Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR) was the railway company of the Indian princely state of Hyderabad . The route network had a length of 560 km in 1905, by 1923 it was expanded to a good 1460 km, in 1930 1992 km were reached. The operation was taken over by the Central Railway in 1951 , since 1966 the routes have been under the control of the South Central Railway, both state-owned companies of the Indian Union .
Foundation and financing
The Nizam ceded areas in the Raichur district to the British as early as 1861 for the construction of the railway line. The Hyderabad Divan Salar Jung I was a friend of the railroad. During his tenure, the state's first rail lines were built. These turned out to be unprofitable as there was no connection to the rail network of the areas under direct British rule. In 1870 an agreement was reached that provided for the construction of a connection route to the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) from Goolburga (today: Gulbarga ) at the expense of the Nizam. The construction costs were estimated at Rs 10 million . European personnel and the railway police, although officials from Hyderabad, should be under the instructions of the resident . Salar Jung used his trip to England in 1876 to make first contacts about financing. The State Secretary responsible for the railway was Sayyed Husain Ali Bilgrami from 1879 to 1889 . Major AF Dobbs was seconded in 1877 as a legal “advisor”.
Bombay attorney Charles Winter proposed in 1881 that the borrowing be linked to a mining concession, which was not carried out. On the Hyderabad side, the Minister of the Interior ( Sadr-id-Maham ) Abdul Huq was the plenipotentiary, and Winter was his lawyer. This in turn was a brother-in-law of William Clarence Watson, who was to introduce the shares on the London Stock Exchange. According to the practice in British India, the railway should be operated as a Guaranteed Railway ; H. the government promised investors to guarantee their capital and dividends (5%) for 20 years. To this end, a Contingent Liability Fund was set up, a project that could hardly be borne by the state of finances, which is why the India Office temporarily announced reservations. Rothschild and the London branch of the American Morton, Rose & Co. finally placed the paper. Abdul Huq then received a commission of £ 16,000. When in 1886 the mining concession was awarded to the newly founded, but little sought-after Hyderabad (Deccan) Company , in which Walker played a leading role, Huq tried to enrich himself through insider trading.
The first line was opened in 1874, and for the first few years it was operated by GIPR staff and wagons. The Hyderabad Gondavari Valley route, operated in meter gauge by its own company, created a direct connection to Bombay in 1899 and led to an expansion of cotton cultivation. Initially, a grant of 300,000 Rs. Was necessary to stretch the state finances to the limit. The operation soon proved to be profitable, so in 1904 the yield of the NGSR was 6½%, the HGVR achieved 3-3½% after the turn of the century. The debt of the Contingent Liability Fund (a little over £ 2 million with 5% interest in 1912) was slowly reduced.
After Akbar Hydari, as finance minister, had consolidated the state finances since 1925, the surpluses achieved were sufficient to pay off the shareholders and to nationalize all railway lines in April 1930. Hydari became the company's first president.
Routes and management
The hub was the Secunderabad railway station , a city and garrison near the capital. The administrative record was also located there until 1916, which was then moved to the train station in Kachiguda (suburb of Hyderabad). Both broad gauge lines (BS, 5'6 ") and meter gauge ( MS, 3'3⅜") were built. The route network, without HGVR, was 531 km long in 1930.
| route | opened | Distance (km) | track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bezwada Extension | 02/10/1889 | 34.5 | BS |
| Belharshah-Kazipet (= Belharshah-Warangal) |
02/01/1924 | 234.5 (finished 1928) 75.5 (1924) |
BS |
| Karipalli-Kothagudam | 03/21/1927 | 39.5 | BS |
| Vikarabad-Bidar | 01/14/1930 | 91.0 | BS |
| Purna Junction Hingoli | 05/15/1912 | MS | |
| Hyderabad Gondvari Valley Rail. (to Manmad) |
10/21/1899 | 629.8 (1922) 620.6 (1930) |
MS |
| Parbhani Purli | 10/16/1929 | 63.6 | MS |
| Secunderabad-British Frontier | 02/01/1916 | 188.2 | MS |
| Dhone Kurnool (connection Madras) | 01/01/1909 | 58.5 | MS |
To the coal mining area of Singareni, which was exploited by the Hyderabad (Deccan) Company , there was a 30 km branch line from Dornakal Junction .
For managerial positions from the ICS staff, so George Fellow Matthew, George Pringle Rose (from 1895, Chief Engineer 1897-1900), followed by George Huddleston (until 1911) led the operation.
In British India, special Railway Magistrates controlled railway issues. The fact that some of the routes were not under the police control of Hyderabad led to disagreement between the Nizam and the Government of India in 1937/38. After the first halfway democratic elections at the provincial level, the INC governed Bombay , which did nothing to prevent satyagrahis from arriving en masse. These peaceful protesters often went to prison for payment.
Rail buses
Beginning in 1932, initially 27 vehicles were used to regularly service 450 km of bus routes. In the next decade the bus service was for 7½ million HRs. expanded so that around 500 vehicles - also for freight - were in use on around 7200 kilometers of route.
air traffic
In early 1938 an Air Department was set up within the railway administration , which trained flying personnel with the technical support of the Aero Club . The State Air Transport Organization in Begumpet (near Hyderabad) trained pilots for the Air Force during the war .
literature
- Iyenagar, Kesara; Hyderabad Railway Purchase; Hyderabad 1930
- Law, John; Modern Hyderabad (Deccan); Calcutta 1914 ( full text )
- Memorandum on the Budget Estimate of the Railway for Fasli, 1297 (Hyderabad Yellow Book); 86 pp.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Aitchison, CU ; A collection of treaties, engagements, and sunnuds relating to India and neighboring countries; Calcutta 1876, Vol. V, pp. 225–8 ( full text )
- ↑ = Sirdar Diler Jung ul-Mulk , CSI
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Hyderabad State; 1909
- ↑ cf. en: Kachiguda Railway Station
- ↑ Figures for financial year 1931, unless otherwise stated. Statistical Abstracts for British India ... from 1921-22 to 1931-32; London 1933 (HMSO, Cmd 4288), pp. 516f
- ^ Indian Biographical Dictionary, 1915
- ↑ Kooiman, Dick; Communalism and Indian Princely States; New Delhi 2002, ISBN 81-7304-421-X ; Pp. 165-215
- ↑ a b Nayeem, MA; The Splendor of Hyderabad; Hyderabad 22 2002 [Orig .: Bombay 11 1987]; ISBN 81-85492-20-4 ; P. 221