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WAYS AND WORKS IN INDIA
It will perhaps be as well to distinguish three species and degrees
of ambition. First, that of men who are anxious to enlarge their
own power in their country, which is a vulgar and degenerate
kind ; next, that of men who strive to enlarge the power and
empire of their country over mankind, which is more dignified but
not less covetous; but if one were to endeavour to renew and
enlarge the power and empire of mankind in general over the
universe, such ambition (if it may be so termed) is both more
sound and more noble than the other two. Now the empire of
man over things is founded on the arts and sciences alone, for
nature is only to be commanded by obeying her.'-BACON, Novum
Organum, cxxix.
WAYS AND WORKS IN
IN DIA
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF
the Public Works in that Country from
the Earliest Times up to the
Present Day, by
G%OW. MACGEORGE, M.I.C.E.
LATE OFFICIATING CONSULTING ENGINEER TO THE
• GOVERNMENT OF INDIA FOR RAILWAYS
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
Westminster
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE
14 PARLIAMENT STREET, S.W.
MDCCCXCIV
ansportation
Library
TA
103
,M15
Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
MATERIALS for the facts and figures grouped together in this
work have been mainly gathered from such official publications
and Government records as are readily accessible to a writer
in England, as well as from numerous published volumes or
reports, dealing with separate branches of Indian Public
Works, or Indian and English Engineering, and (by kind
permission) from many descriptive papers on Indian subjects
read at various times before the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Where distinct verbal quotations have been made they are
indicated by the footnotes or otherwise, but frequently where
the general substance of passages, or of statistics, has been
paraphrased and condensed, it has not been deemed necessary
to burden the volume with constant references.
With regard to the spelling of Indian names and terms, it is
feared that some unintentional deviations from the orthodox
system may be found. The popular spelling of names of
important and well-known places has, of course, been adhered
to, and with respect to the remainder, the indulgence of those
desiring severe accuracy in this matter is craved.
A precise and detailed history of Indian Public Works is a
subject that would amply repay the time and labour spent on
its production. The present work barely indicates even the
outline of such a history, and has a far humbler and less
ambitious aim. It is hoped, however, that the data contained
in it may be of some service, as well as interest to the unprofes-
sional reader, as bringing before him in a collected form much
scattered information of a kind valuable to all those interested
in the progress of India. Some of the principal books, reports,
vi
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and other publications consulted and freely made use of are
the following:-
Memoirs of Indian Surveys, by Clements R. Markham (1878).
Memoirs of Indian Surveys, by E. C. D. Black (1892).
General Reports of Operations, Survey of India. Thuiller, R.E.
Moral and Material Progress Report, 1872-73. Parliamentary
Paper.
The Finances and Public Works of India, 1869-81. Sir John
· Strachey.
Ganges Canal. Sir Proby Cautley.
Irrigation Works of India. Buckley.
India, by F. C. Danvers.
Lectures on Irrigation Works of India. Rundall, R.E.
Lectures on Water-supply, Rainfall, etc., by Alex. R. Binnie,
M.I.C.E.
Roorkee Treatise, and Professional Papers on Indian Engineering.
The Railwvays of India. Capt. E. Davidson, R.E.
Lecture on Bridges in the Bengal Presidency, by Sir Bradford
Leslie, C.S.I., M.I.C.E.
Railway Appliances. John Wolfe Barry, M.I.C.E. (1878).
The Working and Management of an English Railway. Geo.
Findlay (1891).
Our Iron Roads. F. S. Williams.
Numerous Papers from Proceedings of Institution of Civil
Engineers.
Official Publications, Departmental Administration Reports,
etc., etc.
G. W. MACGEORGE.
MAIDENHEAD, 1894.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION,
.
.
.
.
.
.
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY.
L
ROADS IN INDIA,
.
.
.
.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA,
.
.
107
RAILWAYS IN INDIA,
219
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA, .
431
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA, .
495.
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA, .
507
APPENDICES, .
.
.
.
.
.
527
INDEX,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
549
vii
LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
235
OLD NATIVE BRIDGE OVER THE GUNTI AT JAUNPORE (from a pencil
sketch), . . .
69
KANHAN BRIDGE AT KAMTHI,
97
facing 152
GANGES-JUMNA DOAB, .
» 160
NADRAI New AQUEDUCT, .
, 164
THE ‘Novelty,
THE SANS PAREI,'
THE ROCKET, )
JUNNA BRIDGE, ALLAHABAD,
337
JUNNA BRIDGE, DELHI, . . . .
339
JUBILEE BRIDGE OVER THE HOOGHLY NEAR CALCUTTA,
341
BOMBAY TERMINAL STATION,
348
‘DUFFERIN' BRIDGE OVER THE GANGES AT BENARES (in course
of construction),
379
The Attock BRIDGE,
facing 384
CHUPAR Rirt, HURNAI VALLEY RAILWAY, .
400
Mouth or KHOJAK TUNNEL, . . . . . 403
The Maps are bound in at the end of the volume.
viii
INTRODUCTION
I
call!
-
IN
ADRUL VIVO
TU:(11
E
OOIT
SSS
n HERE still lingers in the mind of
the present generation of Anglo-
Indians an old saying to the effect
that if the English were to retire
from, or be driven out of India to-
morrow, they would leave as the
only monument of their rule in
that country “The Grand Trunk
Road, and a pyramid of empty beer
bottles.' It need hardly be said
that this satirical dictum, like
many another which was once, per-
haps, just pointed enough to prick,
has long since lost all semblance of epigram. At the present
day no instructed person acquainted with modern India would
hesitate to assert that in the whole history of governments-
not excluding that of ancient Romeno alien ruling nation
has ever stamped on the face of a country more enduring
material monuments of its activity than England has done, and
is doing, in her great Indian dependency. Not only has she
covered the face of British India with a mileage of roads, rail-
ways, telegraphs, and irrigation canals, which, bearing in mind
the vast area of the country, and the financial difficulties en-
countered, may be truly designated stupendous, but the total
number of individual works of exceptional magnitude and im-
portance comprişed in the whole, probably surpasses that to be
found in any equal continuous area in any other part of the
world. Other works of public utility, such as water-supply, and
drainage of towns, docks, harbours, breakwaters, lighthouses, and
public buildings of all kinds, although in number as yet very

PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
C
far from adequate to the wants of the country, form, never-
theless, a contribution of no mean proportions to that sum-
total of constructive energy, which cannot fail to leave the
English name for ever indelibly imprinted on the soil of India.
In the following pages it is attempted-it is feared very
possible untechnical language, and in a form suited to the
general reader, some of the more prominent and important
the direct or indirect agency of the Government of the country
since the British occupation; and in order that the unpro-
fessional reader may intelligently follow the necessarily very
condensed account of these works, a few observations on such
general principles of construction as may be needful have from
time to time been introduced. It has, at the same time, been
sought to convey an approximate idea of the enormous value
and extent of each of the separate classes of Indian Public
Works regarded as a whole.
It is obvious that such a work can only be of limited interest
to the ordinary English public--outside that numerous body
of persons, who in one manner or another have identified them-
selves with the progress and welfare of India—and none what-
ever to the professional engineer. To the former the subject
is too remote, and to the latter the manner of treatment will
be found insufficient. To the Indian engineer, although of no
practical professional value, the work may possibly supply, in a
convenient form, some historical or other data in connection
with public works of more or less interest or utility. To the
numerous body of general readers, both English and native in
India, it is believed that the present volume may afford some
useful and interesting information on subjects with which
they are partially familiar, and with which they are brought
into more or less frequent contact; and it is especially hoped
that its perusal by that already large and intelligent class of
natives of the country, which the spread of education has so
greatly developed, may create in them a wider and more
practical interest in what so intimately concerns the social and
industrial progress of the people, and that it may help to instil
a more cordial recognition and estimation, of the persevering
INTRODUCTION
labour and skill of all those of their fellow-subjects, whether.
administrative officers, engineers, artisans, or labourers, whether
English or native, by whose joint exertions the great public
works of India have been and are being carried out.
Wherever it has been possible, attention has been directed to
those works of public utility, which in the various Provinces of
India have been constructed by native agency, long before the
advent of British power in the country. The magnificent
Mohammedan or Hindu creations, in the shape of mosques,
temples, tombs, and palaces of emperors or nobles, great as
many of these are, both as scientific constructions and as
artistic monuments to the skill and refinement of their builders,
are of necessity excluded ; the scope of the volume being con-
bear directly upon the material progress of the people. In
this special branch of utilitarian energy the modern Western
nations stand pre-eminent, whilst they have to a great degree
lost proficiency in those more graceful arts in which at an
earlier period they also excelled. If we adequately picture to
ourselves what was the material condition of the most advanced
countries of the West hardly more than a hundred years ago,
we shall not feel surprise if we find in India but few examples
of those large engineering public works, which in every part
of the world so eminently characterises the modern era. The
impossible that works of public improvement should have been
attempted; the early history of India presenting an almost
continued scene of internal discord, and the numerous and
constantly changing divisions of territory between ambitious
and despotic rulers, renders it vain to seek for, or expect,
evidences of any concerted action for the public welfare.
Nevertheless, especially in some of the great ancient irrigation
works and reservoirs of Southern India, we shall be able to
point out the existence of a very considerable engineering
skill and boldness of enterprise possessed by the early Hindu
race. No special selection of these works of purely native
origin has been made, but such examples as the author has
been able to meet with have been indicated. It is more
than likely, however, that a large number which it would
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
have been of interest to have noted have been unintentionally
overlooked.
Although the volume deals primarily with important public
works of a distinctly constructional character, it has been
judged appropriate to devote a little space to an outline
description of the operations of the Great Indian Trigono-
metrical Survey,' which stands in the very foremost rank of
magnificent human labours. Achieved in the face of impedi-
ments, and difficulties, due not only to immense superficial
area, and physical obstructions, but also to the deadly effects
of a climate that only the strongest can withstand, this great
survey has been carried on and brought down to practical
completion with unflinching pertinacity and incredible zeal
over the long period of some eighty or ninety years, at a most
considerable cost to human life, and at a money expenditure
only commensurate with the great ends attained. To the
Government, as the principal landowner of the country, the
Topographical and Revenue Maps, based on the Great Trigono-
metrical Survey, and produced with so much careful accuracy
by the surveyors of India, provide the principal basis on
which the whole fiscal adminstration depends. The practical
engineer, furnished with so much accurate and valuable data
ready to his hand, can proceed to the elaboration and execution
of his projects with a certainty and celerity which he could
not otherwise attain, and numberless operations in other fields
of labour are immensely facilitated. No one acquainted with
the splendid series of maps of all classes issued to-day by the
Survey Departments of India can fail to acknowledge that
the vast operations by means of which these results have been
attained forms in itself a monument of which any nation may
be proud.
Owing to the almost complete absence of precise returns in
any accessible form, it has unfortunately not been possible to
outline in an adequate manner, either the early history or
present extent of the chief public roads of India, whether in the
case of those more important trunk thoroughfares of the first
class, which, carried over enormous stretches of country, are
metalled, and for the most part bridged throughout their entire
length, or those still more numerous roads of secondary import-
INTRODUCTION
ance. Even in the case of that interesting early work known
as the "Grand Trunk Road,' extending 1500 miles from
Calcutta to Peshawur, the available information appears to be
extremely meagre. The aggregate length of metalled and
bridged roads throughout India, constructed by the British
Government, must undoubtedly be enormous, but in the
absence of any certain figures it would be exceedingly hazardous
to attempt even an approximate estimate. During the last
thirty or forty years a very large expenditure on common
roads and bridges of all classes has been incurred, especially in
the Panjab, the Central Provinces, and Bombay, and it is prob-
able that the amount so expended, from general and local
funds, has reached little short of a million and a half sterling
annually. The necessity for new trunk roads has in great
measure been reduced by the rapid extension of railways, and
road-making, except in the hills, has for many years been con-
fined to those primarily intended to give access to railway
depot; a far greater extension of such feeder roads is, however,
still one of the most pressing requirements of the country.
A considerable portion of the volume is devoted to a nar-
rative of the rise and development of the railway system ; to
the leading features of practical railway construction, and to a
description of the larger and more important bridges and other
works connected with railways in India. This is but a neces-
sary consequence of the special importance and interest of the
subject. Not only may the railways of the country be truly
called the vital organs of industry and commerce, and the very
mainsprings of material progress, but from their close and
intimate connection with the daily life of so large a section of
the people, details concerning them are probably capable of;
affording to the general reader a more certain and connected
interest than would be the case with any other form of
engineering work. The educated native of India of the present
day—of sufficiently mature age—can hardly fail to recognise
how greatly the material conditions of his existence have,
during the course of his life, been ameliorated, how largely his
1 Memorandum on some of the results of Indian administration during the
past thirty years of British Rule in India.--Parliamentary Paper, 1889.
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
freedom of action, and possibilities of activity in every direc-
tion, have been increased, and to what a surprising extent the
general lowering of the cost of production, since the introduc-
tion of railways, has developed and stimulated the industrial
resources and commercial prosperity of the country. Admitting
the considerable social and moral advancement of late years
due to education and the spread of Western habits of
thought, he cannot, at the same time, fail to perceive that the
extraordinary progress, the patent steady advance in the
average wealth and culture of the peoples of India, of which,
for the last thirty or forty years, he has been the witness, has
been originated and alone rendered possible, by the timely
introduction and practical application in India of those various
arts which have directed the great sources of power in Nature
to the use and convenience of man ?-in other words, in conse-
quence of that enlightened policy of the English governors of
the country which—especially during the last thirty years
-in spite of financial difficulties and scares of all kinds, has
urged them to persevere in the projection, execution, and
extension over the length and breadth of India of great public
works of every class.
It is outside the scope of the present volume to touch, except
in the briefest manner, on the purely financial side of Indian
sent the true magnitude and importance of many of these under-
takings, to exhibit an outline of the general, commercial, and
statistical results of their working. Those, and there are still
some, who object to the large annual State outlay of borrowed
money on works held to be reproductive, deny in the first place
their real remunerative character—plead the poverty and in-
ability of the country to pay for what they regard as the
luxuries of civilisation, and maintain that the development of
the resources of the country is no sufficient warrant for their
construction by means of public loans, of which so very small a
percentage can be—or at least hitherto has been-raised in
India, and the interest on which, remitted by Indian tax-payers
to English creditors, constitutes so heavy--and in their opinion
so increasing, a burden on the country. No matter at what
immediate sacrifice, they believe in a strict adherence to English
INTRODUCTION
1
precedent, and would relegate all such works to private enter-
prise; make the confidence of investors the touchstone of
remunerative probability, and leave to a speculative public,
whether European or native, all profit and responsibility.
It may, however, be urged that the construction on a suit-
able scale, of railway and other reproductive works in India, by
been, under the conditions of the country, the only means by
which such works could have been constructed at all. Nor does
it appear that any serious economic objection to such a course
can be made, unless at the same time it can be shown that the
public burdens are not only temporarily, but permanently in-
creased. A certain period of time must necessarily elapse
before either railway or irrigation works become directly profit-
able, and a reasonable interest charge during such period,
represents the price to the country of the enormous indirect
benefits in the meantime secured, the direct return being at
no time a fair or adequate measure of their real economic
value.
There are no grounds for disputing, as a matter of fact, that
the most rapid possible extension of canal irrigation and rail-
way communication has been amply justified by the single con-
siderations of famine protection and military necessities, nor
can it be seriously disputed that the real financial results of
railways, including those large indirect returns from a thousand
channels, due to their interaction on the industrial progress
and activity of the people—which in a country in the situation
of India is of such incalculable importance-has proved them,
so far as the balance of public interest is concerned, to have
been no less truly reproductive works in the past than they
will be in the near future, when they become a large and most
important source of direct revenue to the State.
It may be allowed that the original guarantee system under
which the earlier railways of the country were constructed,
especially at the high rate of interest virtually imposed by the
conditions of the time when it was adopted—a system which
was abandoned in the year 1867-has turned out an un-
economical one. The additional burden imposed by the great
reduction in the gold value of silver in recent years has, more-
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
over, to an extent quite impossible to have been foreseen, most
severely accentuated the defects of the original bargain.
The actual financial position of Indian railways, as exhibited
in the latest Administration Report by the Director-General,
may be summed up as follows:—The total length of railways
open for public traffic on the 31st March 1892, was 17,564
miles, and extensions to the extent of 1697 miles were under
sanction, or in course of construction. The total capital
expenditure on all railways up to the end of the year 1891
amounted to nearly 227 millions sterling.
During the calendar year 1891 the gross earnings on all rail-
ways were £24,040,279, and the total working expenses were
£11,303,847, or 47:02 per cent., leaving as net earnings the sum
of £12,736,432, or 5:61 per cent. on the capital outlay.
Adding steamboat services and suspense accounts, the total
return on the capital expenditure on all open lines of railway
in the country is given as 5.76 per cent.
These figures represent the statistical results of working the
railways during the year 1891. The final financial results to
the State for the official year 1891-92 were only approximately
known, but show an apparent net loss on all railways, taken
together, of £384,450. The interest charges for the East
Indian, Eastern Bengal, and part of the North-West railways,
however, include annuities paid in England, which comprises a
contribution amounting to about £325,000 on account of sink-
ing funds, which will redeem the entire capital of these lines at
the expiry of the period for which the annuity is to run, so that
the net loss to the State during the year 1891 is given at the
approximate figure of £60,000.
It is shown also that if interest on lines under construction
were excluded from the above figures the results to the State
from the working of the entire Indian railway system for the
year 1891-92 would show a net gain of £190,000.
Referring to the various heads of loss, it is remarked that
“the loss on guaranteed railways is mainly attributable to the
comparatively high rate at which the guaranteed interest has to
be paid. Under its contracts with guaranteed railway com-
panies the State has to pay interest at the guaranteed rates until
the contracts terminate, and it is consequently unable to obtain
INTRODUCTION
..9
any advantage from the increasingly easy condition of the
money market; that is to say, where the State could now raise
money at a little over 3 per cent. to pay off loans raised at
higher rates of interest, it has still to continue to pay interest
at, or near, the high average rate of 4:8 per cent. on the capital
raised by the guaranteed companies ; and now, owing to the
fall in exchange, the amount of rupees which have to be re-
mitted to England to pay the sterling interest charges is
equivalent to a payment of interest of over 6:4 per cent. on the
total capital raised converted at par.
The railway system of India may be divided into three main
categories. First, there are lines which are the property of the
State, and are managed and worked by it; secondly, there are
lines which are the property of the State, but which are managed
and worked by companies; and thirdly, there are lines which
are both owned and worked by guaranteed companies, the
Government retaining powers of purchase. Out of 17,564 miles
of open railway the Government is the owner of upwards of
14,000, and has provided 153 out of the 227 millions sterling
expended in their construction. The peculiar circumstances of
the country have happily rendered it practically obligatory that
the Government should be the ultimate holder and owner of all
railway property-happily, because in a country situated as
India has been, and still is, in economic and political condition,
the entire possession in the hands of private companies of the
main systems of railway communication, and their consequent
working and management under the scarcely responsible influ-
ence of private interest, would in a manner not to be appreciated
in homogeneous countries have been prejudicial to the true
interests of the Indian public.
• Under the practical conditions of railway working, too great
importance is very often attached to the public benefits really
derived from what is called a “healthy competition.' Reasonable
competition has no doubt some very desirable results ; it pre-
vents stagnation, and enforces those scientific developments
which tend to reduction of working expenses and railway rates,
but in practice, as a matter of notoriety, independent railway
companies are soon compelled to combine in self-defence against
undue loss on their part from competition, until practically a
10
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
single large monopoly is maintained, and this is liable to become
a specially adverse monopoly where, as in the case of India, so
large a portion of the working and management will necessarily
be carried on from a distant country. Whoever holds the rail-
ways must of necessity hold a virtual monopoly, and it is dis-
tinctly better, perhaps everywhere, but certainly in India, that
such a monopoly should be in the hands of the State than in
those of private persons. The State, moreover, has it in its
power to bestow on the public, to a far greater degree than
private companies could do, the maximum advantages which the
railways afford by means of the lowest tariffs.
Profits on railway working are in no way dependent on the
high or low original cost of constructing the lines, but are solely
dependent on the daily relation between the actual working ex-
penses and receipts. However trite and obvious, it cannot be too
often recollected that under purely commercial management it
pays a little better to carry one unit for, say, eight annas, than
to carry seven units for seven annas, that is to say, for the sake
of one anna of additional profits a railway company is bound
in the interest of its shareholders to exclude what may possibly
be a very large proportion of public advantage. Nor has the
public any reason to complain. The shareholders of a com-
pany do not make a railway for the purpose of conferring a
maximum public benefit, but only for securing a maximum
revenue--their object is merely to find and maintain within the
limitations of the Government concession, the point of highest
profits, no matter what may be the number of persons or tonnage
of goods carried or excluded. If, for instance, the shareholders
of a railway company were willing to accept a permanent
diminution of a } per cent. of their dividend, that com-
paratively small loss on their part might mean a possible re-
duction of tariffs, that would place the advantages and con-
veniences of railway transit within the reach of thousands who
were before excluded, or, what is the same thing, would enable
thousands to use the railway a largely increased number of
times in the course of a given period. In India, the State,
occupying a materially different position, will not necessarily be
bound to sacrifice great public benefit for the sake of the last
anna of profits. Its future direct revenue from railways will
INTRODUCTION
11
.
Wawili.
form but a part of the whole receipts by which the Government
of the country is carried on, and the reduction of a or even
per cent. on its railway income, due to a largely lowered
tariff, might conceivably confer a stimulus to public activity
and industry, which would set in motion a more than equivalent
flow of revenue from other sources, or the public, paying only
the same total, would secure an important reduction in the
direct cost of railway transit.
Had, however, the true interest of the Indian public been
different, the construction of the railway system of India by
purely private enterprise would have been equally impossible.
It is certain that neither unguaranteed British capital would
have been forthcoming, nor native capital with its high ruling
rate of interest, and the almost complete absence of native in-
dustrial enterprise. Again, one of the most inherent peculiari-
ties in railway outlay is the constant and inevitable growth of
capital expenditure. In a commercial point of view, once in
working existence, there is no such thing possible (short of
closing the railway altogether) as closing its capital account.
The very condition of being of a successful railway is to increase
the public demands upon it, demands which can only be met by
increased outlay on new works. During the time that competi-
tion between companies owning and working a number of rail-
ways serving a given district happens to be active, the tendency
to extravagantly increase capital charges is irresistible, and often
disastrous, as may be witnessed in the United States of
America. In India, happily, the growth of capital outlay on
working lines--even under the evils of the guarantee system on
its main routes—can, and has been to a large extent, kept down
to a healthy and normal rate, and in this respect the country
derives advantage from the largely centralised control and
ownership of its railway system; an ownership, moreover, which,
it should be remembered, by no means includes that direct
Government agency in the working and management, which is
held by many to be attended with more or less real dis-
advantage.
The question as to the relative advantages of State or private
agency in the working and management of railways in India
has been much discussed. The highly successful results of the
12
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
valuable East Indian Railway, a line which, while the property
of the State, is worked by a company, compares favourably,
both as regards profits and percentage of working expenses,
with the best State-managed lines—and it is on many grounds
probable that the employment of private agency would in every
case be attended with superior economy—but the question is one
to be decided not only on grounds of financial, but also on con-
siderations of political espediency; so that it would appear that
the question is rather one for particular lines or systems, than
for the aggregate of railways, and that, wherever political and
military interests will admit, the employment of an inter-
mediate agency in the working and management of the Govern-
ment lines may be economically resorted to.
1. The enormous railway property of the Indian Government is
steadily and year by year growing in value, and forms one of
the brightest prospects in the financial outlook of the country.
This property in the now near future must assuredly place at
the disposal of the Administration a perennial and increasing
source of revenue, which may be of incalculable importance in
relieving the burden of taxation, and in admitting the carrying
out of many long-desired fiscal reforms, whilst at the same time
keeping open and enlarging almost every avenue of material
wealth. Another and most important aspect of the especial
value of Indian railways-a value in this respect of almost in-
conceivable amount is the manner in which they operate to
reduce and to prevent the otherwise ruinous outlay on famine
relief, in a country where, without the means of a rapid transfer,
of the food supply, local scarcity, or actual famine, is just as
inevitable as are the uncertainties and irregularities of climate
conditions, and where the burden of directly supporting a
starving population in times of local distress, has been rightly
accepted as an imperial and public duty. Some idea of the
cost of famine relief may be gained, when it is stated that in the
eleven years 1867-1877 inclusive, no less a sum than fourteen
and a half millions sterling was thus expended, and the actual
cost to the public of famine relief, including remission of land
revenue, in the five years, 1873 to 1878, was nearly £16,500,000.1
1 The Finances and Public Works of India, by Sir John Strachey, G.C.S.I.,
and Buckley, on The Irrigation Works of India.
INTRODUCTION
13
In the year 1880 the famine commissioners expressed their
opinion that the trade of the country might be confidently left
1.
this opinion on the rapid extension of the railway system. The
thirteen years which have since elapsed have fully confirmed
and justified this belief. Already in numerous cases where
harvests have failed, and where unstinted public expenditure
would have been unavoidable, the compensating action of rail-
ways has enormously mitigated, or altogether prevented, an
inordinate rise of prices, and has thus—to say nothing of human
life and suffering-saved probably many millions of pounds ster-
ling to the taxpayers of India, and who can say how many
millions more will in like manner be saved in the future? It is
not too much to say, that probably in the lifetime of the present
younger generation serious Indian famines will, under the equalis-
ing action of railways have become a memory of the past.
Who indeed can add up the enormous sum-total of the
benefits conferred on humanity by railway communication ? A.
celebrated English statesman has said, “railways have rendered
more services and received less gratitude than any institution
in the land. Their great wealth-creating power is very in-
adequately realised by the ordinary public, which adapts itself
so quickly and so readily to every successfully improved
appliance, and so rapidly forgets past difficulties, and the
means by which they have been removed. This is perhaps
more especially to be remarked in the case of steam locomotion,
seeing that many persons now living could, if they reflected,
correctly compare the old state of things with the new. Speak-
ing of English railways, and of some of the ways in which they
advance the wealth and welfare of a community, the author of
“Our Iron Roads' states in far better words than any the
writer of the present volume is able to frame. “In their
construction in the United Kingdom no less a sum than
£831,000,000 of capital have been authorised by Parliament,
and L745,000,000 have been paid up. It may be true that
some of these railways “ do not pay," in the sense that they do
not give a reasonable dividend, or in some cases any dividend
the poorest line that runs in the poorest district, is of value to
14
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the trade, and to the people among whom it passes. The con-
struction of every mile of railway, unlike money lavished in
war, has at almost every stage enriched somebody, has enriched
the nation and the world. Wealth employed on armies and
fleets, or squandered in the destruction of life and property, or
wasted in the luxuries of despotic rulers, is unproductive. Not
so with railways, every pound of which honestly spent in due
time yields a reward. The navvy who receives his wages for
building up embankments, forming cuttings, driving tunnels,
or preparing the surface of the railways; the men who are
employed on the permanent way, and who keep the ballast and
rails in order, the pointsmen, and the signalmen whose duty it
is to watch over the running of the trains, the guards, the
porters, and the stationmasters, these all expend the wages
which they receive in the purchase of the necessaries, and, in
not a few instances, what but a short time since would have
been regarded as the luxuries of life. The producer of the
goods thus distributed makes his profit on their production,
and in his turn secures a share of the money which the working
of the railway system causes to be circulated through the
country. In like manner the coalowner, or the ironmaster,
who supplies the coal and iron ; the various manufacturers who
build the rolling stock ; each in his turn realises profits, and
accumulates some fraction of the great total of national wealth.
The profits thus realised become in their turn invested in re-
productive works.
