Gupta Kashyap|The Indian Express News Paper | Guwahati | Posted: November 28, 2014 3:57 pm | Updated: November 28, 2014 4:53 pm
.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi will press a button to formally put Meghalaya on India’s railway map on Saturday, very few people know that the Shillong Plateau – which comprises the 32-year old hill state – once upon a time had a wonderful rail link, one that would have been global wonder had it not been abandoned and dismantled.
Prime Minister Modi is inaugurating the 19.75 km Dudhnoi-Mendipathar railway line, one that takes off from the New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Guwahati main line at Dudhnoi in Assam, and traverses through 9.36 km inside Meghalaya territory to culminate at Mendipathar in West Garo Hills. The railways had earlier successfully run an engine on this route in March this year.
.
“With the rail link to Mendipathar, located at an elevation of 916 metres, becoming a reality, we are now looking at the proposed 21.5 km Tetelia-Byrnihat link, which when completed will extend further upwards about 108 kms to Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya in the years to come,” said a senior official of Northeast Frontier Railway here today. The final location survey of the Tetelia-Byrnihat line has been already completed, he said.
But what is most amazing is a railway track the British had dreamt of and had started working on was to Cherrapunji, which has an elevation of 1484 metres, way back in the 1880s. One portion of it was in fact completed and put to use, while two other portions, one of which was supposed to be a ropeway that would lift and drop coaches up to Cherrapunji, remained only on paper.
.
“It was such a project up from the present-day Bangladesh plains to the mountains of Cherrapunji in present-day Meghalaya, that had it been completed, it would have been the eighth wonder of the world,” said noted Guwahati-based writer whose “Indian Railways: The Final Frontier”, published in 2002 is considered the most authentic and comprehensive documentation of railways in the Northeast.
Dutta has quoted records of the British era which gives details among others of the Cherra Companyganj State Railways (CCRS), which was a contemporary of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways and intended at finally connecting Shillong (then capital of Assam province) with Kolkata through the plains of what is now Bangladesh.
.
Describing that project as “most romantic”, Dutta in his book said, “On hindsight, given the precipitous nature of the terrain leading from the Shillong Plateau to the plains on the Sylhet side, it might appear today to be a foolhardy endeavour. But this in no way robs the attempt of its grandeur, nor dilutes the selfless sacrifice of those who had striven to concretise the concept.”
Or those interested in historical details, Cherra Companyganj State Railways (CCRS) was in fact a 2 feet six inches (762 mm) narrow gauge track that operated between Therria, a mining township in present-day Meghalaya and Companyganj (now in Sylhet, Bangladesh) for about 12.1 kms.
.
The immediate objective of setting up this track was to evacuate coal to Dhaka, Sylhet and Kolkata, three important Bengal towns of yore. Conceptualized by a British engineer called Hubert Kench, the second portion of it was from Therria to Mawsmai, a perfect hill section with seven sharp inclines, where the coaches would have been lifted or lowered with the help of ropes, wires and drums. The third and final portion, from Mawsmai to Cherrapunji – a distance of about 5.5 kms – would have been a regular track as the area was by and large plain. But inviable, both technically and commercially as it appeared, the Chief Commisioner of Assam ordered closure of the CCRS in May 1890, with the exception of the Therria-Companyganj portion which continued to be used for movement of troops and supplies for a few more years. Describing it as “one of the most spectacular endeavours to build a mountain railway”, Dutta said, “Had it succeeded, the inclined section would surely have been one of the seven wonders of the railway world.”
.
Link:
click here 
