest system in anyprincely State in India.[1][2]
The proposal was for an initial railway line to be built fromSecunderabad Railway Station inHyderabad toWadi Junction. Nizam agreed to fund the construction expenses for the initial line,[5] leaving subsequent branches to be financed through a variety of means. Construction commenced in 1870, and the Secunderabad-Wadi Line was completed in 1874. Between 1874 and 1889, this line was extended toKazipet and then toVijayawada.
In 1879, theNizamMahbub Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VI took direct control of the company, integrating it into the state bureaucracy as the state-owned Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway.[6][7] This partial-nationalisation was reversed in 1883 when a management company was formed to gradually take over the lines, under the provision of a guarantee from the government of HEH, the Nizam of Hyderabad State.
In 1899, thebroad gauge connection between Bezwada (Vijayawada) andMadras (Chennai Central) opened, making rail travel between Hyderabad and Chennai possible. Railroad tracks in the state thus contained 467 miles (752 km) on the broad gauge, all built before 1891, and 391 miles (629 km) on themetre gauge, which were opened between 1899 and 1901. The total capitalexpenditure on theNizam's State Railway at the end of 1904 was 4.3crores. In that year, the net earnings were nearly 28lakhs, or about 61⁄2 percent of theoutlay.
In 1916, another railway terminus,Kachiguda Railway Station, was built to serve as the railway's headquarters.[8] The Nizam's railway was then divided into various, directly ownedsubcorporations. Each had a head official appointed by the Nizam's Railway. The profits of these rail lines were distributed by the Nizam's Railway.
The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway was a1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge railway.John Wallace Pringle — who had recently completed surveying routes for theUganda railway[9] — was appointed as the superintending engineer in 1896. The railway opened in 1896, with a 391 miles (629 km) line from Hyderabad city toManmad Junction. The railway eventually grew to 467 miles (752 km) of5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) gauge track and 391 miles (629 km) of1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge track. The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railways cost 2.6 crores, and earned 7.7 lakhs net in the same year, or nearly 3 percent. In 1901 and 1902 the earnings were about 31⁄2 percent.
In the early twentieth century, thecotton industry held an important place in Nizam's Hyderabad Government as the largest export ofHyderabad State. In 1889, acotton spinning mill and aweaving mill were erected inAurangabad, employing a total of 700 people. InJalna alone there were 9cotton ginning factories and five cotton presses, with two more ginning factories at Aurangabad andKannad. In 1901, the cotton presses and ginning factories employed a total of 1,016 people. The area of cultivated land under cotton in 1914 was three millionacres (12,000 km2), with most of the cotton being grown in theMarathwada districts, where the soil was particularly well suited to it.[10]
The opening of the Hyderabad–Godavari Railway in October 1900 led to the growth of the cotton industry in theNizamabad,Nander,Parbhani and Aurangabad Districts; the line was used to transport the heavy machinery needed to open ginning and pressing factories.Bombay buyers began to arrive in considerable numbers during the cotton season, which lasted from October to December. More land was turned over to growing cotton and machines replaced the traditional hand gins.Grain andpulses became more expensive, with much of the best land used for cotton farming, andMarathwada entered a critical period of its history.[10]
According to a census report from the period: "The evolution from the agricultural to the manufacturing stage has already begun in Marathwada. When a country begins to produce the raw materials of manufacture in place of food crops, it has started on the road to industrialisation." There were three large spinning and weaving mills and about 90 small ginning and pressing factories in the State. In 1914 69,943 people were employed in cotton spinning, sizing, and 517,750 in weaving, cotton ginning, cleaning, and pressing. The wages paid were good, but the cost of living in Marathwara rose significantly due to the rise of the cotton industry, the uncertainty of rainfall, and availability of credit from money lenders.[11]
The following lines constituted Nizam's Railway:[12]
In 1932, scheduledbus services – under the auspices of the railway administration – began with over 280 miles (450 km) of routes and 27 vehicles. Within a decade, bus service investments became a total expense of 7½ millionHRs with nearly 500 vehicles servicing 4475 miles (7200 km) in routes. To coordinate transport policies, the Nizam's State developed a unified Rail and Road Transport Department. According to historianM.A. Nayeem, the functioning of the railways, roadways and airways under a single department was unique in the world.[14] As a result, post-1948, Hyderabad State (laterAndhra Pradesh) had a significantly superior bus network compared to the rest of India. Other Indian states such asMadhya Pradesh even bought used buses out of Andhra Pradesh. A four-lane highway has now replaced the Nizam-era road from Hyderabad through North India.[15]
In 1936 the company owned 173 locomotives, 2 steam railcars, 266 coaches and 4192 goods wagons.[16]
It was labeled as a Class I railway according toIndian Railway Classification System of 1926.[17][18]
In 1950, the NGSR and HGVR were nationalised and in 1951 became part ofCentral Railway, a zone ofIndian Railways. It was later re-zoned toSouth Central Railway, another zone of Indian Railways.[19]
All the metre-gauge lines were gradually converted to the nationwide rail standard,1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)broad gauge, from 1992 to 2004.[20]
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