The enormous economy of railway locomotion-less however
in India than in Europe-if we put to its credit the diminution
in the expense of traffic since it was introduced, has been strik-
ingly illustrated by the late Sir James Allport, manager for
many years of the Midland Railway, in connection with the
coal traffic in England. He says, “The reduction in the rate
of the conveyance of coal to London for the last fifteen or
selves. Twelve months ago people were paying for coals in
London less than they paid for the mere carriage of the coals
before railways came into operation —and speaking of the
general economy of railway carriage as compared with the past,
he says, “I venture to assert that the reduction in carriage by
INTRODUCTION
15
railways, as compared with the former charges and quantities
carried, has effected a saving to the country of an amount equal
to more than double the entire gross receipts of all the rail-
ways of the kingdom, or more than a hundred million sterling
annually.'
The indirect saving in time, in the conveyance both of pas-
sengers and goods, in all commercially active countries, re-
presents also an immense direct saving of actual money in the
shape of interests and discounts. It is railways alone which
have rendered possible that great postal system, which oils
the whole machinery of progress in every direction, and there
is no exaggeration in saying that without an adequate railway
system no country could ever attain that healthy activity,
wealth, and well-being, which the mighty revolution effected
by the locomotive engine has engendered, and which it ever,
year by year, creates in wider and increasing proportion.
It is necessary, however, to remember, that great as are the
developing powers of railways, the full benefits to be derived
from them will not in India be realised until agricultural
improvements have reached a point more nearly on a par with
the increased facilities of transport. The capabilities of India
in almost every branch of agriculture are enormous, but these
capabilities are as yet only partially awakened. By the aid of
the practical sciences which have produced so great results in
Europe, the native methods of raising and preparing the main
crops of the country, such as wheat and other grains, cotton,
sugar, hemp, and flax, may be vastly improved, and the out-
turn of every acre very greatly increased. Much has been
already attempted in this respect, but the difficulties to be
surmounted in a country where agriculture still remains an
empirical and traditional art, are exceptionally great.1 What
appears to be mainly desirable is less to revolutionise present
methods, than, by careful observation to adapt and engraft
on them such of the Western improvements as may be peculiarly
fitted for the special conditions of soil and climate.
A second important accessory, hitherto but most imperfectly
1 Vide Paper on 'Public Works in Bengal.'
Institute of Civil Engineers.
Vol. xvii. of Proceedings of
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
developed in proper relation to railways in India, is the creation
in a systematic manner, of a network_of good village roads,
serviceable at all times of the year, converging on properly
selected points. Without such a system of minor roads, connect-
ing all the smaller centres of commerce with the larger and
established markets nearest to the railway, the latter can confer\
only partial benefit to the districts through which it runs. For
a long period the provision of feeder roads was unduly post-
poned, under the mistaken idea that the funds available would
be more profitably expended on branch lines of railway to feed
the main lines in the place of roads, forgetting the absolute im-
possibility, in such a wide area of country, of constructing within
any moderate length of time a system of branch railways
capable of superseding and rendering unnecessary the provision
of common roads of secondary communication. The very low
cost of inland carriage, principally due to the great cheapness
of draft power during a considerable part of the year, tended
in great measure to divert attention from the importance of
good village and feeder roads in the earlier days of Indian rail-
roads. From these and other causes the construction of such
roads, serviceable throughout the year, has lamentably failed to
keep pace with the wants of the railway system, and there still
exists throughout the country, a large number of railway stations
which are absolutely inaccessible to a loaded cart for five
months in the year.
The true financial results of the large loan outlay incurred on
irrigation canals in India, viewed as commercial undertakings,
were for a long time the subject of some controversy, owing to
the extreme difficulty of correctly assessing the total direct and
indirect revenue brought about by the peculiarity of the con-
ditions of land tenure in India, and by the virtual impossibility
of apportioning the true share of the real indirect revenue
between the canals and other causes—such, for instance, as the
influence of improved road and railway communications. To a
far greater extent than railways, all but the very smallest works
of irrigation, or those constructed under some exceptionally
favourable conditions, require to be in operation for a consider-
· able period before a profitable direct return can be looked for.
From this and other causes, the profit and loss in connection
INTRODUCTION .
17
with individual canals, or canal systems, throughout India varies
enormously; some, such as those of Southern India, and the
Jumna canals, for instance, owing to specially favourable cir-
cumstances, yielding an exceedingly high return, a few yielding
a reasonable and even handsome return, and many as yet failing
to pay their working expenses. The net result of the whole
systein of canals in India, however, can be shown to be a fair
and moderate return, after deducting working expenses, and the
interest paid for the use of the capital borrowed for their con-
struction. There appears, moreover, little reason to doubt that
an absolutely true and complete adjustment of accounts between
the land revenue and irrigation works, if such were possible,
would be altogether favourable to the latter. The present
direct return, probably with minor fluctuations, will undoubtedly
for some time to come be an increasing quantity, whilst the
influence of irrigation canals in famine protection, and in raising
the general prosperity of the people within their sphere of action,
is indisputable.
Their value in a country such as India must be regarded from
several points of view. First, there is not only the complete
immunity from famine over the large areas actually irrigated by
those canals deriving their supply from permanent sources
during years of drought, but at these seasons, the large surplus
produce of the irrigated tracts is available to mitigate the
severity of famine or scarcity over extensive areas outside them.
Secondly, perennial irrigation canals, even in years of plentiful
rainfall, are estimated to increase the food supply of the people
in the case of rice cultivation, as much as 40 per cent. In the
Madras Presidency the increase of produce due to irrigation is,
according to crops, from four-fold to eight, and even ten-fold.
In Northern India the rental of irrigated land is twice to three
times that of unirrigated, and in Madras the proportion is much
larger-up to twelve or fifteen times.
The only irrigation canals available for the prevention or
extinction of famine, are those derived from the permanent
rivers of the country. All other sources of supply, or of storage,
ultimately dependent upon seasonable rainfall, will to a greater
1
1 Vide Irrigation Works of India. — Buckley.
18
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
or less extent fail in times of greatest need. The number of
perennial irrigation canals, therefore, as a means of direct
famine prevention, is limited by the number of permanent river
sources, and in many parts of India this limitation is exceed-
ingly great. For the general purpose, however, of increasing
the food supply of the people, the valuable influence of irriga-
tion, from whatever source of water supply it may be derived, is
enormous. Either the staple foods consumed by the people are
raised in greatly enhanced quantities, or where such crops may
not, or cannot be grown, other valuable and exchangeable pro-
ducts can be substituted, which without the aid of a plentiful
supply of water could not possibly have been cultivated. The
utility of irrigation under both the above aspects is of course
dependent upon a suitably connected system of communications,
whether by road, navigable canal, or rail.
The outlay of borrowed money incurred on irrigation canals
by the British Government in India, especially during the last
thirty years, large as the absolute amount has been, is relatively
small when compared with the wants of the country, so that
within the limits assigned by the water supply of her rivers
the future extension of irrigation works, and that even on a
wider scale than anything hitherto attempted, must necessarily
be very great, and the money thus expended will doubtless yield
in the course of a certain time—whether the works are origin-
ally called " reproductive' or simply “protective?–a substantial
direct return; a return, however, which admits of but small con-
sideration as compared with the benefits and prosperity in the
meantime conferred on the country, and the relief and security
which such works, in due connection with railways, afford both
to the natives of India, and to the public revenues.
In the examples furnished in this volume of some of the chief
town water-supply schemes carried out in India, a selection has
been made of a certain number of such works, which, primarily
of importance and interest in themselves, at the same time serve
to illustrate special and particular types of construction. These
examples are not to be regarded as intended in any degree to
1 Vide The Finances and Public Works of India, by Sir John Strachey,
G.C.S.I.
INTRODUCTION
19
indicate, even approximately, the totality of such works, the
extension of which all over India, especially during the last ten
or fifteen years, has been far too great to admit of any attempt
to enumerate, still less to illustrate them. The particular
schemes chosen will be found to include all the main varieties of
town water-supply projects, and will serve as illustrations of the
numerous other works of this class, of which no special mention
could necessarily be made.
Although there is an immense field open for private enter-
prise in India, in various branches of industrial operations, it is
scarcely to be anticipated that the future will bring about any
notable augmentation of such enterprise, so far as concerns the
employment of European capital, independently of some form
of State security. But that time will remove or greatly modify
some of the causes hitherto unfavourable to a fuller employment
of native capital in remunerative undertakings—such as the
construction of a secondary system of railways, irrigation canals,
or the development of mining and manufacturing industries,
either directly or in conjunction with Government agency, is
exceedingly probable.
That every possible facility and encouragement should be
given to native private enterprise, no one keeping in view the
best interests of the country can for a moment deny, in order
that India may be enabled to assume a more independent
position than heretofore, with regard to the provision and ex-
penditure of that capital on which her material progress depends.
Allowing to the full the unavoidable necessities of the past, the
time has now arrived when it has become only too plainly one of
the first necessities of India that she should retain for her own
use, not merely the indirect benefits, but also the direct profits
of all capital expended. Until, however, a more active spirit
of industrial enterprise has arisen among the intelligent and
wealthy classes of natives, the expensive assistance of European
capitalists is in some degree inevitable, and the country must
in corresponding degree submit to the loss of the greater part
of the direct profits accruing from her public works.
In view of the low rates of interest prevailing for some years
past, and the augmenting rates of profit earned in silver by the
commercial railways of the country, there would appear to be
S
1
20
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
D
every prospect that the issue of rupee loans for railway exten-
sion purposes, would now meet with far greater success than
heretofore among native investors, and would prove a valuable
stimulus to the internal and foreign trade of India.
Some relief, however, has in the meantime been afforded by
that utilisation of Government credit which has allowed the
borrowing of money at low rates of interest, and has permitted
the construction of numerous railways, irrigation canals, and
other reproductive works by direct Government agency, and
has thus secured such direct profits as may accrue from
these works for the service of the country; but the
Government is burdened with many serious responsibilities
in connection with defensive, protective, and other undertakings,
from which little or no direct profit can be looked for, so that
the net results in the shape of direct profits, from all Govern-
ment works taken together, can hardly be otherwise than small.1
The production of any large amount of hoarded native wealth
for investment in remunerative public works would in a short
time revolutionise the country, and raise it to a height of pro-
sperity beyond present conception, nor is there any reason to
doubt that such a production will in the course of time take
place. Those who express surprise that the enormous hoards
of potential wealth, either in specie or locked up by the natives
of India in the form of jewellery, should not be more profitably
utilised, forget that the very existence of these hoards is but
the expression of that innate feeling of the insecurity of all
possessions not susceptible of removal, which is the legacy left
by the ancient forms of government. This feeling, engrained
in the native character, the past experience of the race has
tended to harden into a fixed and hereditary instinct. Already
under years of settled government, less intense than formerly,
this innate distrust must in the course of time grow more and
more feeble, in proportion as, under a wise and judicious
administration, the country is maintained in a condition of in-
ternal contentment and external security. Probably also it will
gradually be more clearly perceived by the wealthy and cul-
1 Vide The Finances and Public Works of India 1869-1881, by Sir John
Strachey, G.C.S.I.
INTRODUCTION
tivated classes of India that returns from capital employed in
industrial operations, and in developing the resources of their
own land, by means of public works permanently affixed to the
soil, must, as their own power and share in shaping the
destinies of the country, under the conditions of a growing
civilisation, increases, tend to become more and more inde-
pendent of minor contingencies. Under the stimulation of
the growth of confidence, and of material progress, the effective
desire of accumulation must steadily augment, and the high
normal rate of interest will necessarily fall. It is probable
therefore that a greater employment of native capital in
remunerative public works is to be looked for in the near
future, and that some notable proportion of that enormous
amount of gold at present absorbed by the country, and
devoted to the idle and unprofitable shape of concealed treasure
and of ornament, will gradually be released and rendered avail-
able for both private and public benefit.
At the beginning of the year 1889 it was estimated that
there was lying in India a stock of gold bullion wholly useless
for commercial purposes, and increasing at the rate of nearly
three millions annually, of the value of not less than
L270,000,000 at the market, being probably two-and-a-half
times as great as all the gold inoney in circulation in the
United Kingdom.' One-half of this gold released, and put into
a material form, represents the present equivalent of 14,000
miles of railway communication, yielding a probable direct
return of nearly seven million pounds per annum. In the early
part of the year 1892 the Calcutta Englishman stated that
'India still shows an unabated appetite for gold, which it con-
tinues to absorb in a wonderful way. During the last eight
months the yellow metal, to the value of 356 lakhs—or
L3,560,000—has been imported, and deducting the re-export
of 70 lakhs, there remains 286 lakhs, or £2,860,000, which will
probably go bodily as a permanent addition, mainly in the
shape of jewellery, to the hoards of the country. The imports
of silver amounted to 536 lakhs, and the exports to 116 lakhs,
leaving a residuum of 420 lakhs.'
As yet there are but few signs that this passion for hoarding
the precious metals is on the wane. It is noticeable, that the
22
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
more educated and anglicised portion of the natives of the
country are less under its influence than others; something in
this direction therefore has already resulted from the spread of
education. Much can also be hoped from the raising of the
general status and intelligence of the better classes of women.
The movement in the direction of decreasing marriage expenses
will also operate favourably, as well as the more extended
facilities for the profitable investment of small sums of money
by the Post Office and other savings banks, but the only real
and important influence which will widely open the door of this
treasury of hoarded wealth is the lowering of the rate of
interest, in response to the growth of that settled con-
fidence in the security of invested funds, intrusted beyond
the immediate control of the owner, which lies at the root of
all enterprise in any country, and the low degree of which in
India is the still lingering and unhappy consequence of cen-
turies of early oppression and spoliation. The action of this
influence, operating as it has to do in the face of the inherent
unenterprising spirit of an essentially agricultural country, and
of climatic conditions unfavourable to the expansion of the
highest energies of man, must, on the whole—although not of
necessity locally-be very slow and gradual.
The Parsee community of the Bombay Presidency supplies
an example of what may be done by an Eastern race in which
the commercial and enterprising spirit has been freely developed
under secure and liberal government. In the advanced Pro-
vince of Bengal indications of a growing spirit of public enter-
prise have for many years been apparent, and every judicious
and successful example of the remunerative employment of
native capital, in works of public utility, whether in the form
of railway construction, irrigation canals, mining industries, or
in any other of the innumerable fields of industrial energy, will
be a benefit not only to the enterprising projectors themselves,
but also of incalculable service to the welfare and progress of
India.
11
Tiul
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL
SURVEY
CHAPTER I
Meaning of the term “Trigonometrical Survey '—Elementary example-
Description of a small survey-Base line and signal stations, Base of verifi-
cation-Plotting the triangles—Internal details—Network of triangles-
'Gridiron'system-Well-conditioned triangles-Measurement of base lines
-Method of enlarging a base—Description of Gridiron system--Recapitu-
lation of methods of trigonometrical surveying.

VA
.
'
.
.
Wir
OSSIBLY a few of the readers of this
volume may have but a very faint idea
of what is meant by a Trigonometrical
Survey, others may have a general
notion that it means some method of
measuring the ground for the purpose
of map-making; but as to how, and in
what particular manner, a correct map
of a country is made, they are more or
less ignorant. All people, however,
perfectly understand that to be of any
practical use a geographical map must be an accurate representa-
tion, on a small scale, of the exact shape of a country, and of its
various divisions, and that all places marked on it must measure
-by the scale attached to the map—the real and actual distances
from any one point to every other, that is to say, every town,
village, river, mountain, or boundary, must be placed in its
true relative position the one to the other.
No one has any difficulty in seeing that distances can easily
enough be measured on the ground-along a given line for
instance, supposing there are no obstacles in the way—or
similarly along any number of lines, but further than this
most people, unless previously conversant with the methods of
surveying, fail to perceive how all these measurements are to be
combined and tied together on paper so as to form a correct
26
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
whole answering to the real form of the country, and within the
most minute limits of error, exact in all its linear dimensions,
measured in every possible direction.
Now, as it is our purpose to give an outline sketch of the
operations of the Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey,' a few
words of general explanation to the entirely uninitiated reader,
which will enable him to understand in a general way what
O
desirable.
First of all, then, the word “Trigonometry' means measure-
ment of triangles—from the Greek words Tpiyovov, a triangle,
and uérpia, measurement (from uét pov, a measure) so that a
trigonometrical survey means a survey made by means of the
measurement of triangles. In what way the measurement of
triangles' enables us to carry out a geographical survey will now
be explained as simply as possible.
Let it be assumed that a reasonably correct plan or map of a
small island is required, and that a survey party—which we
are privileged to accompany—has been formed to execute the
necessary field-work. Further, to eliminate all disturbing con-
ditions, let it be assumed that the island has a generally plain
surface, entirely free from forest growth, and from all objects
offering impediments to a clear view in every direction. The
survey party will be equipped with a few steel measuring chains,
a good supply of poles and flags, and one or two highly re-
fined and accurate instruments for measuring angles, called
theodolites.
If the island is completely new and unknown ground to the
called an ocular ' survey—so as to gain a general idea of its
main features, and of the position of its prominent points. Its
approximate size will also be estimated by the length of time
required to traverse it in one or two directions at a roughly
known rate of travel. The next operation will be to select-
probably somewhere along the flat, sandy shore—a fairly level
and unencumbered surface, on which a long straight line can
be measured. This line, which will form the initial base of the
whole survey is called the base-line.'
A suitable position for this important line having been found,
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 27
a number of flag-posts, or signal “stations,' will be planted
probably on, or near, the coast line, each placed on ground as
elevated as possible, in order that it may be visible from at
least two other stations. The position of these signal-stations
will be selected with great care, and they will be arranged so
that a series of lines running from one to the other will parcel
off the whole island into several large triangular spaces, and
the line which has been selected as a base’ line will form a
side of one of these triangular spaces. The position of the
various signal-stations, which are to form the meeting-points
of the lines enclosing the triangles, having been fixed, the party
will proceed to measure the exact length of the base-line.'
Now the length of a base-line' requires to be measured
with the most extreme attainable accuracy, because, if this line
is wrongly measured, all the rest of the work based on it must
be wrong with it; consequently a great deal of trouble is taken
to ensure the accuracy of this measurement. Either the ground
is levelled very carefully, or it is so arranged that the steel
chain with which the measurement is about to be made, shall,
when stretched very tight from point to point, be a true,
straight, and level line. First of all the length of the measur-
ing chain is checked with a standard' chain brought by the
party to see if it exactly corresponds, and, if not, it is adjusted.
The surveyors then proceed to measure carefully the length
between the two flag-posts which have been planted to mark
the extremities of the base-line. They are not satisfied with
measuring this once, but they measure it several times over-
first one way and then the other, repeatedly checking the length
of the measuring chain with the standard' to see if it has
stretched or altered at all under use. When they have obtained,
a good many measurements taken backwards and forwards
along the base line, it is found that, although very near each
other, no two of the measurements agree quite exactly. The
divergence, however, unless great, is of no consequence. All
that it is necessary to do is to add all the various lengths
together and then divide the sum by the number of times the
measurement has been made, and thus a mean length is obtained,
which will be sufficiently near to the true length to answer the
purpose in view. To enable our readers to follow the progress
U
28
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of the work, we here insert a rough sketch (Fig. 1) of what
in the first instance is guessed to be the general shape of
the island, and on this sketch we have marked the probable
position of the flag-posts which have been planted near the
coast. We have also inserted letters which indicate the angles
of the various triangles that the surveyors propose to measure,
and we have numbered the triangles themselves from 1 to 5.
Having completed the measurement of the base-line, marked in
the fig. a-b, a 'theodolite or instrument for measuring angles

-
aa
Base lines
FIG. I.
is set up at the point a, and the surveyor carefully measures
the angle at a, sighting alternately the-flag posts at b and c.
Having recorded this angle, the surveyor removes the instrument
to the b end of the base-line, and in a similar way measures
the angle b, sighting alternately the flag-posts a and c.
Of triangle No. 1, the length of one side, viz., the ' base-line,"
which has been directly measured, is known, and the size of each
of the angles a and b. Having this information, by a simple
without actually measuring it with the theodolite, as also can
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 29
be the lengths of the two sides a c and b c. These lengths,
obtained by calculation, will, if the length of the base-line and
the angles which have been measured are correct, be far more
accurate than if they had been measured directly on the ground
with the measuring chain. Knowing in this manner the length
of the side a c (which is also a side of No. 2 triangle) it can be
treated as a new base-line, and after the angles at e and d have
been measured, another calculation will give the size of the
surveyor can now treat d f as another new base-line, and by its
means, and by measuring the angles at h and g he can measure
the third triangle. From the side g i of this triangle, the
length of which is obtained as before by calculation, he can
measure the fourth triangle, then, proceeding in exactly the same
way, he is able to measure the fifth and last triangle.
Now, in order to see if the work hitherto done is quite cor-
rect, one side of the last triangle, say m o, is very carefully
measured with the steel chain, in precisely the same manner as
the original base-line was measured. If it is found that the
length m o as given by calculation, and as found by direct
measurement, agrees exactly or very very closely, the trigono-
metrical work is done, but if by calculation it works out alto-
gether different from the measured length, then it is known
that there is a great mistake in the work somewhere, and it
will be necessary to do it all over again, until the mistake is
discovered and corrected, and until the two measurements at
last practically agree.
It will now be clear that, having the angles and the exact
lengths of the sides of each of the five triangles, the surveyor
can—to any scale he likes to select-draw, or what is called
plot’ these triangles on a sheet of paper, and it will be cer-
tain that their sides and the points where the flag-posts are
erected will have their relative dimensions, and lie in their true
relative positions, the one to the other. If care is now taken to
mark in a permanent manner on the ground, the points occupied
by the flag-posts, it will be possible at any subsequent time to
complete the survey of the details of the island. The triangles,
which have been correctly laid down on paper, will serve as a
skeleton or framework for everything else required. For example,
30
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
it is desired to draw on paper the exact outline of the coast.
All that it is necessary to do is to measure a sufficient number
of what are called “offsets ’ from the sides of the triangles nearest
to the shore, thus supposing e f in Fig. 2 represents the pre-
cise length, to scale, of the side ef of No. 2 triangle, stations,
CII
line are measured off on the ground along this line from the
point e. From each one of these stations, and at
right angles to the line e f, an offset 'is measured
to the shore. These measurements having been
entered in a book, it is evident that the offsets?
can be drawn or plotted' on the plan of triangu-
lation, and by drawing a line through the outer
ends of the offsets,' the exact outline of the coast
between the points e, and f will be produced.
When it is desired to fill in and add to the plan
the inland features of the island, the surveyor
can, either by means of smaller triangles laid
down inside the main ones, or by running any
desired number of measured lines tied to the
sides of these triangles, obtain lines, offsets'
from which will give all the interior features with
any degree of detail desired, or suitable to the
scale on which it is proposed to draw the map.
The important matter to notice is that every
point of the detailed filling up will be in its
correct place, because all will be tied and held
together in exact relative position, on and about the main
lines of triangulation, which constitute, in fact, the skeleton
on which the whole body of the map is moulded.
The above serves merely as an illustration of a simple frame-
work, consisting of a single series of triangles grounded on and
verified by two measured bases. The island that has been dealt
with is in reality so small that a perfectly correct map of it
could very likely have been obtained by a few simple direct
measurements, without the necessity of any angular measure-
ments at all.
When it is necessary, however, to provide a suitable skeleton
or framework for the detailed survey of a very large continent,

FIG. 2.
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 31
island, or other surface, there are two methods usually employed,
one is to spread in every direction by means of a network of
triangles a series of fixed points, from and within which the
which for the most part has been employed in India, is to lay
down a series of chains of triangles following, say, north and
south lines, connected together by cross series of east and west
chains, forming thus a sort of gridiron of chains of triangula-
tion. The interior area of the triangles themselves, and also
the areas of the interior spaces between the chains forming the
gridiron, can then be readily surveyed in detail; the areas to be
filled in being brought down to manageable dimensions.

Xito
lii
milih...**
idi.
a Base line
KULL
Fig. 3.- NETWORK System.
In such a triangulation or rather trigonometrical survey,'
the sides forming each of the main triangles may be as much as
fifteen to thirty miles in length, so that the mere ranging and
sighting of the distant points or stations will require not only
the most perfect optical instruments but will often, from physical
causes, present problems of extreme difficulty in practical solu-
tion. The measurement of the various base-lines of origination
and verification-each probably many miles in length-will also
involve the most extreme nicety of measurement.
In order to make quite clear the meaning of a network and of
å gridiron system of trigonometrical survey, Fig. 3 is a repre-
32
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
sentation of a network system, and Fig. 4 of a gridiron system.
In each, the little circles represent stations or observing points
from which angles are measured, which, wherever possible, are
fixed on the highest elevations.
Looking at Fig. 3 it will be seen that the triangles forming
the network are all what is called “well-conditioned, that is to
say, they have no very sharp or very wide angles. It is, in fact,
a general rule in all trigonometrical triangulations that no
angle shall be sharper than 30 degrees, or wider than a right
angle or 90 degrees. The measured base-line a b will be found

FIG. 4.-Gridiron System.
marked on the lower right-hand corner of the sketch. As be-
fore explained, all trigonometrical operations in the first
instance, start from some actually measured base-line, and it
has been noted that the correct measurement of this base-line
is a matter of the first importance, because from it the length
of the sides of a whole series of triangles has to be computed,
which computation will be all wrong if the base-line has not
been correctly measured.
Although apparently a very easy matter, the exact measure-
ment of a long base-line is in reality an exceedingly difficult
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 33
operation, and every expedient that ingenuity can devise has
to be employed in order to obtain the necessary accuracy. It
is desirable that the length of a base-line for a primary trigono-
metrical survey should be as great as possible, but circum-
stances seldom permit it to exceed more than seven or eight
miles in length, because, in the first place, a fairly level and un-
encumbered surface has to be selected, so that each end of the
base inay be visible from the other end; and secondly, it is
necessary that conveniently situated signal stations, suitable for
laying out well-conditioned' triangles with the base-line, should
also be clearly visible from both ends, and these conditions are
only rarely to be found. Where only a short base is obtain-
able, there are, however, convenient ways of deriving from it, by
means of a triangulation, much longer lines, say ten or twenty
miles in length, from which a continuation of the triangulation
can proceed. One such expedient is shown on sketch-plan,
Fig. 3, of a network system. From the short base-line marked
0–6 a triangle, a, b, c, is laid out, having its apex at the
station c, and with an angle at this point not less than 30
degrees. Having calculated the length of the side b c of this
triangle, another one, much larger, can be laid out from it as a
base, having its apex at the station d. The length of the side
c-d can now be calculated, and in this line we have one con-
siderably longer than the original base-line.
Some of the expedients employed in the measurement of base-
lines will be described further on. For the present, turning
to Fig. 4, we have a representation of a simple gridiron
system of chains of triangles, such as has been adopted on the
Indian Trigonometrical Survey. The country to be surveyed
is traversed by a series of such chains of triangles, crossed by
other chains, leaving relatively large spaces between them.
This method of trigonometrical surveying is considered superior
triangles, and these capable of more regular and systematic
deduction, the one after the other, than is the case with a net-
work. In practice, however, on a very large surface of country,
the two systems are in reality combined, the main framework
of the survey being the gridiron, whilst between the chains
forming the gridiron, a secondary network of triangles, of gene-
o
34
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
rally smaller size than those which compose the chains, is filled
in, this network being of course dependent on, and connected to,
the sides of the primary triangles forming the chain. In course
of time, under the operation of a detailed survey, the secondary
network may be still further broken up into smaller and smaller
triangles, or traversed with cross lines in every direction, each
line being tied and bound into its proper relative position, as also
will of necessity be the position of every geographical feature of
the country, which is measured from, and fixed by means of offsets
or other means, from one or other of these intermediate lines.
To recapitulate, it will now be clearly understood that
trigonometrical surveying consists—First, in the selection of
suitable sites for, and the accurate measurement of, base-lines
for the origination and verification of either a complete network
of triangles, or of long chains of triangles, across a given belt of
country. Secondly, the selection of suitable intermediate
points, such as prominent hill-tops, or specially selected or con-
structed lofty towers, for the meeting points of the lines, form-
ing in each case well-conditioned' triangles. Thirdly, the
fixing of the exact position of these intermediate points, by
means of measured angles and calculated sides of triangles,
starting from the measured base, and carried successively
through the intermediate points, so as to form either a net-
work or a chain of triangles. The accuracy of the intermediate
computations is then verified by means of a measured base at
the other extremity of the network or chain.
The trigonometrical survey of the entire country is com-
pleted either by covering the whole area to be surveyed with a
network of triangles, or by carrying a sufficient number of
ranges of triangles, longitudinally and laterally across the
country, so as to form a sort of gridiron. The work is also further
checked by means of astronomical observations for obtaining
the exact latitude and longitude of numerous selected spots over
the whole area. The principal triangulation is then handed
over to detail surveyors, and all the interior spaces are filled up
with a secondary triangulation, which may be again broken
up into tertiary triangles, within which the detailed features
of the country can be closely measured, and their positions
accurately fixed, by means of 'offsets,' or in other various ways.
CHAPTER II
Early Geography of India--Major James Rennell's surveys in Bengal-Route
-William Lambton, father of Indian surveys-Proposes measurement of arc
of meridian, and trigonometrical survey of southern portion of India-Objects
in view-- Proposals submitted to Madras Government-Lambton appointed
to conduct operations—Instruments employed— Commencement of opera-
tions, 1802-Madras Observatory-Measurement of the first base-line-
Correction for temperature-Triangulation carried to opposite coast-In-
accuracy of former route surveys--Origin of Great Arc Series '-Base at
Bangalore-Injury to great 36-inch theodolite-Early opposition to survey
operations-Demonstration of their utility-Recognition of Colonel Lambton's
services-Great arc series carried to Beder-Captain Everest appointed chief
assistant-Colonel Lambton extends arc series to Takal Khera–His illness
and death-Summary of his great labours--Everest appointed his successor.
Less than 150 years ago the geography of the interior of India
was very little known. At that time the only knowledge of
the country was derived from the descriptions of the routes of
occasional travellers into the interior, and from the rough
charts of the coast lines made from time to time by English
and foreign marine surveyors. About the year 1755 an
English edition of a French map of India, compiled from such
sources, was published. Shortly after this time, and up to the
year 1782, Major James Rennell, an East India Company's
officer, who was appointed Surveyor-General of Bengal, did
much geographical work in that province. Major Rennell
surveyed, by means of chain measurements, a tract 900 miles
long by an average of 300 miles broad, taking observations for
latitude and longitude at various points, and his map of the
districts of Bengal and Bahar was published in 1781. From
this time various route-maps of different parts of the country
were from time to time obtained by special surveyors appointed
to accompany armies in the field.
36
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
were astronomically fixed, the coast line was laid down for a
distance of 700 iniles, and upwards of 2000 miles of route
measurements were made in the Carnatic during the war with
Hyder Ali. From the material thus accumulated, a general
atlas of India was nearly completed in 1787, but owing to the
fragmentary nature of the surveys, and the numerous errors
contained in them, little practically useful results were obtained.
Further materials, however, slowly accumulated from numerous
route surveys, and carefully computed astronomical observa-
tions, until the year 1798, when the results were sent to
England for the purpose of framing a great map of India which,
however, was never published, and much of the interesting and
valuable data collected is said to have been lost in the destruc-
tion of old records which took place at the time of the abolition
of the East India Company. These various route surveys,
greatly inaccurate as they necessarily were, were at the time
when the interior of India was almost unknown of great service
for the use of armies on the march, but as the country was
gradually brought under British administration, the want of
good and accurate maps of the districts became more and more
keenly felt. At the beginning of the present century the
method of surveying a country by means of measured routes,
and positions astronomically fixed, was more and more seen to
be liable to serious errors, and it slowly began to be recognised
that a trigonometrical triangulation was the only really secure
basis for accurate map-making, although many experienced men
brought up under the old system still believed in, and clung to,
the earlier practice. Great improvements and refinements were
introduced into the manufacture and accuracy of mathematical
and optical instruments for astronomical and surveying pur-
poses, and the results so far obtained in the progress of the
trigonometrical survey of Great Britain, which was commenced
in 1784, showed the many advantages of the trigonometrical
system.
The magnificent undertaking known by the name of the
“Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey, consisting of chains of
triangles, which extend from Cape Comorin to the borders of
Tibet, and from Afghanistan to Burma, was commenced about
CY
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 37
the year 1800 by a man possessed of that indomitable ardour
and perseverance of which heroes are made, a man whose name
will always stand in the forefront of the great achievement he
initiated, and whose death on the field of his labour, at the age
of seventy, after twenty-three years of battling almost single-
handed with the most formidable obstacles, in the midst of a
terribly baneful climate, must always render his career memor-
able in the list of willing martyrs to science and to duty.
William Lambton, who was an entirely self-taught man, was
born in the year 1753. Very little is known of his early life
except that he obtained a commission in the 33rd Regiment,
and owing to his having acquired a knowledge of surveying, he
YY
where he devoted himself ardently to the study of the higher
mathematics. In 1797, being then forty-four years of age, he
rejoined his regiment, at that time in Calcutta, and shortly
afterwards saw service in the war with Tippoo in Mysore. After
the successful termination of that war, Captain Lambton
brought forward a proposal for the measurement of a long arc
of the meridian, that is, a long north and south line, and for a
trigonometrical survey of the southern portion of India. Its
object, to quote his own words, was to determine the exact
positions of all the great objects that appeared best calculated
to become permanent geographical marks, to be hereafter
guides for facilitating a general survey of the peninsula.'
Lambton proposed laying out a network of triangulation from
Madras across to the opposite coast, for the purpose of fixing
the breadth of the peninsula on that parallel, at the same time
making observations for obtaining the exact latitude and longi-
tude of numerous important places. The accurate measurement
of a long arc of the meridian, such as could be obtained in
India, was a matter of the highest importance from a scientific
point of view. By its means the true curvature of the earth
could be obtained, and the astronomical tables used in naviga-
tion (which are affected by the shape of the globe) would be
perfected, whilst the triangulation necessary for the measure-
ment of the arc would serve as the principal axis of a system
of triangulation' to be extended over all India, on which a
correct geographical map of the country could be built.
*
38
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Captain (afterwards Colonel) Lambton's proposals were sub-
mitted to the Madras Government, and were warmly supported
by the Marquis of Wellesley. The Governor of Madras was
also favourably impressed by the advantages likely to accrue
from the undertaking, and sanction to it was shortly afterwards
accorded by the Government. Colonel Lambton, as a matter of
course, was appointed to conduct the operations. Lieut. Warren
of the 33rd Regiment, and Lieut. Kater, were appointed assist-
ants. The chief instruments employed by Lambton were a
36-inch theodolite (a highly refined instrument for measuring
angles with extreme accuracy), an 18-inch repeating Theodolite,
both by Carey, and several smaller ones ; an astronomical
instrument called a ' zenith sector,' by Ramsden ; two measur-
ing chains of blistered steel, and a standard brass scale. The
large theodolite was unluckily captured by the French on its
way out from England, but it was afterwards chivalrously re-
turned by the French Governor of Mauritius, with a complimen-
tary letter to the Governor of Madras. The steel chains were
100 feet long, consisting of 40 links of 2} feet each, of excellent
manufacture, in fact, the whole of the instruments were the most
perfect that were at that time obtainable in England.
Operations commenced on the 10th April 1802, by the
measurement of a base-line, something over 71 miles long, near
St. Thomas Mount, Madras. The Madras observatory, then
for some time in existence, thus became the starting-point of
the Trigonometrical Survey of India. By means of a long and
regular series of astronomical observations, the longitude of that
observatory was more accurately known than any other point
in the peninsula, and this longitude served—as it still does—as
the local meridian, in place of the meridian at Greenwich, to
which all the observations for longitude in the Indian surveys
are ultimately referred.
In measuring his first base-line at Madras, Colonel Lambton
used a chain similar to that employed by the English Ordnance
Surveyors. The chain was supported in five wooden boxes,
each 20 feet long, which were carried on tripods, fitted with
elevating screws, the whole being adjusted to exact line by
means of a telescope. At one end the chain was secured to a
draw-post,' with provision for adjustment by means of a fine
11TY
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 39
screw-movement. Near the handle was a brass scale, with
minute divisions, fixed on the head of a separate post. This
scale, by means of an adjusting screw, could be moved backwards
or forwards until it exactly coincided, under a magnifying glass,
with a dot or mark on the chain, from which its measuring
length commenced. At the other end of the chain was a similar
arrangement, but the handle here instead of being fixed to a
draw-post’ had a rope passing over a pulley, to which rope a
28-lbs. weight was attached, to keep the chain tightly stretched.
Thus the two ends of the measuring length of the chain could
be accurately brought into position. This done, it was moved
forwards, and a new length measured, and so on, until the base
was finished. The temperature of the chain was determined by
means of thermometers placed inside the boxes, and the rate
of expansion having been fixed by previous experiments, the
necessary corrections could be made. This correction in all,
amounted to .00725 inch for every degree of Fahrenheit. All
measurements made with the steel chain were reduced to that
of a standard chain, whose length had been fixed at a tempera-
ture of 50 degrees. The measurement of the Madras base
occupied forty-two days, when observation was taken to deter-
mine the angle formed by the base with a meridional, or true
north and south line.
It may be mentioned here, that although the above method
of measuring a base-line was employed in several cases in the
earlier stages of the survey, it was subsequently superseded by a
greatly improved system, to be explained further on, and all
the important base-lines measured with the steel chain, were
afterwards re-measured with the improved apparatus.
After some time spent in experimental trials in the neigh-
bourhood of Madras, Lambton and his staff carried a series of
triangles inland from the Madras base, in a westerly direction,
to a point situated near Bangalore (see Map of the Triangula-
tion). Here in May 1804 a base of verification was measured.
The distance was 160 miles, and the measured and calculated
length of the new base was found to differ by 32 inches only.
From the Bangalore base-line triangles were then laid out
across the remaining width of the Peninsula, to the west coast
near Mangalore. The complete distance across from Madras
40
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
to the Malabar coast was found to be 360 miles, or 40 miles
less than had hitherto been given by the best maps. The in-
accurate results obtained by the earlier methods of survey was
thus demonstrated.
The base-line measured on the Mysore plateau at Bangalore,
was adopted as the origin of the long meridional series of
triangles which was ultimately (not, however, before the year
1837) carried up from Cape Comorin to the foot of the
12
miles in length, is named the “Great Arc Series. At the time
it was completed it was—and it is believed that it still is—the
longest arc measured on the earth's surface. Starting from the
Bangalore base, the great arc' triangulation was first
gradually carried down to a point near Cape Comorin, where
a base of verification was measured, then in the year 1811
Colonel Lambton commenced its northward extension from
Bangalore.
During these early years of the survey the operations were
constantly interrupted by the disturbed political condition of
the country, which was not completely pacified until the year
1818, as well as by the jealousy and apprehensions excited in
the minds of the people at the sight of the mysterious pro-
ceedings of the surveyors, with their strange and uncanny
looking instruments perched successively on almost every hill-
top, and their long array of flag-posts and signals which seemed
to pervade the country. Whatever may have been the exact
nature of the opinions or fears thus aroused, it is evident that
much patience, firmness, and tact, were requisite on the part of
the officers of the survey in order to avert danger, allay
suspicion, and conciliate goodwill. Additional obstacles to
progress were also imposed by the untrained condition and
inexperience of the subordinate staff, and by the constant sick-
ness of the field-parties exposed to a highly malarious climate.
The stay of the two officers appointed as assistants, was too of
but short duration. The services of Lieut. Warren were before
long required elsewhere, and Lieut. Kater's failing health soon
obliged him to quit the service. Thus the chief of the survey
was often compelled to work nearly single-handed, and he had
to turn his time and attention to many harassing details. It
1.
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 41
t was not dishe
bour, assisted in theodolite to
is recorded that on one occasion when the great 36-inch
theodolite—the mainstay of the operations—was being hoisted
to the top of a lofty pagoda tower, the tackle broke, and the
instrument was seriously injured ; the main limb having been
completely bent out of shape. Such an accident, occurring at a
time when no experienced artificers accustomed to the repair of
such delicate instruments were to be found in India, was a severe
blow. Colonel Lambton, however, was not disheartened. He
carried the broken theodolite to Bangalore, and by his personal
labour, assisted by some workmen from the Artillery establish-
ment, after six weeks' delay he succeeded in completely repair-
ing the injuries, and the instrument was made as good as ever,
continuing in use up to the year 1830.
The work on the southern portion of the great arc series'
is far from representing the full extent of Colonel Lambton's
labours at this period. By the year 1815 he had covered the
greater part of the country between Madras, Bangalore, and
the Godavery river with a network of triangulation, fixing the
position of all the more important points extended over this
area, and carrying out simultaneously an immense number of
astronomical observations. He was, moreover, harassed by
frequent opposition from the highest quarters, calling in ques-
tion the fundamental utility of his operations, it being still
maintained that the old system, based on route surveys, and
astronomically fixed positions was equally accurate, and more
economical. He was also kept ill-supplied with money by the
financial authorities at Madras. It was only after long and
tedious argument and correspondence that he at last success-
fully refuted his opponents, patiently demonstrating the many
serious errors in the position of numerous places, as fixed
astronomically on the old maps. Not only was the breadth
of the Peninsula on the Madras line forty miles wrong, as
previously stated, but the position of Arcot was shown to be
ten miles out of place, and Hyderabad no less than eleven
minutes in latitude, and thirteen minutes in longitude. It was
not until the year 1818 that he at last succeeded in completely
vindicating the utility, and demonstrating the extreme im-
portance of the labours on which he was engaged, and this
only after their value had been fully recognised and appreciated
101
IYA
11111
III
42
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
I
by numerous scientific bodies in Europe. In 1817 he was made
corresponding member of the French Institute, and in the
following year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In the meantime the great arc series of triangulation
(all work on which was conducted with special care and
accuracy) had been pushed northwards to Beder, in latitude 18°
north, where a new base line was measured. Colonel Lambton,
now at the age of 65, had greatly broken down in health and
physical energy, and Captain Everest, afterwards his able
successor, was appointed as chief assistant. Owing to the
disturbed condition of the provinces of Central India at that
time the great arc' work was temporally suspended, and
Everest was employed in completing the network of triangula-
tion to the southward, where in 1820 he was disabled by fever,
and had to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope for the recovery
of his health. Colonel Lambton, much broken in health as he
also was, then proceeded with the Great Arc Series,' extending
it up to Takal Khera in latitude 21° 6'. More and more pro-
strate by disease and infirmities of age whilst vainly attempting
to measure a base-line at Takal Khera, he exposed himself so
iinduly to the severe tasks imposed upon him by the sickness
and prostration of nearly all his party that he completely broke
down. Soon afterwards setting out from Hyderabad to Nag-
pore--still in prosecution of his work-he died on the road at
Hingunghat, now a large cotton centre in the Central Pro-
vinces, on the 20th January 1823. A modest tomb, consisting
of a pillar surrounded by a walled enclosure, was afterwards
erected over his remains by the Resident at Nagpore, on the
bare ridge not far from the spot where the water-works
reservoir now stands.
Thus died in harness, at the age of 70 years, the worn-out
* Father of the Indian Survey ?-like many of his humble
followers, a faithful martyr of devotion to the public service.
His last great work comprised a triangulation aggregating
165,342 square miles of the Peninsula of India, at a total cost
of £83,537, or an average and moderate outlay of about 10s.
per square mile. About the year 1820 Colonel Lambton in
a report on the survey operations writes, “In the twenty years
devoted to this work I have scarcely experienced a heavy hour,
TO
ni
(11
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 43
such is the case when the human mind is absorbed in pursuits
that call its powers into action. A man so engaged, his time
passes on insensibly, and if his efforts are successful his reward
is great, and a retrospect of his labours will afford him endless
gratification. If such should be my lot I shall close my career
with heartfelt satisfaction, and look back with increasing
delight on the years I have passed in India ;' and again in his
last report he says, “It would indeed be gratifying to me if I
could but entertain a distant hope that a work which I began
should at some future day be extended over British India. I
sincerely hope that after I relinquish the work somebody will
with to prosecute it.
This hope was amply realised in the person of Captain, after-
wards Colonel, Everest, who was shortly afterwards appointed
his successor.
CHAPTER III
Continuation of Great Arc Series to Sironj—Ill-health of Superintendent,
Absence for five years-Calcutta Longitudinal Series—Useful work of
Everest in England-Colonel Colby's compensation bars-Description of
apparatus-Return of Colonel Everest to India, 1830-Measurement of Base
of verification at Calcutta—Northward extension of Great Arc Series--,
Erection of permanent towers~_Site for northern base of Arc Series-
Connection of base with Sironj-Re-measurements and revisions-Results—
Observatories--Completion of Great Arc Series-- Bombay Longitudinal
Series—Retirement of Colonel Everest-His substitution of a Gridiron for
Network System--North and South ranges of chains one degree apart-
Modification-Calcutta Meridional Series—North-Eastern or Himalayan
Series—Deadly tracts of the Terai--Loss of life and health-Base of
verification at Sonakoda-IIimalayan Peaks—Mount Everest-East Coast
Series–Difficulties-South Kankan Series North-Western Quadrilateral-
Prolongation of Calcutta Longitudinal Series to Karachi.
1
CAPTAIN EVEREST whilst on sick leave at the Cape of Good
Hope, had opportunities of studying the Abbé de la Caille's
arc measurement, and he contributed a valuable paper on the
subject to the Astronomical Society. On his return to India
he was engaged at the time of Colonel Lambton's death, in
laying out a series of primary triangles, intended to extend from
the Beder base-line to Bombay. In consequence of the death
of his chief, he succeeded to the office of Superintendent of the
Survey, having been for five years chief assistant. Captain
Everest at once transferred his attention to the continuation of
the 'great arc series. After many difficulties consequent on
defective staff, sickness, and the nature of the country, he
carried on the triangulation from Takal Khera to latitude 24°
North, where, in the year 1824, a base-line was measured
with the old chain at Sironj (situated about seventy miles
south of Bhopal), near which place a lengthy series of astro-
nomical observations was also undertaken.
The health of the new superintendent, however, again broke
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 45
down, and he was obliged to go to England in 1825 to recruit,
remaining absent from India for about five years. He still,
however, retained his appointment, there being no person then
competent to succeed him in so important a post. It was not,
however, necessary that field work should be suspended, there
being by this time many able and experienced assistants on the
survey establishment. A party was therefore organised to
carry on during Captain Everest's absence, and in accordance
with his written instructions, a long chain of triangles, to
extend from the Sironj base-line to Calcutta, a distance of
nearly 700 miles, over a wild and unhealthy tract of hilly
country, the survey embracing an area of over 33,000 square
miles. This chain of east and west triangulation was named
the “Calcutta longitudinal series,' and it was carried on in the
face of severe obstacles and difficulties, at an average rate of
about 112 miles per year, so that when Captain Everest re-
turned to India in 1830, the greater part of the distance had
been covered. It was not, however, until the year 1832 that
the series was finally closed on to a measured base at Calcutta.
Captain Everest, during his long stay in England, had use-
fully employed his time in investigating the latest improvements
in the manufacture of all classes of instruments and apparatus
used in survey operations, and in studying the English Ordnance
Survey system. By the liberality of the Honourable Court of
Directors of the East India Company, he was able, before his
return to India, to provide himself with a full and complete
equipment of the most improved and perfect apparatus existent
at that time. One of the most important of these improve-
ments was a new device for the measurement of base-lines, which
had been already employed on the Ordnance Survey in Eng-
land, and which was the invention of Colonel Colby of the
Irish Survey.
The principal source of error entailed by the use of the old
steel chain method of measurement, was the practical impossi-
bility of arriving at the true correction for alterations in the
length of the chain due to changes of temperature whilst in use.
Colonel Colby's invention obviated this difficulty by making the
measure itself self-correcting for temperature. Bars, each 10
feet long, were used instead of chains, each bar being com-
46
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
posite,--that is, made up of two strips, one of iron and one of
brass, laid one upon the other, and firmly joined together in
the middle, so that movements of expansion and contraction
would take place evenly at the two extremities.
At a temperature of 62°, the two component metals are
of the same length, but owing to the greater expansion of
brass as compared with iron, under the influence of heat, at all
other temperatures the extreme length of one strip exceeds
that of its fellow. Accordingly at the two ends of each brass
and iron strip there are projecting pivots, adjusted to a flat
movable tongue or lever, which tongue becomes inclined inwards
or outwards in proportion as the length of the strips vary. It
will thus be seen that there are points on the movable tongues
at either end-outside the pivot--which will be the central
points around which the movement takes place, and which will
be always equidistant from each other. These equidistant points
are each marked with a dot; the distance apart of the dots
being fixed at exactly 10 feet. The bars are mounted on brass
rollers, and are enclosed in long wooden coffers, or boxes, from
the ends of which the tongues only project.
Provided with six sets of Colby's compensation bars, and a
full supply of every description of improved instrument and
apparatus, which the most skilful artificers of the day could
produce, Colonel Everest reached India in 1830, having in the
meantime been appointed by the Court of Directors “Surveyor-
General of India’ in addition to his duties as Superintendent of
the Trigonometrical Survey.
On his arrival he determined to measure the base of verifica-
tion for the Calcutta longitudinal series,' with the new measur-
ing bars. A line 63 miles in length was laid out along the
road from Government House, Calcutta, to Barrackpore, at the
ends of which two towers, each 75 feet high, were constructed.
This base, the first measured in India with the improved
apparatus, was measured at the end of the year 1831 and
beginning of the year 1832. About the middle of the same
year the triangulation of the Calcutta longitudinal series,'
which had thus occupied over six years, was closed in upon it.
Owing to the defective state of the instruments employed,
and other causes, the work on this series was not considered to
1
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 47
be of the first order, and subsequently much of it was again
gone over. For a period of about seven years work on the
“great arc series' had thus been entirely suspended, but from
this time it was resumed and carried on unremittingly, until
this great chain of triangulation, extending from Cape Comorin
to the Himalayas, and forming the main axis of the Trigono-
metrical Survey of India, was finally completed.
Up to the Sironj base the surveyors had worked over a
general hilly or undulating country abounding in elevations,
affording excellent sites for observing stations, but for a great
portion of the distance northward of the Sironj base the work
had to be carried over extensive low-lying plains, thickly inter-
spersed with groves of lofty trees, often interposing dense and
impenetrable obstacles to the view, whilst the clouds of dust so
common during the dry season in the Gangetic valley, rendered
the instrumental work exceptionally difficult. Much of the
work had to be done at intervals during the unhealthy rainy
season, so as to have the advantage of a clearer atmosphere, but
this occasioned much loss of health and life to the survey
parties. In order to gain the necessary elevation above the
plains numerous permanent towers had to be constructed, and
great preliminary labour was entailed, not only in the building,
but in fixing the position of these towers. So great was their
distance apart, that special and complicated signalling arrange-
ments, both for day and for night signalling, had to be devised
and elaborated. The towers, of which there were seventeen in
all, were 50 feet high, with walls 5 feet thick at the base and 2
feet at the top: they were provided with a stage and awning
for the observer, kept detached from the central stone platform
on which the instrument rested, so as to avoid vibration.
In the meantime a site was required for the northern base
and terminal point of the great arc series. The position
finally chosen was in latitude 29° 30', in the midst of the
beautiful Dehra Doon Valley, between the lower Sewalik range
of hills and the Himalayas, at a part of it situated about 2000
feet above the level of the sea. The base was most carefully
measured with the Colby apparatus during the cold season of
1834-35, its length being 7.42 miles. It was then transferred
by means of triangulation to certain peaks of the Sewalik range,
ST
48
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
.
visible both from the measured line and from the valley of the
Ganges.
By the early part of the year 1837 the Dehra Doon base-line
was connected with the triangles brought up from Sironj ; but
Colonel Everest did not consider the results altogether satisfac-
tory. The Sironj base had been measured in 1824 by the old
steel chain method, and it was now determined to re-measure it
with the compensation bars. This was done during the cold
season of the year 1837-38, and its length was found to be too
short by nearly 3 feet. In 1838 a party was sent to revise all
the angles southward of Sironj as far as Beder, a distance of
260 miles, with the new and improved instruments brought out
from England by Colonel Everest. This work was completed
by the year 1839. On the first connection of the old Sironj
and the new Dehra Doon bases, the difference of the measured
and computed lengths amounted to nearly 31 feet. In the
earlier days of the survey this would have been considered a
sufficiently satisfactory agreement, seeing that the length of the
base is nearly 7 miles, and the distance between the two bases
upwards of 400 miles. After the re-measurement, however, of
the Sironj base with the same apparatus as used at Dehra Doon,
the difference between the length of the latter base, as measured,
and as computed through the triangulation brought up from
Sironj, amounted to 7.2 inches only, a degree of accuracy show-
ing the great exactness of the instruments now employed, and
the skill with which the work had been carried on.
In 1841 the old base-line, nearly 8 miles in length at Beder,
was also re-measured, and the difference in length as now found,
and as found by computation from the Sironj base, was 4.296
inches. Two observatories were established, one at Kaliana,
near the Sewalik range of hills, and the other at Kalianpur,
near Sironj, both on the same meridian. The difference of
latitude between these observatories was exactly fixed by
the—as nearly as possible--simultaneous observation of 36
stars, half of them to the northward and the other half to
the southward of the zenith of both stations. In a similar
manner the exact latitude of a point on the same meridian near
the Beder base-line was fixed.
Thus, in the year 1841, nearly forty years after it was com-
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 49
11
menced, were brought to conclusion the operations on the great
central meridional arc of the Indian survey, an arc of the
earth's surface 1540 miles long, and comprising an area of
triangulation of nearly 57,000 square miles (including the
revision of the section from Beder to Sironj). At this date the
length between Cape Comorin and the Beder base line was
founded on Colonel Lambton's early work, done with instru-
mental appliances far less perfect than that with which the
cuted. Some twenty-five years later, the old bases at Bangalore,
and at Cape Comorin-or rather other bases on ground selected
near them—were measured with the Colby apparatus, and the
in
underwent careful revision.
In the year 1841 the longitudinal series, starting from the
Beder base towards Bombay, which had been commenced in
1822 by Colonel Everest, before Colonel Lambton's death, and
which had been interrupted, was also completed. The chain
extends a distance of 315 miles to Bombay, having an area of
triangulation of 15,198 square miles.
We do not propose to follow in detail-or in order of time-
the execution of the various meridional and longitudinal ranges
of triangles laid down by the Indian Trigonometrical Survey.
We will confine ourselves to the main framework only, which
will be briefly indicated. Colonel Everest, in consequence of
severe illness, was compelled to retire from his arduous duties in
1843, and five years before his death, which occurred in 1866,
he received the order of knighthood. In laying down his
original programme for the future operations of the Trigono-
metrical Survey, he abandoned the old network system employed
by Colonel Lambton in Southern India, and substituted the
gridiron system. He proposed to lay down a number of
meridional arcs,' or north and south chains of triangles, at
close intervals, to be connected by comparatively few cross or
longitudinal chains, thus forming sections somewhat resembling
a gridiron in shape. It had been originally intended that the
north and south ranges of triangulation should be placed at
about 1 degree apart, and in that portion of the survey which
is called the North-east quadrilateral,' or that portion lying
50
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
between the Calcutta longitudinal series' and the Himalayas,
north and south chains about this distance apart have in fact
been laid down (see Map of the Triangulation); but in the other
main divisions of the survey it has been found unnecessary for
topographical and detail purposes to range them so closely
together.
Shortly after Colonel Everest's departure from India, the
• Calcutta meridional series,' starting from the base measured
. at Calcutta in 1832, was carried northwards for a length of 260
miles, over a flat and marshy country, necessitating the building
of towers for every observing station, to Sonakoda, near the
foot of the Darjeeling mountains. This series, comprising an
area of 4136 square miles, forms the eastern boundary of the
* North-east quadrilateral, and it was completed in the year
1848. The North-eastern or “Himalayan' series, forming the
northern boundary of the same quadrilateral, extends from
Dehra Doon to the Sonakoda base, along the foot of the hills,
over a distance of 690 miles.
The work on it was executed by different parties, at various
times, and its execution was attended with greater dangers and
difficulties than had been experienced on any other part of the
survey. The operations had to be carried on over one of the
most deadly tracts of swamp and jungle in the world, or that
forming the renowned “Terai," lying along the foot of the
Himalayan range. Of the five officers who were engaged upon
it, two died from fever, and two were forced to retire utterly
broken down in constitution, and it is stated that in one season
the lives of no less than forty native employees were sacrificed.
In the year 1847-48 a base-line was measured at Sonakoda
for the verification, both of the Calcutta meridional' and of
the ‘North-eastern Himalayan' series, the base serving also as
a point of departure for the future prolongation of the work in
the direction of Assam. It was measured with the Colby
apparatus, and was also proved by a minor triangulation laid
off from its side, with satisfactory results.
The North-eastern Himalayan series' connects the northern
ends, and verifies the series of meridional chains, nearly one
degree apart, which at different times were carried up from
the “Calcutta longitudinal series, and it also completes the
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 51
une
LI
ID
outer framework of Colonel Everest's North-eastern gridiron, or
quadilateral.
From this series a number of observations to determine the
distance and altitude of most of the great snow-clad peaks of
the Himalayas, including some of the loftiest mountains in the
world, were undertaken. Amongst these was one since named
Mount Everest,' after the late chief of the survey, 29,002 feet
above the sea.
In the year 1845 the long “ East coast series,' starting from
the Calcutta base, and skirting the coast as far as Madras, was
commenced. Progress on it was very slow, and the work was
frequently interrupted, especially in the low-lying and difficult
tracts between Calcutta and Balasore. Here during the cold
season fogs are frequent, and in the spring and hot season the
district is the playground of furious cyclones and hurricanes,
often causing the most frightful devastation. In one season
the tent equipage of the survey party was completely anni-
hilated. The country, for the most part covered with dense
vegetation, and low marsh lands, cut up by deep sea creeks,
opposed constant obstacles to the progress of the survey. In
addition to these physical difficulties, the extreme unhealthiness
of the tract was such, that every season the whole party was
more or less decimated, broken up, and compelled to suspend
operations. The “South Konkan series,' commencing at
Bombay and extending southwards along the west coast, had
been taken up after the completion of the ‘Bombay longitudinal
series, and was carried down to the neighbourhood of Goa, in
latitude 16º. In 1847-48, two important series were commenced,
which were to form the northern and southern sides of the
great North-west quadrilateral. One of these was to extend
from the Dehra Doon base along the foot of the hills to
Peshawur, the other was a prolongation in a westerly direction
of the ‘Calcutta longitudinal series ' from Sironj to Karachi, to
be called the Western longitudinal series, making one great
cross line of triangulation from Calcutta to Karachi, and inter-
secting at right angles the great meridional arc' series at
Sironj.
7
CHAPTER IV
Review of progress by Superintendent of Survey-Area and Cost-Duties of
officers, and rate of working-Trigonometrical triangulation the permanent
basis for present and future surveys-North-Western Quadrilateral-North-
Western Himalayan series_Western longitudinal series—The “Thur,' or
desert of Guzerat-Terminal bases at Attock and Karachi—Indus Valley
series—Base at Vizagapatam-Accuracy of survey operations-Extension
of East Coast Series Joining in at Madras-Interior connecting series of
chains—Completion of main system of triangulation–Topographical and
detailed surveys-Number and position of measured bases-Subsidiary
operations-Trigonometrical levelling-Levelling with spirit level and staves
-Indus valley line of levels—Extreme care and accuracy-Levelling ex-
tended to Calcutta—Various connections with coast-Tidal gauges-Size
and figure of the earth-Early Greek measurements-Mohammedan attempts
-French arc-measurements—Pendulum operations—Manner of registering
number of vibrations—Conclusion.
THE superintendent of the survey reviewing its progress from
the commencement in 1802 by Colonel Lambton, up to the
year 1848 says, “The grand total area triangulated amounts to
477,044 square miles, and the grand total cost to Rs.34,12,787
or say £312,389, showing an average cost of Rs.7. 2. 5. per
square mile, or about 13s. 1d., which cannot but be considered
remarkably moderate, especially when the nature of the country
and the climate, as well as the absence of all the usual resources
to be found in Europe, are taken into account. The hardships
and exposure of surveyors working in the field for the greater part
of the year in such a climate as India are either little known or
little appreciated.' . .. The duties of the Trigonometrical
Survey are often unremitting day and night, because the best
observations are obtained during the nocturnal hours, when the
dust raised by the hot wind subsides, and the atmosphere becomes
clear and calm. With regard to the rate of progress, much
depends on the efficiency of the officers, and on the accidents
of the climate. In a hilly country the average advance made
per season by each party is about 120 miles in length by 30 in
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 53
breadth, or say 3600 square miles. In a flat country the
average is 80 miles in length by 12 in breadth, or about 1000
square miles.' And summing up his review he says, “The
triangulation supplies a permanent and accurate basis for the
present as well as for the future internal surveys, for it must be
borne in mind that as the resources of the country become
developed under the fostering protection of British rule, the
topographical aspect of many districts must in a moderate
number of years be completely changed. Tracts now covered
with jungle will be reclaimed. Canals will be dug, marshes
drained, and roads established. New towns and villages will
arise, fresh groves be planted, and rivers will change their course.
That these views are not chimerical may be attested by ex-
perience, for places where the tiger, the bear, and the boar were
formerly hunted are now covered with fields yielding a plenti-
ful harvest to the cultivator. The greatest difference is also
perceptible in the extension of towns and villages, showing the
increase of productive wealth which is taking place on all sides.
This alteration cannot but produce in the course of time con-
siderable changes in the topographical features of the country,
for which reason revised surveys will be required, and these, like
the present ones, will be based on the operations of the great
trigonometrical system of India, which are intended to form a
lasting monument for future generations, and an imperishable
record of the landmarks of the present time.'
The programme to be carried out on the North-western side
of the great arc' was the formation of a great framework for
a gridiron to be called the North-west quadrilateral' with
measured bases at each of its four corners. Just as the 'North-
east' quadrilateral has its four measured bases, viz., at Sironj,
Dehra Doon, Sonakoda, and Calcutta, so that on the North-
West would be dependent on four measured bases of origin and
verification at Sironj, Dehra Doon, Attock, and Karachi. The
four sides of the new quadrilateral are bounded : On the east
by the portion of the great arc series' lying between Sironj
and Dehra Doon ; on the south by the Western longitudinal
series;' on the north by the “North-western Himalayan series;'
and on the west by a long chain carried up the valley of the
Indus from Karachi to Attock.
54
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
was compl23.000 square nut its prog
The North-western Himalayan, series' from Dehra Doon
to Attock was completed in the year 1853. Its length is 416
miles and it comprises 33,000 square miles of very hilly country.
It had been commenced in 1847, but its progress was inter-
rupted by disturbed political conditions. The Western longi-
tudinal series' extending from the Sironj base to Karachi, was
commenced in 1848, and the triangulation reached Karachi at
the end of the year 1852, after five seasons of extremely arduous
labour. The length of this side of the great quadrilateral is 668
miles, covering an area of 20,323 square miles. A portion of the
survey crosses the “Thur' or desert country north of Guzerat,
and its execution entailed much skilful arrangement and fore-
thought for the due provision of supplies and water to the
working parties, numbering about 200 persons.
As soon as these two great series were approaching comple-
tion it was necessary to measure the terminal bases at Karachi
and Attock. A suitable site for the latter was chosen in the
* Chuch' Doab, near Attock, on the east side of the Indus.
The valley of Peshawur had at first been proposed as the most
appropriate position for this base, but the idea had to be
abandoned owing to the disturbed state of the valley at that
time, in consequence of the frequent incursions of lawless tribes
the North-west quadrilateral and a branch triangulation was
subsequently carried to the frontier at Peshawur.
After the measurement of the Attock base the apparatus was
sent down to Karachi, and the base-line at that place was care-
fully measured. The remaining side of the great North-west
quadrilateral was to be formed by a long range of triangles
extending along the Indus valley from Karachi to Attock.
This work was started from both ends of the line, but before it
was completed the Sepoy mutiny of 1857 broke out, and work
on it was suspended until 1858. It was finally completed in
the cold season of the year 1860-61.
In 1862 a base-line 61 miles long was measured at Vizaga-
11
latitude as Bombay. This base was to serve for the verifica-
tion of that part of the east coast triangulation lying between
('alcutta and Vizagapatam, which had now been completed, and
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 55
also for the prolongation from the Beder base of the “ Bombay
longitudinal series,' thus completing a range of triangles ex-
tending across the Peninsula from coast to coast. At the
Vizagapatam base the difference in length, as measured with
the compensation bars, and as computed through the triangula-
tion brought down from Calcutta, 480 miles away, was a quarter
of an inch only. This great accuracy indicates to what an
extreme state of precision all the operations of the Survey had
now been brought.
In 1864 the extension of the East Coast series from
Vizagapatam to Madras was completed. Thus after an in-
terval of sixty-two years the triangulation which had been
started by Colonel Lambton from a base-line at Madras was
again brought back to that point, having in the meantime made
the long circuit viâ Bangalore, Sironj, Calcutta, and the East
Coast. During the course of execution of the main framework
of the triangulation now sketched, nearly all the interior con-
necting series of meridional and longitudinal chains forming the
principal gridirons, were at the same time being carried on, and
at the period to which we have now arrived the larger portion
of the main triangulation was accomplished, although it was
not until about the year 1883 that the whole system of chains
as shown on the accompanying map was complete. Since that
period the principal operations have extended eastwards into
Burma, and westwards to the borders of Baluchistan and
Afghanistan.
The long arms of the all-embracing triangle have also
penetrated on every side into the otherwise inpenetrable heart
of the great mountain ranges which separate Hindustan from
the rest of Asia, and have measured the distances apart of their
various chains, and the heights of their lofty inaccessible peaks.
During the progress of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of
India, of which we have given the very briefest possible out-
line, the greater part of the topographical and detailed surveys
of the interior—on account of which the triangulation was
specially undertaken—have pari passu been carried on. The
many thousands of aërial triangles which we have depicted
reaching from hill-top to hill-top, or from tower to tower,
stretching in systematic chains across the country from south
56
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
to north, and from east to west-making those gigantic “grid-
irons' of which we have been speaking—form the permanent
framework, or skeleton of the real survey. On this framework
every detail and every physical feature of the interior topo-
graphy of the country is and will under all subsequent
changes continue to be—supported, and by it are tied together
on our maps in their true relative positions.
The whole trigonometrical system of triangulation in India
now rests on ten measured base-lines, all of which have been
measured by the bars, self-compensating for temperature. These
bases in order are as follows: On the great arc,' Cape Comorin,
extremity of the North-East quadrilateral, Calcutta and Sona-
koda. At the western extremity of the North-West quadri-
lateral, Attock and Karachi, with Vizagapatam on the East
coast series. For purposes of symmetry an additional base at
Bombay would appear to be wanted, but for the practical
purposes of the topographical survey it has not been deemed
necessary. Another base-line at Mergui, in Tenasserim, has
lately been measured to serve as a base of verification for the
Burma coast series, and for a point of fresh departure in the
trigonometrical survey of that province.
Before concluding this rapid sketch, it only remains to briefly
indicate two of the many subsidiary operations connected with
the great survey. It was especially necessary that the exact
height of the various base-lines above the level of the sea
should be determined. Now there is a method of measuring
heights by means of measured vertical angles which is called
trigonometrical levelling, but this method, although capable
of a high degree of accuracy, is nevertheless inferior to that
more general system of carrying forward a line of levels and
determining heights, which is executed by means of a spirit
level and staves.
In Upper India, where the distances from the sea are very
great, it became a matter of much doubt whether the heights
as hitherto determined by means of trigonometrical levelling,
checked only by barometrical observations, were sufficiently
accurate. It was determined therefore to undertake and bring
up from the coast a regular series of spirit levels as the only
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 57
reliable check to the trigonometrical levelling on which the
heights of the various base-lines, and also of the peaks of the
Himalayan range, were still dependent. The first line of spirit-
levelling was carried up the Indus valley, starting from the
tidal gauge at Karachi to the Attock base, and to the Sironj
and Dehra Doon base-lines, in order to furnish a precise datum
or fixed height above the sea, for subsequent mountain opera-
tions, where spirit-levelling would be out of the question, and
also to ascertain the exact elevation above the level of the sea
of numerous points in Sindh, the Punjab, and North-West
Provinces, for the use of the survey, and for the service of the
canal and other engineering departments.
The great distance to be levelled, and the absence of any
certain check at the end of the line, necessitated extraordinary
refinements and minute care in conducting this line of levels.
In order that every possible source of error might be eliminated
or minimised, it was arranged that three sets of observers should
level along the same line of pegs following each other in close
order, each using a separate instrument and staves, by this means
any important error was at once detected, and to eliminate
what is called the personal error '-or that error due to per-
sonal peculiarities, such as eyesight, in the different observers,
an alternating system of observations was instituted, so as to
Y
strumental errors. On arriving at the Attock base, a distance
of over 700 miles from the sea, the difference between the
height of a point on that base as given by vertical angles, and
as now found by spirit-levelling was 3 feet 2 inches. At Dehra
Doon base the difference was 5 feet 1 inch, and at Sironj 2 feet
1 inch. This line of spirit-levelling was afterwards extended
along the valley of the Ganges to the sea at Calcutta, thus
completing one of the longest lines of continuous levelling up
to that time executed, the distance along the line levelled from
Karachi to Calcutta being 2200 miles. Subsequentlyother
long lines of spirit-levelling connecting numerous important
points of the Trigonometrical Survey with the sea at various
parts of the coast have been carried out, and much still remains
to be undertaken.
Simultaneously at a number of selected points on the coast,
ILLI
58
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
tidal gauges have been established, and observations regularly
recorded to ascertain the true mean sea-level, and furnish a
fixed datum, or height of departure, to which all the measured
heights over the whole country can be reduced and referred.
On the completion of the measurement of the great arc
series ' extending from Cape Comorin to Dehra Doon, a basis
existed for ascertaining the curvature of the earth on that arc
by means of astronomical computation. Various attempts to
discover the true size and figure of the earth have from time to
time been made, commencing from a very early period in the
known history of mankind. Although probably not the first
attempt of this kind, Eratosthenes, custodian of the great
Alexandrian library, attacked the problem about 250 years
before the Christian era, between Syene and Alexandria. Some
two centuries later Posidonius, an Athenian and Rhodian
philosopher, made another attempt between Alexandria and
Rhodes, by observing that the bright star Canopus just grazed
the horizon at the latter place, whilst at Alexandria it rose
7 degrees. In each of the above cases the distance between
the two points of the earth's surface chosen was estimated, not
measured.
The Mohammedan Khalif Al Mamun (A.D. 813-832) having
become convinced of the globular form of the earth, gave orders
to the astronomers of his time to measure a degree of a great
circle on it. On the shores of the Red Sea, in the great plain
of Shinar and by the aid of an astrolobe, the height of the pole
above the horizon was determined at two stations on the same
meridian, exactly one degree apart. The distance between the
two stations was measured and found to be 200,000 Hashemite
cubits. The general result of these various observations gave
for the earth's diameter about 8000 miles, a determination not
very far from the truth.
In the year 1527, or just five years after Magellan had for
the first time circumnavigated the globe, the first attempt made
in Christendom to ascertain the size of the earth, was by Fernel,
a French physician, who, observing the elevation of the pole at
Paris, went northwards until he came to a place where its
height was exactly one degree more. He then measured the
intervening distance by registering the number of revolutions
AUTY
ULUI
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 59
of a wheel, and came to the conclusion that the circumference
of the earth was 24,480 Italian miles.
Numerous measures were subsequently made in other coun-
tries. One of great accuracy was determined by Picard in
France, celebrated as having finally confirmed Newton's theory
of universal gravitation. Picard connected two distant points
by means of a triangulation, and thus ascertained the length of
UU
1
compared the measurement with the difference of the latitudes
found by astronomical observations. The two points chosen
were situated close to Paris and Amiens, and the zenith dis-
tances of 8 Cassiopeia determined the latitudes of the two places.
Some years later, Picard's observations were extended by the
French Academy, and in 1718 measurements were carried out
from Dunkirk on the north, to the southern coast of France.
The true figure of the earth, whether it was a perfect globe,
or whether it protruded or was flattened at the poles, was not,
however, as yet ascertained. In order to determine this point,
expeditions were sent by the French Government to measure
degrees of the meridian, at the equator and at a point situated
as far north as possible. These measurements made in Peru,
and in Swedish Lapland, confirmed the oblate, or flattened
TE
made in different parts of the world, is the one nearly 121
degrees long, from Dunkirk to the island of Formentera near
Minorca, and the great Indian meridional arc, of which we
have been speaking. The modern more accurate observations
made to ascertain the true size and figure of the earth have
resulted as follows: Equatorial diameter, 7925 English miles.
Polar diameter 7899 miles. Difference twenty-six miles. In
India, however, as elsewhere, it became desirable that the results
should be checked and verified by a further and independent
series of observations made by means of pendulum vibrations.
Owing to the flattening of the earth at the poles, the force of
gravity on the earth's surface is not everywhere the same; but
increases somewhat in proportion to the latitude, from the
Equator—where it is least--to the poles, where it is at a maxi-
mui. Consequently a pendulum swinging freely, having a cer-
tain number of vibrations per minute at the Equator, will have
17
60
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
a quicker rate of vibration at the poles, and at every intermediate
point between the Equator and the poles a slightly accelerated
rate. By observing, therefore, the exact number of vibrations
made, say in twenty-four hours, by a pendulum of fixed length,
at various selected points along the great" arc, the true figure
of the earth along that line could be ascertained.
In the practical carrying out of these observations, however,
many refinements became necessary, to eliminate various
sources of error. Even to fix the exact rate of vibration of the
pendulum in any given time required much elaborate arrange-
ment. The method adopted was the following. The observing
pendulum was set up in close proximity to a slightly shorter
one attached to an astronomical clock, the clock pendulum
being shorter, vibrates at a slightly quicker rate, and gradually
gains on the other, until a maximum divergence has been
reached. At the end of another interval the two pendulums
again approach each other until they exactly coincide. At this
instant of time the observing pendulum will have made two
vibrations less than the clock, in the interval which can be read
off the clock face. The exact rate of the clock being known,
the precise number of vibrations made by the observing pendu-
lum in twenty-four hours can be readily calculated. In order
to get rid of all disturbing currents of air, the pendulums had
to be swung in a vacuum.
The ascertainment of the true figure and density of the
earth is by no means a matter of mere curiosity; on the contrary,
numerous problems of the highest scientific and practical
importance are dependent on its correct definition.
The extraordinary value, accuracy, and precision which char-
acterises the operations of the Great Indian Trigonometrical
Survey, together with the numerous other scientific labours
carried out in connection with it during the present century,
under the direction of the British Government in India, has
been sufficiently attested by the highest authorities of Europe,
whilst the skill and energy with which the work has been
accomplished can only be fully appreciated by those who are
specially acquainted with the extremely adverse conditions
under which it has been carried on.
The present brief and mere outline sketch of these vast
11
GREAT INDIAN TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY 61
operations conveys but a most fragmentary and inadequate
picture of the enormous amount of labour, whether in the field
or in the office, which the Great Trigonometrical Survey of
India has imposed. To recount the exceptional difficulties and
obstacles, physical, political, and climatic, which have been
encountered and successfully overcome during the progress of
this great work, would alone require a volume. Such a record
would exhibit one of the highest triumphs of British energy
anywhere displayed. It would depict the arduous toil with
which, in furtherance of its main object, the labour was carried
on over some of the widest and most deadly tracts of swamp,
forest, or desert, perhaps anywhere to be found, and it would
paint a deplorable loss of human life. In the course of its long
progress we should see the almost impassable and most stupen-
dous mountain barrier in the world conquered and laid bare to
its innermost recesses. We should see the signal-stations of the
survey planted triumphantly on lofty snow-clad peaks never
before trodden by the foot of man, and covering enormous hilly
tracts of primeval jungle, unoccupied by, and almost inaccessible
to, human beings. Finally, we should witness the patient and
skilful exactness with which all the vast stores of data, and
information, so laboriously collected, is collated, and the
immense chains of triangles are computed and slowly pieced
together in the computing and drawing offices of the survey,
until there results the perfection of that great skeleton frame-
work, on which is moulded in minute and accurate detail the
topographical features of considerably over a million square
miles of the earth's surface.
1
Note.- The data for this very condensed account of the Great Indian Trigono-
metrical Survey, have been largely derived from the memoranda on the Indian
Surveys by Clements Markham (1878) and C. and D. Black (1892)—and other
official papers and reports.
ROADS IN INDIA
CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL-NATIVE WORKS-PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION
Roads in Europe Diversity of character of Indian roads-Devious routes of
natural trade tracks—Roads under the Moguls—Old bridges-Bridge over
the Gumti at Jaunpore-Northern Road from Lahore by Shir Shah-
'Pepul putta ka Seran,' Jagganath to Delhi--Ancient road bridge and
aqueduct in Mysore-Old native road in Assam-Caravanserais--Backward
state of roads in early days of English rule-Lord Elphinstone proposes
roads for Madras—Inauguration of reform under Lord William Bentinck-
Observations on laying out and constructing roads-First-class roads—Hill
roads—Laying out-Deviations and moderate curvature-Earthworks-
Borrow pits-Openings for culverts and small bridges—Waterway and
bridges-Selection and consolidation of road metal—Varieties of material,
and modes of application-Binding material-Ramming and rolling road
metal-Trees on road-sides-Rest-houses and staging bungalows.

.
CA
km
14
Ili 10
OADS in the modern sense, that is
to say, embanked lines of way, well
drained, with easy inclinations and
hard smooth surfaces, allowing the
use of wheeled traffic with a mini-
mum of resistance, and carried by
means of raised bridges over the
water-courses of a country, were
practically unknown in India, until
a comparatively very recent period.
In Europe public roads may be
classed under two heads, viz., main
leading or “turnpike' roads, and
cross-country roads. There is seldom any difference between
these two classes, except that the main roads have a greater
surface width, and easier gradients than the secondary class :
both are metalled and bridged throughout. In India, how-
by
66
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ever, there is a far greater diversity of character in the
public highways. Like the main or “turnpike 'road of Eng-
land, the first-class Indian road is embanked, is of ample width,
well-graded, drained, and everywhere metalled and bridged.
The second-class road is also embanked, of the same, or of a
smaller width of road-bed, is drained, metalled on the surface,
but not yet, or only partially bridged. Or again, a second-class
road may be embanked out of reach of floods, and drained, but
neither metalled nor bridged, often having, however, permanent
causeways, temporary bridges, or other facilities for assisting
traction across the beds of the water-courses during the dry
season of the year. These second-class varieties of roads may
be either virtually first-class highways in a state of transition,
or may be intended to remain permanently as designed and
made. Still lower in the scale are the surface tracks of more
than one kind, usually called “fair-weather roads. In the
better class of fair-weather road the course is systematically laid
out over a selected line of country. For a width of from 30
to 50 feet the surface is cleared of jungle-growth or other ob-
structions, ditches on either side are cut to serve as drains, and
the earth from these ditches is thrown into the centre to level
up the worst hollows and inequalities of the ground, and to
assist the water to run off into the side drains ; or in very low
ground a slight continuous embankment may be thrown up.
The banks of the larger and more troublesome streams are cut
down to an easy slope, so that carts may pass over the bed of
the river, either directly, if the bed is firm, or by the aid of some
temporary or even permanent causeway laid over the worst
portions. During eight or nine months of the year, or even
longer in certain districts, these inexpensive fair-weather roads
are of great service. Other fair-weather tracks are formed by
merely clearing the surface of jungle-growth, and easing the
approaches to the beds of the intervening streams, without
drains or earthworks of any kind. Other tracks are almost
unaided by any labour whatsoever, the traffic, very much as a
natural stream of water might do, wearing for itself a passage
along the easiest and least resisting line of country.
During the dry season, when, in the plains of northern India,
or on the elevated plateaux of the Deccan, the surface soil is
11
L
1
ROADS IN INDIA
67
baked and hardened under a fierce tropical sun, wheeled traffic
is rendered possible along deviating and tortuous lines of route,
often covering very wide stretches of country, with no expendi-
ture of money or skill, beyond the occasional easing down of
some trifling natural obstacle, such as the bank of an interven-
ing stream too steep to admit of unaided passage, or the felling
and removal of a few shrubs or trees. Such surface trade tracks
-often of great width and deeply fissured with heavy ruts,
scarcely visible, however, through the thick coating of fine in-
palpable dust - used for the transit during the dry season of
merchandise carried on the backs of pack animals, or in rude
carts drawn by yokes of bullocks, served probably for untold
centuries all the requirements of the internal carrying trade of
the country, and even still forms a not inconsiderable portion of
the country's highways. In many of the more undulating and
hilly districts in the central portions of India, the extraordinary
devious course taken by some of these well-worn trade-tracks,
often evidences in a very striking way, the complete apathy of
the earlier population, and their neglect of all considerations of
convenience and economy, as well as their want of ordinary
attention to the physical configuration of the country. Not
seldom, it may be remarked that a few hours' labour would re-
move some trifling obstacle in the direct line of route, and
obviate an enormous actual deviation. At other times it will
be observed that in order to cross a small stream at some point
where the naturally shelving banks afford an easy descent, a
track will be found to deviate a dozen miles, which the artificial
easing of the nearer banks in the direct line would, by a few
hours' work, have obviated, and this where the natural ford is
equal to the one chosen, or even more favourable. The prac-
tical and energetic European, however, soon ceases to wonder
at these things—recognising that he is in a new world, where
time is of no value, and where it is every one's duty literally
to follow closely in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor.
The general course followed by these natural trade-tracks,
existing within small limits of deviation probably for ages--
especially in those parts of the country outside the great plain
districts of Upper India--were considered by many unreflecting
persons to point out, as if under an infallible law of natural
ti
UULI
68
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
selection, the best possible lines of route for permanent road con-
struction. Nothing, however, could be more fallacious than such
an idea-an idea which has, nevertheless, been the cause of more
or less costly mistakes. In India, what may be called the natural
flow of wheeled traffic unassisted by art, follows, as a matter of
course, the—to it-easiest line of country, but it is only the
easiest unassisted line. A very little examination of the country
usually serves to show that the removal of a few comparatively
small obstacles will often to a prodigious extent shorten and
cheapen a natural track between two points distant a great
many miles from each other. In the earlier days of English road-
making in India, when as a matter of necessity the work had to
be largely projected and executed by unskilled agency-even such
an obvious consideration as the above was sometimes overlooked.
It is very doubtful whether the Mogul Emperors devoted
much money or consideration to the question of permanent
roads. Very little evidence of such exists at the present day,
and, in any case, it is certain that on no single line of traffic was
communication open except during the dry season. Many of
the minor streams near the larger cities of Upper India were
doubt been carried away, and all trace of their former exist-
ence has been long lost. Such as remain are singular struc-
tures, not, however, unlike many of the older bridges in Europe.
They consist of what at first appears to be a massive barrier or
pointed-arched openings, often of very irregular size, and
affording an open area for the passage of the water, greatly less
than the area of obstruction presented by the piers. The whole
bridge is usually founded on small wells supporting a continu-
ous masonry platform, and it is to the latter circumstance that
those which remain standing have so long withstood the violent
floods to which they have so often been exposed. No doubt in
many instances these bridges were left isolated, and were
dangerous or impossible to approach during the flood seasons,
and the bridges themselves have been preserved by the extensive
washing away of their approach banks. An interesting and
picturesque example of these Mohammedan structures is the old
bridge over the Goomti at Jaunpore, of which an illustration is

Goombée Bridge Jaunpur.
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70
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
given. This really extraordinary bridge has successfully with-
stood the floods of centuries, and has probably often been
buried beneath the waters. Even so late as the year 1871, ten
feet of water passed over the roadway, carrying away all the
shops that then existed on the piers. In the Panjab from
Lahore northwards, the general direction of a road made by
Shir Shah in 1540 can still be traced by the rows of ancient
trees and brick pillars at intervals of two miles. The road
appears to have followed the natural level of the ground, and
was neither metalled nor drained. It was, however, partially
bridged. Some of the bridges still remain, and others no doubt
have perished, leaving no trace. Remains of ancient made
roads are to be found in Bengal, which show that the former
rulers of the country were not altogether unmindful of their ad-
vantages. One called the ‘Pepul putta ka Seran,' lined with
Pepul trees on each side, extended a thousand miles from
Jaganath to Delhi. This road was from 60 to 70 feet broad.
It was embanked over low ground, but was unmetalled. In
several places it was bridged, the piers being 12 to 14 feet thick,
and the arches of the usual narrow pointed form. In Mysore
some remains of bridges of still greater antiquity have been
noted. One such bridge was constructed over the south branch
of the river Kaveri near Seringapatam, probably at a period
dating before the usual construction of archwork. A portion
of the bridge serves as an aqueduct to convey water from the
river to the town. The structure is of the rudest kind.
“Square pillars of granite are cut from the rock, of a sufficient
height to rise above the water at highest floods. These are
placed upright in rows, as long as the width of the bridge, and
distant about 10 feet from each other. They are secured at
the bottom by being let into the solid rock, and their tops
being cut level, a long stone is laid upon each row. Above
these stones others are placed contiguous to each other, and
stretching from row to row in the direction of the length of the
bridge. The celebrated bridge over the Euphrates at Babylon
was constructed on similar principles.?
Major Briggs, Superintendent of Works in Assam, reporting
on the proposed Assam trunk road in 1863, gives an interesting
i Mill's History of British India.
ROADS IN INDIA
1
account of some old native road works in that province. He
says, “These ancient rulers of Assam fully appreciated the
incalculable advantages to the country of intercommunication
by land, and restraint upon the incursions of the water. All
their roads, “ Allees," as they call them, were constructed with
this double object, as highways above the line of flood, and as
6 bunds ” (i.e. embankments) to control the inundations of their
rivers. From above the spot where the Dihong and Dibong
join the Brahmaputra, down to the farthest confines of the
Kamrup district, relics of their efforts remain, which for bold
engineering skill and wonderful contempt of difficulties, deserve
to rank with the works of the old Romans. Their lines of road
were generally so well chosen as to direction, that if we can only
afford to make our roadway as massive as their bold projects
require, many portions of their work may be adopted. To
unite their efforts with ours, though years roll between us, and
to complete, repair, and bring into use, what internecine wars
and foreign invasions prevented them from doing, has through-
out a long and arduous survey been my constant endeavour.'
And again, 'At the same time, in many of the great plains at
present subject to partial inundation, the road embankment
putra, and so serve the double purpose of roadway and “ bund.”
This was successfully done by the old rajahs of Assam. When
Rajah Rudru Singh, upwards of a hundred years ago, com-
menced the present “ Bor Allee” (great road), also at places
called the “ Dhodur Allee” (complete road), he designed it to
oppose an impenetrable barrier to the floods of the great river,
as well as to afford the most direct line of communication
between important points of the country. It was never com-
pleted, but the portion between Jaipur and Jankana, near
Jorpath, about seventy miles, remains to show the stupendous
nature of the work. From the height of the embankment it is
visible two miles off. The width at top is 35 to 40 feet. Its
course is generally perfectly straight, and where there is a bend,
the curve is formed with mathematical precision. The trenches
are dug with equal regularity and never approach nearer than
100 feet to the road centre. So thoroughly has it reformed the
water system of the country, that in one place the whole drain-
12
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
age of thirty miles passes through four openings of about 100
feet each, and the sides of these openings have not been eroded
by the passage of the waters for more than a century; the
estimated area of waterway on a line parallel to this part and
farther inland was 718 feet, according to a former survey made ;
only one of these openings was bridged, as, according to the
present tradition, the Bengali architect succeeded too well in
pleasing the Rajah, who, fearful of so accomplished a person
returning to Bengal, and offering aid to the British Government,
caused him to be strangled. The Jorpati people were most
solicitous that the line of the “Bor Allee ” should be adapted ·
for the trunk road, and predicted the greatest benefit to the
country. They thought the adoption of any other line
unworthy of so great a Government, when their own Rajahs
had successfully constructed a portion of the great road.'
Perhaps the best evidence of attention to a matter of public
road convenience to be met with under native rule, is to be
found in the Caravansaries. These erections, often of great
size, consist of large square or rectangular enclosures, having
usually two massive arched gateways or entrances. Along the
inside of the enclosure walls are ranged a series of slightly raised
chambers or recesses, each large enough to accommodate a man and
his horse. The centre of the enclosure is for cattle, and generally
contains a public well and drinking trough. The entrances were
closed at night and kept guarded. These shelters afforded free
protection to travellers and their merchandise. Many are still
in use, and are maintained by the English Government.
It is not easy to account for the extremely backward state of
road communication for many years succeeding the establish-
ment of English rule over a large portion of India.
About the year 1818, spasmodic efforts appear to have been
made to improve the native tracks, and the surplus ferry funds
were assigned for this purpose, convict labour being mostly
employed. Even so late as the year 1830 it is recorded that
beyond 20 miles from Calcutta the roads communicating with
the principal stations of the Upper Provinces were in no better
state than in the time of the Moguls,' and up to at least ten
years later, the Government despatches were still carried on
men's backs to Agra and Delhi and the North-West Provinces,
ROADS IN INDIA
73
at the rate of 3 or 4 miles an hour. The extraordinary neglect
with which the subject of improved road communication was
treated by the early government of the East India Company,
cannot be altogether ascribed to want of funds, as no doubt the
money could have been found if the need had been recognised
duce by the Ganges and other rivers, and over the natural
beaten tracks of the country, no doubt prevented attention
being strongly directed to the necessity of made roads. It is
said that when Lord Elphinstone was appointed Governor of
Madras, he proposed the construction on a comprehensive scale
lous to men in authority at that time, that a certain member
of the council wrote home to England, "The silly young
nobleman actually talks of making roads.' There seems to have
been a sort of impression that made roads were a superfluous
luxury in India. On one occasion the Government being
pressed probably by some enthusiast, sent out circulars, inviting
the various district collectors to send in a statement of what
district roads they considered necessary to develop the re-
sources of the country. There is a story current that, in reply
to this circular, an ingenious collector reported that “no roads
were required ’ in his district, “because the people there did not
use carts, but carried everything in panniers on the backs of
bullocks.' In course of time, however, it came to be more
generally recognised that main lines of metalled and bridged
public roads offering facilities for the transport on wheels of
mails and military baggage—were among the first necessities of
the State, and that an improved condition of the commercial
roads of the country, to lower the cost of produce, was an
essential antecedent to all progress. It is to Lord William
Bentinck (1828-1835) that the first inauguration of reform in
this matter of public road construction is to be attributed, and
it was during his administration that the first important steps
were taken for the construction of a permanent high road, for
military and commercial purposes, to connect Calcutta with the
distant stations in the Upper Provinces.1
i Vide · Public Works in the Bengal Presidency,' vol. xvii. Proc. Inst. of
Civil Engineers.
74
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
.
Before, however, referring to that early example of Indian
road construction known as the "Grand Trunk Road,' now
extending 1500 miles from Calcutta to Peshawar, it will be
convenient to make a few observations on some of the more
simple elements and principles of road engineering in India, for
the benefit of the unprofessional reader.
· The selection of a suitable line for a first-class road, even in
a moderately level country, is a matter requiring some profes-
sional aptitude and skill, and in a mountainous or hilly country
a very high degree of engineering proficiency, combined with a
keen and practised talent for rapidly detecting the framework
of mountainous masses, and the conformation of the valley
systems to be dealt with, so as to avoid losing the advantages
of elevation, regularly gained. A badly laid out hill road may
impose the lifting of the whole weight of traffic to a height far
beyond the total altitude to be actually surmounted, whilst a
good line will continue its course at an almost uniform and
easy slope, losing scarcely anything by descent. The laying
out of a line of first-class road over a tolerably level plain dis-
trict is a comparatively simple matter, but even here, the choice
of country within certain practical limits of deviation requires
intelligent co-ordination of means to ends. It will not suffice
to take a ruler, and, on the map, draw a straight line from one
point to another. In the first place, the cost of “metalling,"
that is, placing hard material for the wearing surface of the
road, will cost maybe six to eight times as much as the cost
of earthworks, and after the road is made, the metal' has to
be periodically renewed as worn down by the traffic; hence the
neighbourhood of quarries, where stone metal can be obtained,
or the facilities for obtaining other kinds of metal used in road
making-such as that concretion of carbonate of lime in hard
nodules called in India kunka, or gravel, or even hard burnt
broken brick and sand, have to enter into calculation, so that
it may be decided how far it will pay to sacrifice the absolutely
shortest line for the sake of cheapening the carriage of the most
expensive items of construction and maintenance. Again, to
avoid exceptionally expensive bridgework, it will be often
economical to keep the road on the ridges of a country, in-
volving some deviation, or merely favourable points for crossing
ROADS IN INDIA
75
the larger streams, causing a less expenditure in bridge foun-
dations, and may warrant a more or less degree of departure
from the shortest line. Even where no money saving is to be
gained by leaving that perfectly straight line, which is of course
the least distance between any two points, it is better to
deviate a little. There is perhaps nothing in the world more
monotonous or fatiguing than a perfectly straight and level
road, always stretching away to distant points on either horizon.
Moderate curvature adds but the merest trifle to the total
length, and anything more than two or three miles of perfectly
straight line ought to be avoided.
The road being laid out, and levels taken at some 300 or
400 feet apart, on stout pegs driven into the ground along the
centre line, the heights and quantities of the earthworks
required can be estimated as soon as the width of the road has
been fixed, and bamboos or stakes are driven so that
their tops, or cross pieces fastened on them, shall mark the
future road surface; a trifle of extra height being allowed for
the subsequent settlement of the earthwork. The earth to
form the embankment, usually only two or three feet high in a
plain country, but of course varying in height where inequali-
ties of surface level exist, is obtained from “borrow' pits dug
along the sides of the road and parallel to its course. These
borrow pits do not form a continuous excavation, because
almost every country has some slope, and if they were continu-
ous water would run along them, forming streams which would
wear away their sides. The pits are, therefore, not longer than
about 100 feet each, having spaces of untouched ground of
about fifty or sixty feet-or even more if the soil is very loose
-between them. Their sides are sloped, and they are made
wide enough to admit of the necessary quantity of earth being
got out of them, without the necessity of digging more than a
few feet in depth. It is usual to keep them thus shallow so
that they may be used for obtaining earth for the future repair
of the banks, but here and there some are made deep enough to
retain a certain amount of water, which is always required in
renewing or mending the surface of the metal. The near edge
of the pits are always placed at some distance from the bottom
of the embankment slopes.
76
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Generally at the lowest points of the ground section, along
the line of the road, it is necessary to leave openings for cul-
verts or small bridges, to allow the cross drainage of the coun-
try to pass from one side of the road to the other. Money can
often be saved by cutting drains from some of these depressions,
so as to divert any water collected, and lead it to still lower
depressions, so as to collect the cross drainage as far as possible
into a fewer number of separate culverts, although these may
individually require to be a trifle larger. To make these small
bridges for cross drainage just large enough but yet not too
large and expensive, is often the most important of the minor
problems to be solved. In some cases the separate drainage
basins, or collecting areas, on the up-stream side of the road
bank are easy to determine, so that the maximum rainfall of
the district being known, the total amount of water to be
provided for can be readily ascertained. In the case of large
streams or rivers, however, especially if liable to receive the sur-
plus or "spill’ water from other still larger courses, the proper
amount of waterway to allow becomes a more intricate problem,
and in most cases it will be better to err a little on the safe
side than to run any great risk. If the bed of the river to be
bridged is very hard and not liable to be washed or scoured out
by the water, so as to undermine and injure foundations, or if
the bridge is built with a solid masonry platform between the
piers and abutments, protected along the up and down-stream
edges by walls carried well down into the river bed, so that the
force of the current will not be able to wash it up, the water
can be safely allowed to rise to a greater height by keeping the
bridge shorter in length than might be otherwise necessary. In
this particular there will of course be every degree of difference
or difficulty, accordingly as small channels or great and wide
rivers are dealt with.
Another exceedingly important matter in connection with
road-making is the selection and consolidation of the hard
material which is to form the wearing surface of the road. It
is always usual to wait until the earth forming the banks has
become thoroughly hardened and compacted together under
the influence of the rainfall, before placing the expensive road-
metal upon it, otherwise a great deal more will be required,
ROADS IN INDIA
which, although in the end not detrimental to the road, will
render it much more costly. It is also generally economical and
necessary to interpose between the earthwork of the banks, and
the expensive hard road-metal, some intermediate substance,
such as one or other of the various forms of decomposed
material called moorum, gravel, broken rubble or rough stone
-or even broken brickbats—ordinary river sand mixed with
many kinds of soil, especially that known as “black cotton,' will
also harden the surface of banks to a surprising degree. The
varieties of substances used for metalling the surface of roads
in India are very great. One of the commonest, in the
districts where it is abundant, is hard nodular kunka. It
makes an excellent, although in dry weather a very dusty road,
besides requiring a good deal of petty repair under exposure to
heavy traffic. Block kunka, besides being expensive to break
unless quite fresh from the quarry, is inferior, and is seldom
employed. All the softer materials, such as broken laterite, and
most varieties of globular trap, or the hardest kinds of broken
bricks, etc., are ill-adapted to form a durable road surface, but
have often to be employed where better are not procurable.
average size of the pieces into which it is broken, so as to give
a greater section of resistance to fracture under the grinding
action of the cart-wheels, the rough bottoming is also made
thicker, and the road is formed with a greater rise in the centre.
Moorum metalling, which is largely used in the Bombay
Presidency, is spread at least twelve inches thick, on a good
bottom. It makes an excellent dry-weather road, but will not
well stand a heavy traffic in the wet season. Globular trap,
very common in Malwa, is too friable to make a good road
metal. Under traffic the fragments, however angular they
may have been when first broken, are apt to wear down at
the edges, leaving an unconsolidated mass of rounded stones
very difficult to bind together. All the harder granitic and
basaltic rocks furnish, when broken into road-metal, the best
and most lasting surfaces; they are, however, the most ex-
pensive in first cost. When good moorum is also plentiful,
perhaps the most economical process is to use this material
alone as road-metal for some time, until the crust of the
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road becomes thoroughly firm and reliable. Thin layers,
about three inches thick, of hard stone road-metal can then
be gradually applied.
In order to bind the hard stone fragments together some fine
sand or moorum, in quantity about one fifth the volume of
the metal, is required. In using broken basalt, however, much
less of this binding material is employed; it takes consequently
a far longer time to consolidate into a compact surface than
other materials; but when once consolidated it forms one of the
most resisting of road surfaces. If too much binding material
is used with basalt, or indeed with any other very hard metal,
it causes the road to become rough and unpleasant, the softer
material, wearing and being blown from the surface by the wind,
is apt to leave the upper parts of the less wearable stone frag-
ments projecting. The choice of material for road-metal in
India is most commonly limited in each locality to some one or
two substances which it is possible to obtain at a reasonable cost.
Whatever may be employed, whether hard stone, kunka, or
moorum, it is necessary that it should be artificially compressed
into a firm compact crust, so as to be unmovable by the
wheels of vehicles. This is usually done by beating it down
with heavy rammers by hand labour, or by the frequent
hauling over it of heavy rollers. The latter process is, for
the harder kinds of metal, by far the best, where really
heavy rollers are obtainable. Steam-road rollers of fifteen or
twenty tons weight are also frequently and economically used
for consolidating road surfaces where a large quantity of such
work is required to be done.
On the better classes of Indian roads, lines of trees planted so
as to afford a grateful shade to travellers is an almost invariable
rule, and groves of trees at about day-journey intervals are
frequently added. Near these groves wells are dug to supply
both man and beast with a plentiful supply of water, without
which, in so dry and thirsty a land, travelling would be virtually
impossible. On such roads, also, accommodation and shelter for
the upper class of travellers is in all cases provided. “Rest
houses ' or staging bungalows' are erected at intervals of twelve
or fifteen miles along the roads. These provide accommodation
for two or more families ; containing distinct sets of apartments
An
ROADS IN INDIA
.
79
plainly furnished. A keeper, who acts also as cook, and supplies
provisions under a fixed tariff, together with a small staff of
menial servants, is maintained, and a small fee--for the benefit
of local or district funds—is charged to travellers for the
temporary use of the “rest-houses.'
CHAPTER II
Neglect of Public roads until comparatively late date-Military fair-weather
Roads-Road up the Bhore Ghat early in the century—The Grand Trunk
Road—Alignment-Early commencement under Warren Hastings~Real
commencement under Lord William Bentinck-General description of
Grand Trunk Road—Bridges—Lelajaum Bridge—Paucity of information-
Paved Causeways—Sone Causeway–Probable cost of Grand Trunk
Road--Difficulties of early engineering work in India-Insufficient water-
ways-Initial importance of Grand Trunk Road-Other early road opera-
tions-Agra to Bombay-Great Deccan Road-Extension of Hill Roads-
Coast road through Orissa-General outline of important roads-Indus
river at Attock--Proposals for a tunnel-Modified project-Construction
of Attock Tunnel-Abandonment of work-Central India Roads—Roads
in the Berars—Roads in the Central Provinces--Northern, Eastern, and
Sangor Roads-Early importance of Northern road-Important Bridges-
Roads in Bombay and Madras.
It has been pointed out that very little was done by the
English Government in the matter of public roads for India
until a comparatively late date. Fair-weather roads were con-
structed by, and for the use of, armies on the march, but these
were neglected almost as soon as they had fulfilled their
immediate purpose, and those absolutely necessary for the
control of newly acquired territories were only kept open by
constant reconstruction. These military road-tracks were no
doubt of service to the commercial traffic of the country, and
this especially so in some of the more mountainous districts in
the lower peninsula, where work of a much more permanent and
substantial character had of necessity to be undertaken from
time to time for military purposes, such as that road passable by
artillery, made under the orders of the Duke of Wellington in
the early part of the century, up the Bhore Ghat between
Bombay and Poona. It was not, however, until the years 1840
to 1845 that any large and systematic general construction of
ROADS IN INDIA
81
permanent commercial and military roads throughout the
country was undertaken.
The earliest example of an important main road constructed
in India was a considerable length of that well-known highway
“The Grand Trunk Road.'. This remarkable work when com-
pleted was no doubt for many years unsurpassed by any single
public road then in existence. Owing to various causes work
on it was not brought to a final conclusion until long after its
first inception and commencement, but a very large portion of
it was executed before the year 1848. The Grand Trunk
Road now stretches in a practically unbroken line from
Calcutta to Peshawur, to within a short ride of the mouth of
the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, a total distance of 1500 miles.
Starting from Calcutta the road is taken in an almost direct
line to the southern bend of the Ganges near Benares and
Mirzapore, passing through the Kymore line of hills forming
the last spur of the Vindhyian range of mountains stretching
across India. From Mirzapore the road follows the valley of
the Ganges to Allahabad and Cawnpore, thence striking some-
what to the west it follows the eastern bank of the Jumna to
opposite Agra and Delhi, with which towns it was united by
temporary pontoon or boat bridges. Northwards of Delhi it
passes viâ Karnal, Ludhdiana, Lahore, and Jhilam, crossing the
Indus at Attock a few miles before reaching Peshawur.
It is stated that under the government of Warren Hastings,
so far back as the years 1772 to 1785, a commencement of this
magnificent early work-on that portion of its length lying
between Calcutta and Benares—was made by a Captain Charles
Rankin, but to what extent, or whether the work executed was
anywhere or everywhere on the precise alignment of the present
trunk road, does not appear. It is most likely, however, that
the very early work referred to would have been the construc-
tion of what would now be called a fairweather road of superior
class. However this may be, the inauguration of the first
important steps towards the realisation of the splendid project
of a great permanent trunk road from Calcutta to Delhi and
the North-West frontier-afterwards successfully carried to
completion-appears to have taken place under the govern-
ment of Lord William Bentinck 1830 to 1835. Twenty years
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
later, or in the year 1855, the road was completed to Karnal,
some seventy-five miles north of Delhi, or for nearly 1000 miles
from Calcutta, and its prolongation to Lahore was then in
progress. The extension of the road from Lahore to Peshawur,
although a vigorous commencement had been made not long
after the annexation of the Panjab, was delayed for many years
owing to want of funds.
The Grand Trunk Road has been constructed throughout as
an embanked, thoroughly well-drained and well-metalled high-
way of the first class. It is raised in every part well above the
height of known floods or inundations. The top width of the
earthwork was in the first instance made 30 feet, but was
soon afterwards increased to 40 feet, with side slopes of 4
to 1. The central portion was originally everywhere metalled
to a width of 16 feet, with either broken stone or kunka,
laid 8 inches thick, and rolled or beaten down to a thickness
of 6 inches. Rows of good timber trees were planted for the
greater part of its enormous length, along the foot of the em-
bankment slopes at intervals of-50 or 60 feet. Halting-places,
or encamping-grounds, were also arranged at suitable intervals
for the convenience of merchants and goods, and at every
ordinary stage for troops on the march, enclosures for shops,
and open encamping grounds, marked off and kept clear from
cultivation, were established. “Rest-houses' for the better class
of travellers were also provided at distances apart of ten or
fifteen miles along the road.
Except in the case of the widest rivers, of the first order of
magnitude, the road was permanently bridged throughout.
Subsequently, after the construction of the great line of railway
--first from Calcutta to Delhi, and then on to Peshawur-
provision was made for carrying the road over these largest
rivers by means of the great railway bridges then constructed.
The bridge structures on the lower portion of the trunk road
were to a great extent constructed of stone, the piers being
founded on cylindrical wells, or on perforated blocks of brick-
work sunk into the sandy beds of the rivers in the manner
peculiar to India. A great number of these bridges were of
very considerable size—such as the one over the Lelajaum
river, consisting of twenty-six arches of fifty feet, costing the
I
T
ROADS IN INDIA
83
.
moderate sum of about £10,000. Little detailed information,
however, appears to be now available as to these early works.
Occasionally, in the case of the large rivers, where bridges,
either temporary or permanent, could not be constructed except
at inordinate expense, paved causeways across the bed were re-
sorted to. This expedient is often of considerable value in India,
where the greater number of the watercourses are dry, or nearly
so, for the larger part of the year, and where in many parts of
the country they contain practically no water of any considera-
tion for nine or ten months out of the twelve. In such cases
the banks of the stream are cut down to an easy slope, and the
whole sandy width of the river-bed is traversed by a paving-
often of stone set in mortar, resting on a foundation made
sufficiently secure to withstand the rush of water during the
seasons of flood.
The first large river encountered by the Grand Trunk Road,
before reaching Mirzapore, was the Sone, and it was carried
over the unusually wide sandy bed of that watercourse by a
causeway of the above description, no less than 11,450 feet, or
over two miles in length. The paved roadway, 16 feet in
1
a foot and a half broad, and 1 foot thick. A foundation
was provided by first driving two parallel rows of common
jungle-wood piles to a depth of about 15 feet, for the pur-
pose of supporting bamboo frames and mats to temporarily
hold up the sides of the sand excavation that was to be made
between the two rows of piles. The sand being excavated and
a trench dug of the requisite depth and width, a layer of gunny-
bags filled with concrete made of river shingle and lime, was set
closely packed together over the whole bottom of the trench.
On these bags a layer 2 feet 6 inches thick of rubble stone was
laid, set in similar concrete, on which the long paving stones
forming the causeway were placed crossways in alternate long
and short lengths so as to break joint. The joints of the stones
were then grouted and pointed with good hydraulic mortar, and
the surface of the causeway was finally levelled but left rough
enough to afford a secure foothold for draft animals.
It is not possible to state with any accuracy the total cost of
the Grand Trunk Road, constructed at intervals over, a con-
84
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
siderable number of years, and a large proportion of the earlier
work being done by convicts, or by famine relief labour. The
probable cost of the initial work would hardly be less than
£500 a mile, exclusive of the large bridges, or between seven
and eight hundred thousand pounds. A sum of £489,100 is
recorded to have been spent on it up to the year 1848, at which
time the cost of maintaining the road, so far as completed, was
£35,000, and for many years subsequently the total cost of
maintenance was not less than about £50 a mile. Before the
introduction of railways the traffic carried by the trunk road
was very large, and it was calculated that the whole thick-
ness of metalling, throughout its entire extent, was renewed
every six years.
At the early date when the greater portion of this splendid
public work was constructed, English engineers working in
India were to a great degree unfamiliar with the peculiarities
and flood phenomena of the great Indian rivers, and, moreover,
carried on their operations under exceptional difficulties as re-
gards skilled labour of every description. As might be expected,
in several instances bridges were constructed with a waterway
insufficient to pass without undue obstruction the sudden and
violent floods to which they were subjected, and consequent
failures occurred. In 1850, during the construction of the
Lelajaum bridge above mentioned, a heavy flood carried away
five of the arches which had been completed. In another case,
owing to insufficient waterway, an entire bridge was wholly
destroyed. Delays in construction were also frequent, whether
caused by paucity of funds or from one or other of the innu-
merable difficulties encountered in the manufacture and pro-
vision of building materials, and their transport over a virtually
roadless country, and the absence for many years of any other
than the rudest labour. The early successful achievement of
this magnificent 1500 miles of permanent road, and its real
magnitude, when considered in connection with the peculiarly
difficult conditions under which the main portion of it was.
carried out, has been to a great extent thrust into the back-
ground by the subsequent press of railway construction. Its
1 Vide 'Public Works in the Bengal Presidency,' vol. xvii. Proc. Inst. Civil
Engineers.
O
ROADS IN INDIA
85
importance as a commercial and military line of communication
has also necessarily dwindled beside the splendid iron road which
is now placed almost alongside of it for the larger portion of
its length, but it remains none the less a truly remarkable and
representative monument of early British energy in India, and
a work which, for boldness of conception and execution under
exceptional conditions, has hardly ever been surpassed.
Other very early road operations that may be mentioned are
the following: In the five years succeeding the year 1839 up-
wards of 400 miles of embanked and partially bridged roads
were constructed in the Bareilly district of the North-West Pro-
vinces, and seventy-seven bridges of masonry or timber had
then been built. In 1840 work was commenced on a great
trunk line of road designed to extend from Agra to Bombay-
the total length of which is 735 miles. An annual expenditure
of £10,000 was at that time apportioned to this work. Before
many years, a postal service along the road was established,
and, by offering premiums to the postmasters, an average speed
of ten miles an hour was obtained between the chief breaks
of continuity-the work being performed by light mail-carts. .
"This fine metalled and bridged line of communication now
extends from Agra, viên Gwalior, Indore and Mhow, Dhulia,
Nasik, and the Thul Ghat, to Bombay. It is mentioned also
that up to the year 1851 no less than 638 miles of embanked
and partly bridged roads had been constructed in the small dis-
trict of Azimgurh in the North-West Provinces.
An important trunk line called the “Great Deccan Road'
emanating from the line of the Grand Trunk Road at Mirza-
pore on the Ganges, to extend viâ Rewah to Jubblepore, and
connect with Nagpur and Bombay, was also an early work, and
in 1856 the bridging and metalling of this great highway, now
extending across the whole continent of India, was com-
menced. By about the year 1870 nearly all the larger under-
takings connected with the earlier through trunk routes had
been completed, including many of the fine engineering works
leading to the Himalayan hill stations, or to communicate
with the Tibetan trade routes beyond them; to the coffee
districts of Wynaad, and to the Nilgiri hills in the southern
peninsula, as well as the long south-western coast road from
86
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Calcutta, through Orissa, via Midnapore, Belasore, Cuttack, and
Gangam in the Madras Presidency, together with a very large
total mileage of secondary roads connecting the main thorough-
fares with the railway centres which were then springing
rapidly into existence.
Some few of the more important main-lines of first-class
roads which have now been opened out may be enumerated,
but it would serve no purpose, and be needlessly tedious to
attempt any general trace even of these. The reader will
gather a better idea of the extent and ramification of the first
and second-class roads of India by consulting the annexed
map. Many of the roads to be mentioned are now old estab-
lished highways, such as the Calcutta-Darjeeling road, which,
metalled and bridged throughout, over a very difficult and
inundated country, and crossing numerous watercourses and
several large rivers by iron bridges resting on screw-piles, is
carried well into the Northern mountainous district, opening
up an important connection with the external trade routes on
that side of India. In the low-lying districts of Eastern Bengal
an excellent system of water carriage, by the numerous inter-
secting channels, prevents the necessity of any considerable
extension of ordinary roads.
The old and prosperous districts of the North-West Provinces
are covered with a very extensive network of roads of every
class. From Gwalior, on the Agra road, and from Cawnpore,
main trunk lines extend to Jhansi, Laltipur, and on to Saugor
in the Central Provinces. From Bareilly, after traversing
nearly seventy miles of plain, a mountain-road is carried to
the hill sanatoria of Naini Tal, Ranikhet and Almora, and in
the elevated district of Gharwal various lines of hill road ex-
tend to the Niti pass, forming a valuable line of communica-
tion for traders from Tibet.
In the Punjab and upper parts of Scinde a very considerable
network of excellent roads also exist, among others the impor-
tant road from Umballa to Simla, and the Hindustan Tibet
hill road extended beyond for over 150 miles up the Sutlej
Valley. The Kangra Valley road, and that from Rawalpindi
to Murree, and from the same place to Malora and Kohat;
the frontier roads-- Peshawur to Kohat, Thal, Katabagh, and
ROADS IN INDIA
87
Isakhel ; from Jhilum and Gujrat to Miani, Shahpur, Jhanj,
and Chichawatni, situated on the railway above Mooltan ; from
Mooltan to Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan, and numerous
others.
Soon after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 serious attention was
directed to the military necessity of reducing the difficulty and
danger of crossing the river Indus, on the line of the grand
trunk road in the neighbourhood of Attock, near the north-
west frontier of India. The town and fort of Attock is situated
on the left or eastern bank of the Indus, just below the
junction of the Cabul river, at a point where the usually wide
channel of the first is contracted to 1000 or 1200 feet in its
passage through a range of hills which crosses its course. This
contraction causes the river to rise in ordinary high floods to
the great height of about 50 feet above the average cold sea-
son level, the velocity of the current being then increased to
upwards of 12 miles an hour. The river, moreover, is subject
to extraordinary floods at uncertain intervals, caused by the
temporary damming up of one or other of its Himalayan
branches by ice or landslips. In the years 1841 and 1858 it
is recorded that the summer floods rose 100 and 70 feet re-
spectively, above the ordinary cold weather level, and from the
nature of their origin, and the formation of the valley at
Attock, there appears to be nothing to prevent the occurrence
of still higher floods at any time. The important crossing of
the Indus in the neighbourhood of Attock, on the line of the
grand trunk road, was for many years effected by means of
ferry-boats during the summer, or flood-season, and by a tem-
porary boat-bridge during the winter; the ferry crossing was
always difficult and often dangerous, and the communication
was at all times liable to sudden and prolonged interruption.
Numerous proposals and trial efforts were made from time to
time for improving this state of matters—such as a permanent
boat bridge, a flying bridge worked by cables and the force of
the current, a steam ferry, and a suspension or other bridge
placed at a high level above the reach of floods. The great
difficulties to be encountered in dealing with such a torrent
as the Indus at Attock, subject to so great an ordinary flood
rise, and liable, moreover, to extraordinary floods of uncertain
88
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
:
limits, led at length to a well-considered proposal in the year
1859, to turn the more important of these difficulties by the
substitution of an under passage or tunnel beneath the river.
Careful studies entered into showed that the banks and bed
of the Indus at Attock were composed of slate rock, moderately
easy to work, and apparently free from fissures likely to seriously
endanger, or enhance the cost of the work. A scheme was
therefore elaborated in full detail for a brick-lined tunnel 1215
feet long, 24 feet wide, and 20 feet high, to extend underneath
the river, with a roadway 82 feet below low-water level. It
was proposed that the level of this under passage should be
reached by descending tunnelled approaches on either side of
the river, each on a grade of 1 in 20; the entrances being
placed at 100 feet above the level of winter flow—that is, at
182 feet above the floor of the actual river tunnel. The total
length of the complete gallery, including the approach grades,
would have been 7215 feet, or over 1} miles. The tunnel was
to be ventilated by air shafts placed 600 feet apart (except
at the river section, where the interval would be longer) in
the shape of hollow cut-water towers, having their summits
placed above the reach of floods, and the gallery was to be
lighted throughout with oil-gas manufactured on the spot.
Duplicate pumping engines were to be provided for keeping
the tunnel clear of water, and provision was also made for its
rapid flooding by means of a syphon at any time under military
necessity. The estimated cost of this project was £104,408.
The scheme so far found favour with the authorities that a
sum of £1000 was sanctioned for the purpose of carrying out
an experimental trial drift, and in March 1860 the sinking of
the necessary shafts on either bank of the river was commenced,
by military labour. The leakage of water, however, was found
to be heavier than anticipated, and subsequently further sums,
amounting in all to £6000, were granted, until, in the summer of
the year 1862, it having been found that the cost of the work
greatly exceeded the rates of the first rough estimate framed,
the Government decided upon a suspension of operations, at a
time when only 258 feet remained to complete the junction of
the drift-gallery across the river-section.
The drift underneath the river-about 6 feet by 3 feet in
ROADS IN INDIA
89
section—and the vertical shafts on either bank were, however,
afterwards completed, but the execution of the complete tunnel
project was at the time postponed. The work actually carried
out was as follows. On the east bank of the river a shaft, 168
feet deep, with 8 feet extra for drainage, was sunk through the
hard rock. On the west side a similar shaft—situated 1505 feet
6 inches from the first—was sunk 93 feet deep, with 8 feet extra
for drainage. The position of the west shaft being near the
river edge, and much below summer water-level, a hollow pier
of masonry was built up to keep out the floods. From near
the bottom of the shafts two galleries were pierced northwards
for a distance of 25 feet, each 6 feet high and 3 feet wide, to
meet the main drift of the same dimensions, which was carried
under the river, and on the east side of the river at the level of
the grand trunk road, a gallery was driven to meet the
vertical shaft. Owing to fissures in the rock, and the influx of
water, both shafts were lined with brick masonry. The drift-
gallery beneath the torrent of the Indus was made with a slope
or inclination of 1 in 300 towards the east, or Attock side, in
order to drain off the water. The work throughout was per-
formed by a small detachment of the 24th Punjab Infantry,
aided and directed by six European miners; the object of the
drift heading being to test the nature of the rock, and the
feasibility and probable cost of carrying out a complete tunnel
scheme.
After some discussion it was decided on various grounds to
abandon the tunnel project; it being held that an overhead
bridge would be a more suitable crossing, and less costly
to maintain. The miners were, therefore, withdrawn, and the
heading was allowed to fill with water. In the year 1870-
when Lord Mayo, then Governor-General, came to Attock,
the drift-gallery was pumped out for his inspection, and it was
found to be quite uninjured. The proposal to complete the
work was reconsidered, but it was again rejected in favour of
the combined road and railway bridge, which now crosses the
Indus at Attock, a remarkably fine work, which will be sub-
sequently fully described. The tunnelling work carried out in
1860-64, was executed with few appliances, and under great
financial restrictions, but was sufficient to demonstrate the per-
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
fect feasibility of constructing a permanent tunnel under the
Indus at a reasonable cost. The military importance of a
second line of communication removed at least from the danger
of any possible injury by extraordinary floods, would appear to
11
the relative value and advantage of the work as compared with
other means of passage, either at Attock or elsewhere on the
Indus, is one for decision by scientific military experts. The
successful piercing of the drift gallery under the river has been
here mentioned as a bold and interesting operation, carried out
upwards of thirty years ago, by a small and energetic body of
pioneers, under very disadvantageous conditions.
In Central India occur the roads viâ Jeypore, Tonk, and
Deoli, Ajmere, Neemuch, Rutlam, and Mhow. The line com-
municating with the North-West Provinces, leading from the
grand trunk road at Aligarlı, viâ Muttra, Bhurtpore, Jey-
pore, Ajmere, Sihari, Mount Aboo, and Deesa. In the Berars
is an excellent system of first-class roads intersecting the rich
cotton districts, such as the lines Malkapur, Buldwana, and
Mehkar, Nandura, Molala, Khamgaon, and Jalna (leading into
the Bombay Presidency viên Aurangabad, and Ahmednagar to
Poona). Akola to Bassim and Umarkhed, Murtazapur to
Karunga and Bassim, Budnera viâ Amroati to Morsi and
Ellichpore.
In the comparatively late acquired Central Provinces, it is
recorded that in the year 1862 there were barely twenty miles of
first-class road fully opened out. During the following twelve or
fifteen years, besides a very large aggregate mileage of roads of
the secondary class, three excellently constructed first-class lines
of communication were carried out, viz. the Northern, Eastern,
and Saugor roads, together with those from Jubbulpore to
Mandla, and from Warora to Chanda. The northern line
extends from Nagpur viâ Seoni to Jubbulpore, a distance of
185 miles. The eastern road is carried from Nagpur, viâ
Bhandara and Nandgaon, to Raipur, the chief town of the
Chattisgarh district; and to Sambulpur. The road is metalled
throughout, and permanently bridged, except over the very
largest rivers. The Saugor roads form an important connect-
ing link between Bandalkhand and Western India, these
ROADS IN INDIA
91
extend from Jubbulpore, rriâ Damoh, to Saugor and Hatta, and
from Saugor to the valley of the Nerbudda, near Nursingpore.
The short line of northern road from Nagpur, viâ Seoni to
Jubbulpore, is stated, as regards engineering and alignment, to
be one of the best in the interior of India. The road has for
many years ceased to be of more than local value, but for a
considerable time-before the difficult section of railway tra-
versing the Nerbudda valley from Khandwa to Jubbulpore was
completed,—this particular length of road formed a very im-
portant link in the chain of communication between Upper
India and Bombay, inasmuch as it connected the termini of
the then open railways situated at Nagpur and Jubbulpore
respectively. The road, which is everywhere bridged and
metalled, surmounts a portion of the Satpura range of hills by
a well laid out and constructed length of mountain-road, with
an even line of gradients of 1 in 30. The Seoni plateau is
1500 feet above the level of Nagpur, and until this line of
communication was made, (all produce from the highlands
could only be brought to the larger markets, or to the railway
at Nagpur, by means of pack animals. The road also crosses
two important rivers, viz., the Kanhan, and the upper portion
of the Weingunga ; the first by a handsome stone bridge,
which is probably the largest bridge for road purposes con-
structed in India, and, as such, has been selected for more
detailed illustration in the following chapter. The bridge
over the Weingunga is a fine brick structure, consisting of
twelve arches of 50 feet span, placed at a considerable elevation
above the river.
The numerous important through lines of first-class roads in
part old-established highways, and later construction, here as
elsewhere, has largely consisted of district roads and railway
feeders. By the year 1870, 1800 miles of roads, of which
upwards of 500 miles were metalled and bridged, are stated to
have been constructed in Mysore alone, opening up numerous
lines of communication for cart traffic, from the elevated
plateaux, down to the principal places on the Western coast.
CHAPTER III
Types of bridges on Indian roads—Early iron suspension bridge near Saugor-
Early iron bridge over the Gumti at Lucknow-Particulars of history-
Masonry bridges-Examples-The Palamcoita bridge over the Tambra-
purni in Tinnevelly-Bridge over the Sohan, Lahore, and Peshawur road-
The Kanhan bridge at Kamthi-Description of the Kanhan bridge--Un-
successful attempt to bridge the river-Construction of the second bridge-
Foundations—The Cofferdams — Piers and abutments—Details of timber
centerings-Archwork-Method of striking the centres - Particulars and
cost of bridge-Paucity of statistical data relating to Indian roads--Probable
annual amount expended on roads in India-Conclusion.
It is evident that over the immense mileage of metalled and
bridged roads, intersecting in every direction the great conti-
nent of India, and traversing such wide tracts of country,
covered for the most part with large watercourses and more or
less frequent great rivers, an enormous aggregate number of
bridges spanning these streams will occur. Moreover there will
necessarily exist a general similarity in the type and particulars
of such structures. For ordinary road purposes Indian rivers
and watercourses of all sizes are commonly crossed by masonry
arched bridges of brick or stone, with piers and abutments
founded either directly on the hard substratum found at their
sites, or on cylindrical wells, or blocks of masonry sunk to a
sufficient depth into their sandy beds. Occasionally, although
rarely, the superstructure, and even the piers of road bridges
may be constructed of iron, or timber—the latter material,
however, for climatic reasons, being ill adapted for permanent
erections in India. In the few notices or illustrations of Indian
tioned are chosen either on account of special interest as early
examples of road engineering, or on account of their more than
ROADS IN INDIA
93
average size; from either category the number of works noted
might have been enormously increased.
A road work, interesting only from the early date of its con-
struction, and from the circumstance that the whole structure
was made up in India, and erected without the aid of skilled
workmen, is that of an iron suspension bridge, constructed
upwards of fifty years ago, to carry a road over the river Beosi
near Saugor in the Central Provinces. The bridge is 200 feet
in clear span between the points of suspension, and the abut-
ments, which are built on solid rock found near the surface,
are 42 feet high to the roadway. The chain piers carried
on the abutments are 33 feet high above the road; the
arched passage ways through them being 9 feet wide and
15 feet high. The bridge platform is 200 feet long, 12
feet wide, and weighs, with suspension chains, about fifty-three
tons. The iron rod suspension chains are twelve in number,
arranged in pairs,--three pairs on either side, one above the
other, at a distance of 2 feet apart, they pass over twelve iron
rollers a foot in diameter (each weighing about half a hundred
weight), placed on the suspension piers, and are firmly anchored
into masses of masonry 16 feet below the surface of the
road. The twelve main chains are made up of solid round bars.
1.1 inches in diameter with enlarged eyeholes, and from 15 to 151
feet long. They are bolted together in pairs, and are so dis-
posed that vertical rods of square iron may fall from the joints
of each chain alternately in parallel lines 5 feet apart, to sup-
port the road platform.
The road platform is raised, or: cambered ’nine inches in the
middle, is formed of two lines of flat iron bars, 4 inches by
inch, set on edge, and suspended on each side of the bridge
from the vertical rods ; carrying cross joists and longitudinal
planking 3 inches thick, covered by an upper layer of cross
planking 21 inches thick. The planks were imbedded in a
composition of resin boiled in linseed oil mixed with ashes. A
cornice or moulding of wood is secured along, and protects the
outside edges of the planking, and a trussed hand-rail of pillars
and diagonal braces of iron, surmounted by a stout wooden top-
rail, runs from end to end of the platform on both sides. The
quantity of material employed in this small suspension bridge
17
94
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
is 143 tons of ironwork, 36 tons of wood, and 91,388 cubic feet
(or 3385 cubic yards) of masonry. The cost of the finished
structure is not given.
The details of the work throughout display considerable inge-
nuity and neatness in the fittings and attachments, and in the
precautions taken to allow free movement in all parts of the iron-
work without injury to the masonry ; the ironwork is all hand-
wrought, and the pin or bolt-holes are all accurately bored by
hand to exact fit. The ready resource and patient labour that
must have been exercised in carrying out such a piece of work
in the far interior of the country so far back as the year 1840
or 1841, by the aid only of native workmen and appliances, is
sufficient warrant for the inclusion of this suspension bridge in
any mention of early bridge structures in India.
Another very early example of an iron road bridge is the
singular but pleasing structure built over the Gumti at Luck-
now. This bridge consists of three cast-iron ribbed arches,
supported on piers and abutinents of brick masonry, carrying
a roadway 30 feet wide at a height of 35 feet above low water
in the river. The centre arch has a span of 90 feet, with a rise
of 7 feet, and the two land arches are each 80 feet span, rising
6 feet in the centre, giving a graceful curvature to the outline
of the bridge. The piers and abutments are built on wells sunk
into the river-bed. The structure crosses the Gumti almost
immediately opposite the site of the old Residency of Lucknow,
memorable for its gallant and successful defence when besieged
during the Mutiny of 1857. The history of the Gumti iron
bridge is in some respects curious. The structure is said to
have been designed by Rennie, the great engineer, architect,
and builder of London Bridge. The ironwork was received in
Lucknow in the year 1798, during the reign of Nawab Saadut
Ali Khan, King of Oude, only about twenty years after the
erection of the first iron bridge in England, and it is supposed
that General Martin, the talented and eccentric French officer,
then living in Lucknow, suggested the idea of the bridge to the
Nawab. It is probable that the unfamiliar character of the
work caused the project to be laid aside, for the ironwork
remained unused in Lucknow for more than forty years, when
it was at last erected, and the present bridge completed in the
ROADS IN INDIA
95
years 1841 to 1844, at a cost of about £18,000, without includ-
ing the sum paid for the ironwork, which is not known.
An early masonry road bridge of some interest is that con-
structed over the Tambrapurni river, in Tinnevelly, in the year
1843, known as the Palamcotta bridge. This is a handsome
structure ; its architectural elevation having been copied (on a
reduced scale) from the Waterloo Bridge over the Thames in
London. The bridge consists of eleven elliptical arches, each
of 60 feet span and 17 feet rise in the centre, springing from
ten piers averaging about 10 feet in height above low water,
and the same in width, with two abutments 15 feet thick at
springing level. The breadth of the arch-work on the under
side is 27 feet, carrying a level road across the river 24 feet
wide and 800 feet long. On each face of the bridge two Doric
columns stand on the projecting cutwaters of the piers, occupy-
ing the space between the arches, and supporting a bold
entablature with balconies. An open balustrade on each side
extends along the entire length of the work. The piers for the
most part were founded on hard rock kunka, situated at a small
depth below the river-bed, but three consecutive piers were
built on rows of small wells, sunk to a depth of 10 or 12 feet
only, where a firm bed of clay was met with. Along this
portion of the work, up and down stream lines of wells were
also sunk to serve as curtain walls, and to retain a pavement or
flooring to protect the foundations. The interior of all the
wells was built in solid, and the spaces between them were filled
in with rubble stone in cement up to low-water level. On this
foundation the three footing courses of the piers were laid in
stone, with cut-stone face work cramped with iron. Above the
footing courses the bridge is constructed of neat brickwork
partly stuccoed.
On the Lahore and Peshawur road, a plain substantial bridge
of combined stone and brick masonry crosses the Sohan river, a
stream draining an area of nearly 600 square miles ; the depth
of water during high floods being 15 feet, with a mean velocity
of current of 9 or 10 feet a second. The discharge of the river
in floods is calculated at about 91,000 cubic feet a second, and
at the site of the bridge the river is over 1000 feet wide. This
example will serve as a typical illustration of the larger class of
96
: PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
road bridges constructed in India, which are to be met with
more or less frequently. The Sohan bridge consists of fifteen
brick arches each of 63 feet span, carrying a cut-stone cornice,
and a level roadway 26 feet in width. The arches are supported
on piers and abutments of coursed rubble masonry, 35 feet high
from lowest foundation to the springing of the arches. The
bridge was built in three sections of five spans each, the abut-
ment piers and end abutments being 12 feet, and the inter-
mediate piers 9 feet in thickness. The foundation footing
courses, which rest in firm red clay, are laid at a depth of
17 feet below the river-bed, and are protected by a continuous
flooring of stone blocks, and up and down stream curtain walls,
carried down to the same level as the foundation masonry of
the piers. The clear waterway of the bridge is 945 running
feet, the cost of the structure having been about £4300.
Probably the largest of the very numerous ordinary road
bridges constructed in India is that over the Kanhan river on
the northern line of road from Nagpur to Jubbulpore in the
Central Provinces. This bridge—which was constructed be-
tween the years 1866 and 1873-adjoins the military station
at Kamthi, situated about ten miles north of Nagpur. The
Kanhan is a river of considerable magnitude, tributary to the
Weingunga. The accompanying illustration, which represents
a third of the total length of the road-bridge constructed over
it, will convey an idea of the main features of the structure.
The Kanhan bridge, with the exception of the ornamental
balustrade or parapet, which is of cast-iron, is constructed
throughout of sandstone masonry; the stone for which was
obtained from quarries situated along the north bank of the
river, within a few miles of the site of the work. The bridge
is constructed on a severely plain, but at the same time hand-
some design, and conveys an idea of solidity combined with
lightness and boldness of outline. It is about 1300 feet long
over all, and consists of twelve flattened arches of 80 feet span,
springing at nearly the highest flood-level of the river, or at a
height of 39 feet above the mean summer water-flow, each arch
having a rise in the centre of 16 feet only, or one-fifth of the
span. The total available waterway of the bridge is 38,400
superficial feet clear of any contraction, and as the maximum
LI

ROADS IN INDIA
97
ROAD BRIDGE OVER THE KANHAN RIVER AT KAMTHI.
98
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
flood discharge of the point of crossing is calculated at about
458,000 cubic feet per second, a current velocity of 12 feet per
second is required to pass the highest floods. The bed of the
river consists of pure sand overlying Gneiss rock. The latter is
found almost on the surface immediately below the northern
bank, but dips gradually and irregularly to about 30 to 32
feet below the lowest water-level on the southern side of the
river. The piers and abutments of the bridge are everywhere
carried down to the solid rock, which was cut into level benches
to receive the lowest foundation courses of masonry.
The construction of the present Kanhan bridge was com-
menced in the year 1866. Several years before this date, how-
ever, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to bridge the
river, at an ill-chosen spot, situated about a mile higher up the
stream, where the channel was contracted in passing through a
gorge, just below the confluence of three large rivers, viz. the
Pench, Koilar, and Kanhan, and where, during high floods, the
velocity of the current was necessarily extremely rapid. This
first proposed bridge was designed to have twelve arches of
59 feet span each, springing at a height only 28 feet above the
bed of the river, giving a total water-way of about 17,000
superficial feet. The piers were designed to be founded on
wells, sunk into the sandy river bed, where the depth of sand
overlying the rock below was insufficient for this particular
method of foundation. During the course of a high flood in
the year 1864, all the works under construction at this bridge
were undermined and destroyed ; the piers and foundation
wells being completely overturned and carried away.
At this time, and for many subsequent years, the 185 miles
of road between Nagpur and Jubbulpore, was perhaps the most
important link of communication in India, connecting, as it
then did, the terminal points of the open line of railway from
Bombay on the one side, with the East Indian Railway system
on the other. For many years all passengers and mails, to and
from Bombay, Calcutta, and the Upper Provinces, had to pass
between the two railway termini at Nagpur and Jubbulpore,
by means of this line of communication, until that difficult and
expensive portion of the Great Indian Peninsula main line,
traversing the Nerbudda valley between Khandwa and Jubbul-
ROADS IN INDIA
99
pore, was completed. The removal of the obstruction to traffic
caused by the Kanhan river, during the four or five months of
the rainy season, was, therefore, a matter of such considerable
moment, that after the destruction of the works on the first
bridge, it was almost immediately determined to commence the
construction of the present one, on a new and much superior
site, and with a greatly enlarged waterway. A short descrip-
tion of this fine work, together with some of the more interest-
ing details of its construction, will afford a suitable example of
the largest class of road bridges in India.
To obtain a secure foundation for the piers and abutments
of the bridge, which would be exposed to the full force of that
great depth and velocity of current which we have already
indicated, it was obviously necessary to commence building
operations on the solid rock, which had been proved by borings
to exist at varying depths, from a few feet on the north side,
to upwards of 30 feet below the level of the lowest summer
flow on the south side of the river. Between this water-level
and the very irregular surface of the rock beneath, the space
was occupied by pure clean sand. In order to lay bare the
surface of the rock at the site of each pier or abutment founda-
tion, it was necessary to excavate and remove this overlying
sand, and whilst doing so to exclude the entry of water, which
would inevitably wash fresh sand into the excavation. This
could only be done by employing what are technically called
cofferdams. A cofferdam, according to the depth or head of
water to be excluded, is formed of a single, or a double row of
pointed piles, driven closely together round the site of a
foundation, so as to enclose it. When the piles are driven
down to the necessary depth and the cofferdam is completed,
the water is pumped from the interior area by means of steam-
pumps, and the solid material within can then be excavated to any
depth desired, within the limit of depth of the cofferdam itself.
In all ordinary cases of the employment of these enclosing
dams, whether single or double, the piles are driven into some
retentive bed of clay or other material, sufficiently firm to serve
as a foundation for the intended structure, and to some dis-
tance below the level of the actual commencement of the
foundation courses. It is obvious, however, that when the
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
foundation material to be built upon is solid rock, into which
the piles cannot be driven, a problem of a very different nature
is presented. In such a case the excavation inside the coffer-
dam has to be carried down to, or even below, the level on
which the pointed piles themselves rest, so that, when the out-
side head of water is considerable, and the surface of the under-
lying natural rock is exceedingly uneven and irregular, it
becomes a most difficult matter to exclude the water and sand,
and prevent it rushing in between the bottom of the cofferdam
and the surface of the rock. During the interval necessary for
the work of levelling the rock surface and building up the
masonry to a height sufficient to enable the lower part of the
dam to be securely stopped from the inside, the rise of water
can only be kept down by an extraordinary application of
pumping-power sufficient to cope with the inrush, which, in
spite of all expedients that may be employed, such as the sink-
ing of bags of clay or cement around the feet of the piles, must
always be exceedingly heavy.
If the pressure or head of water to be excluded is small, a
single cofferdam can be made sufficiently water-tight; but be-
yond a certain depth it is necessary to employ a double dam,
that is, two lines of piling, one inside the other, with an interval
usually about 6 or 8 feet between them. In this case the space
between the two rows of piles is first excavated as far down as
possible by the aid of pumping-power, and bags of clay are
then carefully packed and piled within it. These bags by their
own weight, and by the weight of other bags continually added
from above, gradually sink in proportion as the sand below them
is forced into the interior of the now excavated dam by the under-
flow of the water, until eventually they reach the rock surface,
and serve materially to reduce the rate of inflow through and
underneath the piling, thus enabling the pumps more easily to
cope with the volume of water, until at last the whole interior
area of the cofferdam is laid dry, and the workmen are enabled
to level the surface of the rock, in readiness to receive the first
foundation masonry
It was by the above means that the foundations of the
greater number of the piers, and the large and deeply-founded
1
1
LE
ROADS IN INDIA
101
bottom of the river-bed. In this work, including wet and dry
excavation, about 3 millions of cubic feet, or 130,000 cubic
yards of material, weighing upwards of 187,000 tons were
excavated, of which more than half a million of cubic feet was
excavated below water-level at the site of one foundation alone,
viz., in reaching the rock under the southern abutment of the
bridge, where the size of the double cofferdam employed was
180 feet long and 60 feet broad. The double cofferdams at
the sites of the deepest piers were 80 feet long and 43 feet
broad, the depth of the rock below sand and water-level being
from 15 to about 27 feet. Nearly 20,000 cubic feet of timber
and 18 tons of manufactured ironwork were utilised in the
construction of these foundation cofferdams.
The piers and abutments of the bridge are built of rock-
faced ashlar, hearted with rubble masonry of a substantial
character. The piers are 10 feet in thickness at the top, in-
creasing downwards, according to a batter or inclination of 1
in 24. The twelve spans of the bridge are divided into three
bays, or series of four spans each, by abutment piers of heavier
dimensions, it having been intended in the first instance to
construct the arches in sets of four. Subsequent arrangements,
however, by means of which the timber centerings, or supports
on which the arches were built, were enabled to be left stand-
ing during the flood seasons, permitted the arches to be con-
structed independently of the abutment piers. Four sets of
timber centres for the temporary support of the arches during
construction were, however, employed. These were constructed
chiefly of foot square timber, disposed according to a very firm
and rigid design. During the turning of the archwork, each
centre had to support a maximum dead weight of 570 tons,
and owing to the very flat form of the arches it was absolutely
necessary that the sinkage or settlement of the temporary
timber work under this great weight should be as small as
possible. That the design fully answered the requirements of
the case is evidenced by the circumstance that the maximum
subsidence of the centres under the 570 tons of dead weight
imposed upon them was hardly more than 2 inches.
In the case of every span where it was necessary that the
centering should remain standing during the rainy or flood
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
season, the central supports of the timber work were carried,
either directly or through the intervention of dwarf piers, on
the rock-bottom of the river, and were protected by a heavy
mass of rough stone thrown round them. Several of the
bridge centres, during the construction of the arch-work, were
exposed to the severe action of floods of nearly maximum
volume, with perfect safety and success. The width of the
centres on their upper surface was 25 feet, and their height
from lowest water-level to the crown of the arches was 55 feet.
Including foundations, the maximum height of the centering
reached about 75 feet. In the construction of the temporary
timber work, including renewals during its use, 37,500 cubic
feet of timber, and more than 50 tons of manufactured iron-
work in the shape of straps and bolts, were employed ; the
total weight of wood and iron in each centre being about 300
tons. The temporary centering of the arches cost £17,800, or
at the rate of nearly £1500 per span of the bridge.
As soon as the erection of the first timber centres was com-
plete the construction of the archwork commenced. The arches
of the Kanhan bridge are 80 feet in clear span, 24 feet wide,
and have a rise in the centre of 16 feet. They are of oval out-
line, composed of seven blended curves ; the tangent to the first
curve being vertical. From the haunch stones resting on the
piers to the keystones in the centre, the archwork is built of
radiating stones, each of the full depth of the arching. These
stones vary from 61 to 4 feet long, and are of proportionate
breadth and thickness. Their weight varies from 21 to 1 a ton
each, and the average number in each arch is about 1000, or
12,000 in the whole bridge. The total weight of a single com-
pleted arch is 735 tons, and the calculated pressure at the key-
stones in the centre is 22,000 lbs. per square foot, or 152 lbs.
on every square inch. When the support afforded by the
centres was removed, the average sinking or settlement of the
whole twelve arches was under 1.1 inches, the maximum being
under 2} inches. This exceedingly small settlement was due to
the extreme thinness of the mortar joints between the arch
voussoirs, and to the perfectly even and level bed to which each
arch course was worked before the next was laid on it.
On the successive completion of every arch, the striking of
ROADS IN INDIA
103
.
the centres—that is to say, their removal from contact with the
arch masonry, so that the latter might be left self-supporting, was
effected in the following manner. The centering was divided into
two portions, from about the line of the springing level of the
arches. The upper or arch-shaped portion consisted of six
vertical ribs, firmly braced together, and covered at the top
with “lagging'or planking to receive the arch-stones. Between
this upper portion of the centering and the lower division sixty
iron cylinders, disposed in six rows of ten each, were inter-
posed. Each iron cylinder was 15 inches high and 12 inches in
diameter, and was filled with fine dry sand. The whole upper
division of the timber work, weighing from 90 to 100 tons, was
supported on this sand, through the intervention of sixty wooden
Near the bottom of the latter two holes about an inch in
diameter were bored, and were kept firmly closed by wooden
pegs or plugs, but when it was desired to lower the upper
portion of the centering and detach it from the archwork, the
escape, and the whole mass of timber work forming the upper
portion of the centering to descend in a regular and even manner
for a vertical distance of one foot, or until well clear of the
arch masonry. By this method of lowering the heavy timber-
ing all concussion and jar to the archwork was avoided, and the
operation of striking the centres was performed with the most
perfect ease and success.
The upper line of the Kanhan bridge is crowned with a
massive and boldly projecting cornice of ashlar stone, carrying a
cast-iron balustrade or parapet, the width of the level metalled
roadway over the bridge being 20 feet. The total quantity of
sandstone masonry in the whole structure is 975,640 cubic feet,
or 36,135 cubic yards, of which 158,640 cubic feet, or 5876
cubic yards, is composed of archwork. The bridge was opened
for public traffic in September 1873, the total cost to the local
Government of the Central Provinces, exclusive of the road
approaches, amounting to £109,550, or about £84 per foot run
of bridge.
A short time after its completion the Kanhan bridge was
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
temporarily used to carry—in combination with the road traffic
Nagpur with the rich grain-producing districts of Chattisgarh.
On the recent conversion of this line of railway into one of a
broad gauge, and its extension to join the East Indian Railway
near Calcutta, an independent railway bridge of iron girders
was constructed over the Kanhan river, not far from the site of
the older work, which then reverted to its original character
and use as a road-bridge.
Very little statistical data or information appears to be avail-
able in connection with road construction generally in India.
In the ten years from 1848 to 1858 it is recorded that some
30,000 miles of roads of various classes were constructed, of
which 5000 miles were of the first-class metalled and bridged
type. During the following fifteen years road-making—more
particularly in the Central Provinces and in the Punjab—was
energetically carried on, but the rapid growth of the railway
system from this time gradually diminished the importance of
new trunk lines, except in the hill regions of the Himalayas and
other outlying portions of the country beyond the probable
immediate reach of railways. To such places important new
roads were, and still are being constructed. Local district and
railway-feeder roads--especially in times of scarcity or famine-
have, however, continued to be made in all the chief provinces ;
their construction having in the year 1871 been handed over to
local boards or committees, duly provided with the revenues
or grants considered necessary for the purpose. A sufficient
extension of railway feeder-roads, capable of being kept open
during the entire year, still remains, however, a very urgent
need in many districts.
No accurate estimate can be formed of the total length,
even of the main metalled and bridged roads now existing in
India, but it is stated that during the thirty years previous to
1889 the amount expended from general and local funds on
ordinary roads and bridges throughout the country does not
fall short of rx.1,500,000 1—or a million and a half sterling-
a year, and all important centres of population in the chief pro-
vinces—especially of Upper India-have now long been con-
nected by lines of permanent highway.
1 Indian Administration during the past thirty years. - Parl. Paper, 1889.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
CHAPTER I
NATIVE WORKS
Early introduction of irrigation into India—Rainfall conditions~Bengal-North-
West Provinces-Punjab-Scinde-Bombay and Madras–Modes of ob-
taining water for irrigation-Varieties of canals-Native works—Ancient
inundation canals-Native state of Bahawalpur-Uncertain and irregular
system of irrigation --Madras irrigation Storage tanks—Channel irrigation
by means of 'anicuts' or weirs-Kaveri Delta irrigation The 'grand ani-
cut'-Native weirs—Mode of construction—' Bhandaras' in Khandesh-
Tanks in Mysore and the Carnatic-Examples of large tanks-Ponairy tank
- Viranum tank-Chembrembaukam old and new reservoir- The Cummun
Kaveri Pauk tank-Description of the Madduk Masur tank.

e-
.
HE value of artificial irrigation and
its employment for increasing the
fertility of the soil, was in very
ancient times well known and prac-
tised in India. Its early introduc-
tion is no doubt of Hindu origin,
and its greater or less prevalence in
any district was, as it still is, mainly
dependent on the deficiency or
abundance of the rainfall, and the
supply of water carried by the water-
courses and rivers of the country.
In the extreme eastern districts of
the Province of Bengal the annual
rainfall is so abundant and regular in quantity, that artificial
means of ifrigation are needless, and failure of the crops is
practically unknown. In Behar and Orissa the rainfall is
ordinarily large and even excessive, but less certain ; disastrous
1
111
.
107
108
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
failure occurring at long intervals, such as occurred in the latter
district in the year 1866.
Over a great portion of the Lower Province the high annual
rainfall, added to that precipitated on the slopes of the Hima-
layan range to the north, occasionally floods the rivers with such
great volumes of water as to inundate the country and damage
the crops by excess of moisture. Artificial irrigation is here
more commonly resorted to for the cultivation only of the cold
weather crops.
In the higher Provinces to the north-west, however, the rain
clouds coming up from the sea, before meeting the northern
range of mountains, have first to pass over immense tracts of
highly-heated land, and have already discharged a large portion
of their contents. Hence arises that almost constant scarcity
of water for purposes of cultivation, which renders artificial
irrigation in this region of such inestimable importance.
Still farther to the westwards, over the greater part of the
Punjab Province, south of Lahore, the amount of annual rain-
fall rapidly diminishes, many districts being practically rainless.
In this region, without the aid of water drawn from the great
perennial rivers or from wells, agriculture becomes virtually
impossible. Over a large tract of the central districts of India
the conditions are much the same as in the North-West Pro-
vinces, the average annual rainfall being between 30 and 40
inches, increasing gradually in quantity to the eastwards of
Nagpur.
Along the line of the Western Ghats, from the Gulf of
Cambay to Cape Comorin, the rain-laden clouds from the
south-west principally discharge themselves on the high lands
immediately adjoining the coast, giving a fall averaging 100 to
150 inches ; but, as a consequence, farther inland, over a long
central belt of country extending from Khandesh to the ex-
treme southern point of the peninsula—comprising nearly all
the central portions of Bombay, Hyderabad, and Madras—the
annual rainfall is scanty and inconstant. In the southern por-
tions especially of this tract, owing to the fall of the country,
the water is carried off by the rivers with great rapidity, hence
arises that immense development of artificial tank and other
irrigation, under both the ancient and modern rulers of the
7
11 GU
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
109
country, for which the extreme southern part of India is so
celebrated.
There are three special methods of obtaining a supply of
water for irrigation purposes, viz., by means of wells, storage
tanks, and canals derived from the rivers of the country—any
or all of which may be combined. Canal methods may be
divided into several classes. First, there are simple inunda-
tion' canals, consisting of water-channels, artificial or semi-
artificial, unprovided with any means of regulating and con-
trolling the supply at the head—which lead water away from
the rivers, and are filled only when the latter are in flood, being
incapable of drawing off water at other times. Secondly, there
are canals which may be called 'periodic. These are derived
from rivers having a changeable and uncertain supply. In
order to prevent the water running to waste, some kind of
temporary or permanent dam is constructed across the river
bed, to intercept, store up, and divert the water into the canal,
either during the rainy season only, or more constantly, as the
supply in the river admits. Lastly, there are those which are
called constant or 'perennial' canals. These draw their supply
from rivers which at all times of the year run with a sufficient
volume to supply the canals, without previous storage, and are
supplied with dams or weirs, and necessary works at the head
for raising and regulating the supply of water as required.
Wells, artificial storage tanks, and inundation canals have
for ages been largely employed by the natives of the country,
also to a certain extent periodic' canals; but it is only during
the period of British rule, with small exception, that the great
class of 'perennial' canals have been constructed.
Over the greater part of the Indus basin, the cradle of the
first civilised races in Hindustan, and especially in those almost
rainless portions, where cultivation, without the fertilising in-
fluence of water would have been impossible, evidences of
ancient 'inundation canals' for irrigation are to be met with
in great quantity. These artificial cuts were sometimes of
large dimensions, in some cases they were no doubt originally
old abandoned river-channels kept open by continual clearance.
As their name implies, they could only be of service during the
period when the rivers were in flood.
110
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
In the early part of the year, under the influence of the
growing heat of the sun the water stored up in the form of
snow on the Himalayan mountains is gradually released. In-
creasing volumes descend the Indus and other snow-fed streams,
and the canals are filled; the water reaching its maximum body
during the fierce temperature of the summer months, when for
the purposes of man it is most required; but during the winter
months of the year, the level of the water in the river remains
at too low a level to enter the elevated channels. These inun-
dation canals, together with wells, were the only means of
irrigation available in very ancient times in the Punjab and
Scinde.
A very large number of early inundation canals are to be
met with in the almost rainless regions of the Indus basin,
especially in the great alluvial plain below the junction of the
five Punjab rivers. In size they vary from 10 to 300 feet in
width, from 3 to 10 feet in depth, and are of all lengths up to
sixty or seventy miles. As already stated there are no head
works to control the supply of water, and irrigation from them
is carried on by means of branch cuts leading from the inain
canal, which feed the ininor distributing channels. The exca-
vations are carried at such an angle from the parent stream as
to gain as great a fall as the nature of the country admits.
Owing to the constant encroachment or recession on either
hand of the Indus, these canals are most difficult to keep open
from season to season. The Indus brings down an enormous
quantity of material held in suspension in its waters, which
being deposited along its course causes a gradual raising of its
bed. The banks also are constantly being eroded, thus there
is a continued action tending to fill up the channels derived
from it, necessitating heavy periodical labour to keep them
clear. The greatest deposit takes place in the portion nearest
to the river, where it often reaches 5, to even 10 feet in depth ;
and in order to preserve the original level, stone posts are set
up to mark the limits of clearance required.
Owing to the elevated position of the bed of the Indus, the
highest land is at the river banks, and the inundation canals
are cut through this relatively high margin in order to carry
water to the lower levels removed from the stream. An
IRRIGATION WORKS. IN INDIA
111
interesting example of these ancient canals is that called the
1844 it was described by Lieutenant Maclagan as having a
total length of forty-eight miles, with a fall of 38 feet. The
head was on a side channel at a distance of nearly seven miles
from the Indus. For the first twenty-three miles it passed
through a country covered with jungle, but presenting frequent
traces of former cultivation. It was then becoming yearly
smaller from the defective system of clearing. At the head it
was 24 feet wide, with a depth of 9 feet. This canal in 1854
was enlarged, and its capacity nearly doubled, by the British
Government. One of its main branches or offshoots was also
cleared, numerous villages sprang up along its course, and the
town of Jacobabad was founded in the midst of a barren, tree-
less waste, the tail being extended to the Kelat boundary, near
Khyra Garhi.'1
Another large and ancient inundation canal, originally
following a natural branch of the Indus, is that known as the
- Fuleli ~from Hyderabad, in Scinde, to a point on the Indus
sixteen miles below. The junction of the natural channel at
the latter point was closed by a dam in the time of the Amirs,
and the water was utilised to feed the Gaja Guni and other
canals to the southwards. A large number of the very
numerous ancient inundation canals and their branches in this
part of the Indus valley have during comparatively recent
years been improved and rendered exceedingly valuable for the
wants of this arid region.
In the higher portions of the Indus valley above Multan, and
in the valley of the Sutlej, inundation canals were formerly
numerous, and the rich country of Muzaffargarh between the
Chenab and the Indus, was one sheet of cultivation. In a
former age such canals were conducted from all the five rivers
of the Punjab, and traces of them are perceptible, with ruins of
cities and villages on their banks. In the central parts of the
* Bari Doab,' above the Multan district, the face of the country
is covered with traces of former life and prosperity, due to
* Statement exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and conudition of India
during the year 1872-73.-Parliamentary Paper.
112
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
was diverted into the Sutlej in 1790, had an independent course
to the Chenab.
The chief canals of the upper Sutlej system are the Kanwah
and the Sohag. The Sohag canal leaves the Sutlej a little
below the mouth of the Kanwah, and irrigates the country
between that canal and the river. It is seventy-three miles long,
and has been much improved under British rule, the channel
having been straightened, and masonry outlets constructed. A
continuation of the Sohag is connected with the old Beas by a
cross channel called Nawabbin,' a name derived from the
Nawab of Multan in the last century, who carried the water
into the Beas, and thence into the Multan district, for the
purpose of providing a navigable passage for his wife, who was
travelling down country in a boat. The Afghan rulers left by
Aurungzib were to a great extent, the authors of this system of
irrigation.
In the native state of Bahawalpar a great number of inunda-
tion canals formerly existed, fed from numerous branches of the
Ghaggar—the ancient "Saraswati '—which formerly flowed
through the country to the Indus. After the bed of the
Ghaggar dried up, and the desert sands had encroached over
large districts which had once been fertile and populous, many
of the old branches of the Ghaggar continued for a long time
to be partially supplied with water by cuts made from the
Sutlej to their nearest points, but gradually, year by year, more
and niore land fell out of cultivation, until nearly the whole of
the upper north-east portion of the State became practically a
desert. Since the year 1867, under the fostering care and
energy of the English political agents in power during the
minority of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, a large amount of
prosperity has been restored to these regions. Numerous inun-
dation canals of considerable size and length have been con-
structed, together with some few perennial canals, drawing off
the Sutlej water from below the winter level. Many of the
older water lines have also been reopened, and the blessings of
extended irrigation have once more been diffused over the land.
“The important system of inundation canals from the Punjab.
Statement, etc., ut supra.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
113
rivers, upon which the very existence of the inhabitants of a
vast area in the rainless region depends, was administered in
former times by the people themselves. The whole of this
class of canals within British territory has now long been
placed under the regular management of the Irrigation Depart-
ment. Until a comparatively recent period there was no direct
canal revenue from this class of canals, the returns appearing
only in land revenue.'1
It is obvious that inundation canals, under any circumstances,
afford a very irregular and uncertain system of irrigation, being
entirely dependent on the fixed volume, regular periodicity,
and duration of the river floods. To convert this system of
canals into one of a certain and permanent character, whether
in Scinde or in the Punjab, presents no difficulty beyond that
of expense, but this consideration has exceptional force owing
to the comparatively sparse population and poverty of the
districts where the system is chiefly met with.
· In the southern districts of the Madras Presidency, where the
rainfall is small and exceedingly precarious, and river supplies
are more difficult to obtain, an enormous number of artificial
tanks or reservoirs for the storage of water, some of great
W
size, and displaying in their construction a very high degree of
engineering skill, were, and still are, so contrived as to collect
during the rainy season, and store up large bodies of water for
use during the season of drought. The storage of water in
reservoirs for irrigation purposes, although reaching an unusual
development in Madras, was in early times as it is at present,
common over the greater part of India. In the neighbourhood
of almost every large town, reservoirs or tanks for bathing,
washing, and drinking purposes, are very numerous. These
tanks are usually fed by the surface drainage of the immediate
ground. Some of them are of very considerable size, and are
enclosed by massive masonry walls, having flights of steps at
intervals for the convenience of bathers. Large trees, affording
a grateful shade, overhang the banks, and picturesque temples
or shrines cast their reflections in the water. Many of these
tanks are of great beauty, as that of Saugor in the Central
Parliamentary Paper, vide note, page 8.
HI
114
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Provinces, or the Holy tank in the centre of the large com-
mercial town of Amritsar, in the Punjab. The latter, with its
golden temple in the centre, connected with the shore by a
marble footway, and the quiet seclusion of its surrounding
marginal platform, forms one of the most striking and
beauteous objects in India. 1
The main feature of the ancient irrigation system in the
Madras Presidency was, to a great extent, as it still is, the
employment of large or small tanks for the storage of water,
but channel irrigation was at the same time extensively
practised. The smaller streams of Southern India are frequently
mere torrents, carrying off the water with great rapidity, so
that they become dry after a few hours. In order to utilise
the water for irrigation purposes, it was intercepted by
anicuts or weirs, built across the streams. It is only the
larger and more important rivers that can supply means of
irrigation on a large scale directly from their channels, and pro-
bably all these rivers were to some extent laid under contribu-
tion in former times. The most interesting example is perhaps
the Kaveri Delta irrigation in the district of Tanjore, which,
designed and constructed by native engineers, contained the
germ of the great Delta schemes subsequently carried out by the
British Government. Near the head of the Kaveri Delta, the
ancient native work, called the “grand anicut," was a solid mass
of rough stone, 1080 feet long and 40 feet broad, stretching
across the bed of the Kaveri in a serpentine form at the lower
extremity of Seringham island. It was built upwards of 1600
years ago. The improvement of the Kaveri system of irriga-
tion was the earliest irrigation work undertaken by the English
Government in this part of India.
- Tinnevelly, the southernmost district of Madras, is watered
by the Tambrapurni river by means of anicuts placed at
intervals across the stream, whence channels are led, either
directly for irrigation, or to supply tanks-the number of
which in this district is exceedingly large. The anicuts are
earth-embankments with masonry sluices : they are very
+ Vide “Public Works in the Bengal Presidency,' vol. xviii. Proc. Inst. Civil
Engineers.
? Parliamentary Paper, vide note, p. 8.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
115
ancient native works.'1 In the middle reaches of many of the
larger rivers there are to be found ancient anicuts or weirs of
stone, generally admirably situated, but of rude and imperfect
construction : many are ruined, and others require extensive
annual repairs to keep them serviceable. Advantage was
usually taken of a reef of rocks running across the river, the low
places being filled in with rubble, or random stone, faced on
both sides with large blocks laid dry, and occasionally fastened
together with cramps. There is in most cases much leakage
through the body of these native weirs, but it can hardly be
due to this circumstance, that although they are not provided
with sluices for creating a scour, the river-beds on the upper
side of them do not appear, except in a few cases, to have
been materially raised.2
The sites of many of the old anicuts thrown across the
rivers in this part of the country have often been so judiciously
chosen by the native engineers, that very little expense has
river in the Belari district, at a point where it is divided into
two streams by an island, is an interesting instance. Between
islands, or clusters of granite rock. These have all been
utilised in constructing the long anicut, which itself consists
simply of boulders and blocks of granite thrown promiscuously
together to fill up the spaces between the natural portions. The
irrigation channel taken off above this weir is 25 feet wide and
3 feet deep, with a fall of 1 foot per mile. Nine such anicuts
on the Tumbuddra were constructed by the Rajahs of Bijaya-
angar in 1521 and subsequent years, and irrigation channels of
a total length of eighty-nine miles were led into the valley.
In construction the native weirs are of a simple character,
but nevertheless very effective for their purpose. The up-stream
side is often formed by a slightly battered,' that is, inclined
wall, carefully built of large-sized stones, with extra long ones,
or "headers,' inserted at frequent intervals. The stones of the
top row next the water are sometimes notched together, or
i Parliamentary Paper, vide note, p. 8.
? Vide Minutes of Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. xxxiii.
session 1871-72.
3 Ibid. vol. xxvii. session 1867-68.
116
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
bound with iron cramps. A long apron, or slope, formed of
rough stones thrown promiscuously, extends on the down-
stream side, and along the foot of the slope two or three rows
of very large and heavy stones are carefully laid, to prevent the
escape of the rough stone forming the apron. In some cases
the upper surface of the latter is set with stones regularly laid
by hand, so as to give it a smooth surface. The anicuts are
invariably founded on a rocky bottom ; the construction of
permanent weirs across sandy-bedded rivers having probably
been beyond the skill of the old native artificers.
In the Bombay Presidency the British Government have
inherited from ancient times a series of weirs on almost every
perennial stream in Western Khandesh. These old weirs, or
bhandaras, are found from near the source of the rivers as far
down as suitable land for irrigation exists—or as far as it is
possible to construct them at a reasonable cost. Originally the
weirs, from the existence of curious square holes cut in the rock
near the sites of many of the existing works, appear to have
been wooden structures, or temporary dams of earth strengthened
by wooden posts. Wood, however, became scarce, and now the
dams are either of solid masonry or occasionally of earth and
sand. The number of bhandaras in working order in
Khandesh and Nasik is now about 200, but there are also many
ruined and abandoned ones.
The channels which lead the water off from the bhandaras
to the irrigated fields, usually skirt along the river bank, with
little or no protection against the river floods, until they reach
the higher land. The alignment of the channels show little
regard for cross-drainage or levels. As a rule physical obstacles
are avoided by following a contour line; small streams are
crossed on a level, while the bed-falls of the channels are often
very insufficient. The ground at the commencement is often
very broken, and originally the channels ran for long distances
up the hollows, or intercepted streams, crossing the latter on a
small bank which would be carried away by every freshet, then
down again to get round the hillocks, in and out in a most
11
LE
02
river until more favourable ground was reached ; and in some
places it is extraordinary to note with what patience very
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
117
considerable difficulties have been overcome. The original
channels have in course of time been improved by the construc-
tion of aqueducts and weirs at the crossings of the small
streams, protecting walls have been built and diversions cut to
straighten the alignment. The total area irrigated by these
old works is nearly 24,000 acres.1
The amount of irrigation formerly and still carried on over
large districts in Southern India by means of artificial tank
storage is extraordinary. “Mysore and the Carnatic are
covered with thousands of tanks. In the fourteen districts of
Madras there are said to be some 43,000, all of native origin, with
30,000 miles of embankments and 300,000 separate masonry
works. The tanks are formed in various ways, according to the
accidents of the ground. Embankments are thrown across the
gorges of valleys, high enough to retain a volume of water
proportioned to the irrigable acres situated below. Descending
terraces of land are occupied by a succession of reservoirs, the
higher feeding the lower from its surplus supply. Long slopes
have portions embanked on 3 sides, and the included space
forms a storage area for such volume of water as local wants
call for.'?
It is not known at what period many of the more important
of these works were constructed, although the names given to
them occasionally afford a clew. Some of the larger tanks are
of very great antiquity, and others have undoubtedly existed
for centuries. Many are also of enormous size. In a report
made in 1853 by Colonel Baird Smith, of the Bengal Engineers,
it is stated that the ‘Ponairy Tank' in Trichinopoli had an
embankment 30 miles in length, and a probable area of 60 to
80 square miles. A reservoir-occurring in the neighbouring
island of Ceylon-is mentioned by Sir H. Wood in a paper
presented to the Royal Asiatic Society, having an embankment
11 miles in length; and another in which the water of a valley
is retained over an area of 15 square miles in the rainy season,
and not less than three in the driest period.
The Viranum Tank, still in operation after a fabulous duration,
has embankments 12 miles in length, about 20 feet high, and
i Bombay Irrigation Revenue Report, 1890-91.
? Parliamentary Paper, vide note, p. 8.
118
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
an area of 25 square miles, storing about 100 million cubic
yards of water. It is supplied by a canal taken from the river
Kalerun. The great Chembrambaukam tank, 14 miles from
Madras, has an embankment more than three miles long. Be-
fore its enlargement by the British Government in 1867, at a
cost of over £40,000, it held from 56 to 78 millions of cubic
yards of water, and had an area of 4648 acres, or 74 square
miles. Its present capacity is 103 millions of cubic yards, with
an area of 5729 acres, or nearly nine square miles. It irrigates
from 9 to 10,000 acres of chiefly rice cultivation, and its safety
is secured by six overflows or waste weirs, having a total length
of 676 feet.
'In the district of Guntoor, the Cummun tank embankment
closes a gorge which is little more than 300 feet long; whilst
the area of the reservoir itself measures about eight square
miles. The embankment is more than 100 feet high, made
entirely of earth, with slopes of 2 to 1, the inner slope being
carefully laid over with large stones. On the river Lokain, an
embankment no less than 117 feet high closes a gorge which is
but a little over 200 feet in length, the base of the earthen
embankment measures 400 feet. The Nuggar, ancient tank in
Mysore, has an embankment 1000 feet long, about 85 feet high,
and 600 feet broad at its base. The margin of the tank
measures 40 miles round. The ‘Kaveri Pauk Tank’in North
Arcot is also of very great size and antiquity. It is fed from
the Pallair river : has embankments nearly four miles long,
revetted along its entire length with stone, and irrigates about
7700 acres.
The following interesting description of one of these large
ancient native tanks, which will afford a clear idea of their con-
struction, is taken from a paper read before the Institution of
Civil Engineers in 1872, by Mr. G. Gordon, M.I.C.E.:-
“A good specimen of the tanks is one which the author was
deputed to examine a few years ago, with a view to its restora-
tion. A short description of it will afford an idea both of the
construction of ancient works and the untrustworthy nature of
the data which old works seem to afford for the construction
of new works.' The tank is named the Madduk Masur Tank.
This great work is believed to have been constructed under
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
119
the Annagoondy dynasty, about four centuries ago. It was
formed by an embankment resting on the sides of a narrow
gorge through which the river Choady passed, supplemented by
two bunds or dams, on saddles in the range of hills; that on
from the main bund. The length of the main bund is 550
3 to 1—was revetted with large stone up to a cubic yard in
bulk. It is from 945 to 1100 feet broad at the base, and is
now from 91 to 108 feet high. There was a sluice under the
dam at the east end, about the level of the ground.
“The dam is composed of a strong red earth, with a consider-
able admixture of gravel taken from the sides of the hills on
which it rests. The east supplemental bund has its base 74
feet above the sluice in the main bund, and had also a sluice
under it at the ground-level. The west supplemental bund-
the breaching of which destroyed the tank, seems to have been
of similar construction to the others, and its base was perhaps
50 or 60 feet above the bed of the tank. There is no trace of
any waste weir, and it is probable that the want of this was
the cause of the ruin of the tank. On the main bund there are
what appear to be traces of the water having topped it, and
having cut into the rear slope in two deep gullies. The west
bund had probably a sluice in it which weakened it, as cut
stones were found in the river some way down.
"After this bund was breached, the water cut into the ground
on which it stood to the depth of 100 feet, and would have
completely emptied the tank but for a reef of rock some dis-
tance from the dam on the inner side, which now causes a
waterfall 25 to 30 feet in height, and retains about 10 feet of
water in the tank. On this reef a weir has been built.
From the heights of the dams and the levels of the sluices,
it is probable that the depth of the tank was 90 to 95 feet;
and at that level its area would have been 40 square miles,
and its contents about 1400 million cubic yards of water. The
drainage basin is about 500 square miles, and three-fourths of
it lies within the jungly district containing the spurs of the
Western Ghats. It is found from observation of the discharge
of the river that a good average monsoon supply would not
120
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
exceed 668 million cubic yards, or 16 inches running off. It
is not probable that the average annual rainfall, so near the
Western Ghats, has diminished so much, although it may to
some extent, from land having been cleared of jungle. The
difference between the present supply and what it imust be
supposed to have been, when the tank filled and was breached
(even supposing that to have occurred in an exceptional year),
is probably owing in part to the construction of small tanks on
some of the feeders. The tank as proposed to be restored
would have contained 644 million cubic yards. As regards
the author can find any record.'
CHAPTER II
Native works continued-Details of Madras tanks-Chain system of storage
reservoirs—Construction of native embankments-Absence or insufficient
size of waste-weirs — Description of native calingulas or waste-weirs-
Manner of drawing water from the reservoirs—Little skill displayed
Function of the larger tanks—Remains of old reservoirs—Diminution of
average rainfall-River feeders-Subsequent regulation of river feeders and
waste-weirs by English engineers--Ancient canals in Upper India-Feroze
Shah's canal from the Jumna—Decree by the Emperor Akbar ordering
restoration-Construction of Delhi branch by Ali Murdan Khan-Canal on
left bank of the Jumna-Present Eastern and Western Jumna canals con-
structed on general lines of these old works—The ' Husli' canal in the Bari
Doab--Canal from the Sutlej to Sirhind-Remains of old canal near Meerut
--Traces of embanked canals in the valley of Peshawur-Conclusion of
native irrigation-works.
1
The general principles of construction adopted by the early
tank engineers of the Madras Presidency may be gathered
from the many thousands of examples left by them. The reser-
voirs themselves are of all sizes, and may be divided into several
classes. In some cases the opportunity is taken—as in the
cases already quoted—to close by a dam, or embankment, of
considerable height, some narrow gorge, where a river leaves a
range of hills, and so convert the valley above into a deep
artificial lake. Many of these kinds of tanks have been
breached either from neglect, the insufficient or entire absence
of any provision for escape of surplus water in years of maxi-
mum rainfall, or in consequence of the water finding its way
discharge outlets, which are invariably carried through the
banks. In other cases, long and comparatively low embank-
ments are carried for miles over one or more streams in the flat
country, thus forming above them shallow tanks, often of very
great superficial area. Others again are of a smaller kind, formed
against the natural slope of the country by means of embank-
121
122
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
.
ments thrown up on three sides. Tanks of the last two kinds
are so numerous in some districts, particularly in Mysore, as to
give the idea that as much land is occupied by them as is left
to be irrigated, and probably the reality is not very far from
this.
In Mysore, as well as in many parts of the Madras Presidency,
an ingenious chain system of storage reservoirs, of entirely
native origin, has been developed, involving much skilful lay-
ing-out and contrivance. This system is one admirably adapted
for the special conditions of the localities where it is found,
viz., an exceedingly scanty and precarious rainfall, and the
consequent necessity of securing and saving every particle
of it.
A chain system of reservoirs is laid out as follows. A hill
torrent having a sufficiently lengthy course is chosen, especially
one having several lateral feeders. Beginning almost at the
source, both of the main stream and of the several feeders, a
series of embankments at lower and lower levels, is thrown up
across the valley, each embankment being provided with an
overflow or waste-weir. As soon as the highest reservoir is full,
the overflow passes by the weir-channel into the next reservoir
below, and this being filled, the overflow again passes into the
third reservoir, and so on through the whole series, often ex-
tending over many miles of country. It is obvious that this
system requires a very careful adjustment of the size of the
waste-weirs, so that they may be able to carry off the largest
excess of water that may enter the reservoirs in years of maxi-
mum rainfall, as otherwise the whole series of embankments
might be successively overtopped and breached. Although
very considerable adaptive skill has been shown by native
engineers in the construction of this class of storage reservoirs,
there have also been many failures, owing to miscalculation
in the size assigned to the several overflow-weirs, and many of
the systems still in operation have been from time to time
remodelled by English engineers.
The embankments of Madras reservoirs are usually con-
structed entirely of earth, dug from the bed of the intended
work, of large and often excessive dimensions. No clay wall in
the centre, or what is technically called a "puddle-wall,' is
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
123
employed. The earth is thrown up in thin layers from baskets,
the crowd of workpeople, men, women, and children, walking
over each layer, both in going with their loads and in returning.
By this means a very solid and well compacted embankment is
formed. Generally speaking, except in the comparatively few
larger examples, the height of the embankments of the Madras
tanks does not exceed 15 to 20 feet. Most of them have an
inner slope of one or two to one, coated with a stone-facing set
by hand, 18 inches or 2 feet in thickness, where stone is abun-
dant. In the absence of stone the inner slope is turfed only,
or protected by an arrangement of reeds formed into steps, the
object in each case being to prevent the earth of the embank-
ment being injured by the wash of the waves in high winds.
In some cases there is on the side next to the reservoir a
massive masonry wall, either quite vertical or slightly inclined.
These walls are built of square-shaped dressed stone on the face,
closely jointed and backed with rougher masonry or coarse
concrete. At intervals, bastions or projections occur, serving to
strengthen the walls and to break up its otherwise monotonous
outline. Frequently between the bastions broad flights of steps
of cut stone lead down to the water, enabling the natives of the
place to bathe or wash their clothes. One of the most fruitful
sources of failure in the old native tanks is the entire absence,
or insufficient size, of the waste-weirs, or calingulas (a Tamil
word meaning in this connection waste-weirs '). In order to
prevent danger to the embankment during excessive floods,
storage tanks or reservoirs are, or should, always be provided
with a waste-weir, or weirs, of sufficient width to allow the
escape of all surplus water after the tank has filled. Such weirs
are generally of masonry, built in the land near one end of
the embankment. It is made so much lower than the land it-
self, and the top of the embankment, that any superabundant
water will discharge itself over it.
In the old native practice, all the skill displayed in careful
selection of site, and ingenuity in the construction of the work,
was very often rendered of no avail, owing to want of attention
to or want of sufficient knowledge of these important adjuncts,
and there are numerous examples of fine tanks breached and
made useless from no other apparent cause than the want of
124
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
sufficient length of outlet for surplus waters. These calingulas
often consist of a rough wall of masonry at one end of the
embankment, returned against the pitching or casing of stone
on the face of the slope. At right angles to this wall another
is built to a height somewhat below the level of highest water
which it is proposed to store in the reservoir, and is carried
level until it meets the rising ground. On the outside a rough
stone (apron' or slope is thrown. Along the top of the
caling-ula wall upright stones are erected, generally about 3
or 4 feet apart, and 3 or 4 feet high. When the rainfall is
moderate, or towards the end of the rainy season, the spaces
between the stone posts are filled in with earth, straw, and
rubbish, or a close wall of turf is built up in front of them so
as to retain more water in the tank. When extra heavy rain
occurs this obstruction is removed, or the rising water washes it
away and so escapes. In some cases the surplus water is passed
through orifices left at a low level in the waste-weir wall
itself, which orifices can be opened or closed by planks, or rough
shutters.
Water is invariably drawn from the tanks through long
culverts of brick or stone passing through the embankments.
These culverts are sometimes arched, but are more generally
covered with flat slabs of stone. They are usually placed about
level with the bottom of the tank. The inner end, or head,
of the culvert projects somewhat beyond the toe of the slope,
and is closed at the extremity, but through the upper side a
series of holes, seldom so much as 6 inches in diameter, are cut.
Conical plugs of wood are made to fit into these holes, which
can be inserted or withdrawn by means of long bamboo handles
-often, as may be imagined, an exceedingly troublesome
operation. In some cases long upright stones are erected a few
feet apart, having cross stones at intervals, with holes of proper
diameter cut in them and placed so as to come vertically over
the sluice orifices. Through these holes the long bamboo handles
are passed, serving to guide them whilst inserting or removing
the plugs fixed at their lower ends. In the larger tanks, closed
cisterns having projecting steps are often built at the inner end
of the culvert passages, having plug-holes at different levels, and
various arrangements for reducing the accumulation of mud at
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
125
the entrance to the passages. At the outer extremity of the
culvert the water is generally discharged into a masonry cistern
with raised sides, the walls of which are pierced with holes at
different levels through which the water passes to branch chan-
nels, and is carried to the fields at various elevations.
From want of accurate knowledge, the area of the discharge
orifices is frequently either much too small or too large for the
requirements of the irrigation, and but little skill is shown in
adapting the size of the openings to the head of water and
area of the lands to be cultivated. The larger class of
storage-tanks irrigate directly only a limited area of land ; their
work is to store up a large body of flood-water which would
otherwise run to waste, and let it down the river channel below
the embankment as required. From the river, over long
distances, the water is drawn off by irrigation canals leading to
secondary distributing channels, or into other storage-tanks.
The smaller class of tanks usually irrigate a given area directly,
beginning close under the tank itself. In some cases, as already
mentioned, the water is intercepted by a succession of tanks
at lower and lower levels, each of which catches the surplus
drainage from the fields above it, so that little is ultimately lost.
Besides the enormous number of tanks of all kinds actually
in use, the southern country is covered with the remains of old
reservoirs, which from one cause or another have been abandoned.
In some cases the embankments are intact, but no water is
allowed to collect, the original bottom of the old tank having
been so fertilised by the silt deposited that it has become more
profitable to utilise the area for cultivation, than to employ the
reduced volume of water that would now be impounded to
irrigate the lands below. There appears to be little doubt
that the average rainfall in many districts is at present less than
it was in former times, so that in some cases the old tanks
would never fill, or the supply would be so reduced as to pre-
vent any large area being irrigated. Along the foot of the
Eastern Ghâts numerous instances are met with where both the
beds of the former tanks, and the formerly irrigated land below
them, have both reverted to jungle,
1 Vide Minutes of Proceedings, Inst. of Civil Engineers, vol. xxxiii. session
1872-73.
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
In the old native practice large tanks, in addition to the
rainfall on their own catchments, were fed wherever practicable
by a channel cut from some neighbouring river. The channels
were seldom provided with any permanent arrangements at the
head for controlling the entry of water; consequently, if some
extraordinary fall of rain occurred, either the tanks filled very
rapidly, or if they happened to be already full, the waste-weirs
were quite incapable of carrying off the sudden and violent
influx of water, and so the reservoir embankments would be
topped and breached. One of the chief works first carried out
by English engineers in Madras was the regulation of the volume
of water allowed to enter the tanks through river-feeders, by
placing suitable controlling works at their heads, and carrying
out the necessary alterations in the dimensions of the waste-
weirs, so as to enable them to perform the heaviest duty likely
to be imposed upon them. During the last thirty years con-
siderable improvements and enlargements of many of the ancient
tanks in the southern portion of India have been effected under
the British Government.
Under the rule of the Mohammedan sultans and emperors,
especially in the Delhi districts, attention was from time to
time directed to the construction of canals, either for irrigation
or for the purpose of supplying the wants of large cities and the
fountains and baths of the imperial palaces. Elphinstone
remarks that the reign of the Sultan Feroze Shah was distin-
guished by the enlightened spirit of his regulations, and the
utility and extent of his public works.' Those that still remain
afford evidence of the magnitude of some of his undertakings.
The most considerable of his irrigation works was a canal that
was opened about the middle of the fourteenth century B.C.
* Between the years 1351 and 1388, Emperor Feroze Shah
(Tughlak) drew a canal from the Jumna to water his favourite
hunting-ground at Hissar, but there are no signs of works of
irrigation along the line of his canal, which fell into disuse at
his death. The present Hansi branch of the western Jumna
canal follows the line of Feroze Shah's engineer, and the pastoral
villages at Hissar are entirely dependent on it for the means of
watering their cattle. At Hissar a travelled courtier of Feroze
Shah erected a building to give his master an idea of a ship
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
127
(Juhaz). It is now (or was) used as a store-house for the canal,
for which purpose its ample “hold” renders it very suitable.'
“For one hundred years no water had flowed to Hissar, when
in 1568 the Emperor Akbar issued a decree ordering the canal
of Feroze to be restored.' 1
In the Journal of the Asiatic Society for March 1846, No.
clxxi., Lieutenant Yule published the Canal Act' of the
Emperor Akbar, with some notes and remarks on the history
of the western Jumna canals. A copy of the Sanad of Akbar
Shah Badshah, dated Shamal, A.H. 978 (A.D. 1568), is there
given, and it is believed to be authentic. After mentioning the
earlier work of Feroze Shah in 1351, Akbar says, “ Now that I
have given the district (sarkar) of Hissar to the great, the
fortunate, the obedient, the pearl of the sea of my kingdom,
the star of my government, the praised of the inhabitants of the
sea and land, the apple of my kingdom's eye, my son Sultan
Mahomed Selim Bahadur (may God grant him long life and
greatness), my wisdom wishes that the hopes, like the fields of
those thirsty people, may, by the showers of liberality and
kindness, be made green and flourishing, and that the canal
may in my time be renewed, aud that by conducting other
waters into it, it may endure for ages. For God has said, from
water all things were made. I consequently ordain that this
jungle, in which subsistence is obtained with thirst, may be
converted into a place of comfort free from all evil.
The Sanad records how Akbar ordered the canal to be
excavated deeper and wider than formerly,' and that' on both
sides of the canal down to Hissar trees of every description,
both for shade and blossom, be planted, so as to make it like
the canal under the tree in Paradise,' and adds,' every purganah
will be satisfied with the number of cuts made by Mirab (the
superintendent of the canal), and take no more. . . . He has
power to punish as he sees fit every one who takes water out of
season.
About the year 1626 Ali Murdan Khan—a noble of the
court of Shah Jehan, acting as his engineer--constructed a
branch from this older line of canal to Delhi, first by way of
Gohana, and afterwards, on that failing, by the present channel
1 Parliamentary Paper, vide note, p. 8.
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
passing near Paniput and Soneput. The low ground near the
city of Delhi, through which the surplus water of the Nuzuffgur
swamp escapes to the Jumna, was crossed by a massive aqueduct
of masonry. On arrival at the foot of the rocky hills which
skirt two sides of the city the canal flanks them for a short
distance, and then passes through them by a bold rock excava-
tion sixty feet deep at the crest, a work that must have entailed
immense labour. It then enters the city near the Cabul Gate.
An outlet from the right bank within the city supplies a small
masonry channel which flows through the centre of the Chan-
dni Chowk ?—or silver street-partly open and partly covered
in. The main canal passes through several streets and arrives
at the Negumbod aqueduct, throwing off many minor streams,
and carrying a plentiful supply of water to the palace baths
and gardens. Thence the surplus water, after working some
flour-mills, passes into the Jumna. The Negumbod aqueduct
is a fine mass of masonry, carrying the canal above the level of
the house-tops.1 For 150 years this canal continued to be
efficient, but in 1753 the Delhi branch ceased to flow. Ali
Murdan Khan also constructed a canal on the left bank of the
Jumna. It passed for part of its course exactly on the ridge
between the rivers Jumna and Hindun, and thus afforded facili-
ties for irrigation both to the eastwards and to the westwards
of its course. The bed of this canal having been formed on the
to 372 feet in a distance of 130 miles. This, together with
the difficulty of maintaining a passage across the mountain
torrents near the head, caused it to be abandoned soon after its
construction in 1628. Both the present eastern and western
Jumna canals have been constructed along the general lines of
these old native works.
Under the Emperor Shah Jehan a small permanent canal
was also constructed in 1633, in the Bari Doab. It was called
the Husli canal, and was designed not for irrigation, but to
supply fountains at the royal gardens of Lahore. When the
Sikhs acquired the sovereignty they led a branch to Amritsar,
to supply the sacred tank at that town. The canal followed
i Vide Public Works in the Bengal Presidency,' vol. xvii. Proceedings
Inst. of Civil Engineers.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
129
the natural line of drainage by a tortuous course of 110 miles,
and passed through low ground, which least required irriga-
tion.
During the first surveys made over the districts lying between
the Jumna and Sutlej rivers-now watered by the Sirhind
canals—Captain (afterwards General Sir W. E.) Baker mentions
an old native canal supposed to have been excavated by the
Souba of Sirhind early in the century. This canal was drawn
from the Sutlej a few miles above the town of Rupar, and was
led from thence into the lower ground near the ancient city of
Sirhind after a course of forty-one miles. Shortly after its
construction it appears to have been abandoned, having pro-
bably been rendered useless by a change in the course of the
river at its head, and no subsequent attempt seems to have
been made to remodel it.
Speaking of the districts now watered by the Ganges canal,
Sir Proby Cautley 2 makes mention of an old canal constructed
by one Mahomed Aboo Khan, belonging to a period anterior
to that of British rule in the country. This canal, the remains
of which still exist in the neighbourhood of Meerut, consisted
of a cut made from the West Kali Nadi, near the village of
Rampoor, to the head of a small tributary to the East Kali
Nadi, called the Khodara Nulla, which rises near the village of
Deorala. The length of this cut did not exceed twelve and a
half miles, and its dimensions, judging from the existing hollow,
could not have exceeded fifteen feet in width. The water,
after reaching Deorala, must have passed down the Khodara
Nulla to the town of Meerut, in the neighbourhood of which
are many groves and gardens, and it is supposed that it was for
the purpose of supplying water to these that the canal was
originally projected. . . . The canal was merely excavated to
a few feet in depth, and the water was supplied from a lake
formed by throwing an embankment across the bed of the West
Kali Nadi. The flooding of the valley by this retention must
have done extraordinary damage to the properties within its
limits; the amount of money and labour expended on an
embankment of proportions sufficient to gain the engineers'
i Parliamentary Paper, vide note, p. 8.
2 The Ganges Canal, Sir Proby Cautley.
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
object, must have been very great; and the necessity for an annual
reconstruction of a work which was inevitably destroyed during
the rain-floods, and the certainty that water could only have
reached the mouth of the canal during the dry months of the
year, are facts which reasonably lead us to conclude that no
great benefit was ever derived by the cultivators on the high
lands in its vicinity.
In the valley of Peshawur traces and remains of an embanked
canal drawn from the Swat River, of a probably early date,
have been found, but whether the channel was ever used for
irrigation there is no record. The hill-torrents may possibly
have carried away its principal features, and no doubt this has
often been the case with many old native works, traces of which
are found in many parts of the Punjab and North-west Pro-
vinces.
The number and extent of the irrigation works of nearly all
classes carried out over the length and breadth of India by
native engineers, in many cases long anterior to the rise of
British rule in the country, it will thus be seen, is very great.
English engineers have to a large extent adopted and im-
proved the systems they found already in operation, with the
exception of the great Delta schemes of irrigation on the east
coast, and the magnificent Doab perennial canals in the north,
which are new classes of works of entirely English origination,
the conception and execution of which, dependent on a higher
degree of scientific attainments, were no doubt beyond the
ability of the earlier native engineers.
CHAPTER III
Leading features of modern canal construction Classes of canals—Irrigation
and navigation: often combined in India— Main body of canal-Source
of supply——'Doab'canals— Widths, depths, and slopes-Works at head of
permanent canals—Dams and weirs-Scouring sluices-Protection works
-Aqueducts and passage of rivers-Service bridges-Over-falls, locks,
escape-weirs and drainage-Observations on proposed sketch of modern
canal-systems in India-Unfamiliar character of irrigation works to the
general public--Punjab irrigation–Western Jumna canals — Bari Doab
Canal—Sirhind canals-Swât River Canal -Chenab Canal — Inundation
canals—Sidhnai–Minor inundation canals -General results of Punjab
irrigation.
BEFORE proceeding to place before the reader an outline sketch
of the modern irrigation works of India, carried out by the
direct or indirect agency of the British Government within the
present century, a few words on the main leading features of
canal construction, and the particular classes of engineering
works with which canal engineers have to deal, are necessary in
order that the unprofessional reader may be enabled intelli-
gently to follow the necessarily very condensed account of such
works in the following pages.
There are, then, two primary classes of canals, viz., canals
for irrigation and for navigation. Obviously it is necessary
that the former class should be made so as to flow with a regular,
current, and that they should be fed by some continuous source
of water to make up for that consumed in irrigation. They
should also be so located as to traverse as high ground as
possible, in order that the water drawn from them may command
and irrigate a large area of land, either on one, or better still, on
both sides of them. On the other hand, navigation canals are,
as a rule, better located at a low level, with hardly any current,
so that boats may journey with equal facility either up or down
131
132
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
-unless, indeed, it happens from special circumstances that all,
or nearly all, of the traffic is in the direction of the current
only. It is, however, often necessary or desirable to combine
irrigation and navigation in one and the same canal, in which
case the current is kept as low as may be consistent with the
wants of the irrigation. Combined irrigation and navigation
canals have been very largely constructed in India, chiefly for
economical reasons.
The main body of a canal consists of an artificial water
channel excavated wholly in the soil, or carried by means of
entire or partial embankment, at the required level, above the
surface of the district traversed. The source of supply is usually
some great river having a continuous and ample flow of water.
Nearly all the great rivers of India, owing to the heavy deposit
of silt from their waters, run on beds elevated somewhat above
the level of the immediately adjoining strip of country on either
side of them. In upper India this strip of lowland, which forms
the valley of the river, and marks the general limits of the flood-
deviations from side to side, is called the ‘ Khadir.' The higher
table-land lying between two more or less parallel river valleys
along the whole extent of their course, is called the 'Doab'
or interfluvial tract-from do (two), and ab (water) — i.e.
between two waters.
It is clear that an irrigation canal, to be of any extended use,
should be carried along the highest ridge of the “ Doab’tract,
and that a short cut from the nearest part of the river would
only lead the water into a more or less deep cutting, from which
it would have to be lifted out by pumps or otherwise. Hence
to command the Doab—that is, to be above it, and to control it,
the canal must obviously be drawn off at some convenient point
on the river, situated high up on its channel, at an elevation
sufficiently great to admit of the water being led down by
means of the canal, and at a reasonable expense, to the desired
level of the Doab table-land.
The relative widths, depths, and bed-slopes given to canals
will vary, within limits, according to special circumstances, but
will primarily depend on the quantity of water to be carried,
the nature of the soil, and the necessity or otherwise of provid-
ing for navigation. If the bed-slope given is too great, the
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
133
bottom and sides of the canal may be torn up, or greatly worn;
all foundations of bridges or other works along the canal will
be endangered, and navigation against the current will be
impossible, or difficult. If the slope is very little, a larger canal
will be required to carry the intended quantity of water; there
will also be danger of a rapid deposit of silt and growth of
aquatic plants which may choke up the channel, whilst the
expense of many additional works, such as overfalls or locks, will
have to be incurred. It is necessary, therefore, that a nice
adjustment be made in each case, according to a continually
varying set of circumstances and conditions; the ultimate success
or failure of the canals, both constructionally and commercially,
being entirely dependent on the care taken in these particulars.
The heaviest works in connection with canals are usually at
or near their heads, and at those places where the rivers of
the country, which cross the intended line of canal, have to be
disposed of. The works at the head of permanent canals most
commonly consist of masonry dams or weirs across the supply-
river for holding up the water in a pond or pool above them,
and a “regulator' or set of movable sluices across the mouth
of the canal, which is drawn off from the pool, by means of
which water can be admitted into the canal or shut out.
Dams, when they are made solid, are generally called “ weirs.'
True dams are provided with a regular series of piers and open-
ings in their central portions, the latter capable of being wholly
or partially closed. Solid weirs require to be provided with
sluices fitted at a low level to keep up a scour, and prevent the
accumulation of deposit in front of the canal regulators situated
above them. For properly effecting this purpose they are
usually built in that part of the weir nearest to the canal head.
In long weirs one or more lines of scouring sluices are sometimes
provided in the middle portions of the weirs.
Extensive works to prevent the extremities of a weir or dam
from being turned by the river when in flood, such as massive
and lengthy revetment-walls, wing-walls, and embankments,
are very frequently required, especially where the river banks
are low, as well as protection embankments and training works
to prevent the adjoining lands being flooded, and to keep the
river in a fixed course.
134
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
0
)
After the canal has left its supply river, the next difficulties
encountered are generally in connection with the natural water-
courses of the country which intersect its alignment. Some-
times the canal is carried over these water-courses—or it may
be wide rivers—by means of more or less long and elevated
aqueducts; some of which may be of very great size. Some-
times it is passed under the rivers by a syphon aqueduct. At
other times the river itself is carried by a bridge or super-
passage' over, or is syphoned under the canal ; or if this cannot
be done, the river is made to cross the canal on a level, the two
waters being allowed to mingle together. In this case special
works are provided to control the movement of the combined
water, and direct it as required.
In Upper India the first portion of most of the larger canals,
derived from the Himalayan rivers near the point of their exit
from the hills, have to cross—whilst traversing the low
* Khadir' or valley land—in one or other of the above ways,
many rapid, and when in flood, violent mountain torrents ;
but when once the canals reach the level of the Doab table-
land, their course henceforward lies generally on a ridge
between the principal rivers, and they encounter few serious
obstructions. In proportion to the activity and population of
the districts traversed, canals have to be provided with a
greater or less number of service bridges, or other means of
passage from bank to bank; these crossings are often necessary
at very frequent intervals, and form no inconsiderable item in
the total cost of the irrigation.
In the upper parts of Doab canals especially, where the slope
of the natural ground is very much greater than it would be
proper or possible to give to the canal beds, and where the
width and depth of the canals is at a maximum, arrangements
have to be made to compensate for the excessive slope. This is
done by laying out the bed of the canal in a series of steps.
The points where the bed is let down from a higher to a lower
level are called “falls' or 'overfalls,' and it is evident that
such falls must be constructed of masonry, or other durable
material strong enough to withstand the wearing action of the
water. Often for reasons of economy, or on other grounds, the
position of a “fall' is made to coincide with some bridge,
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
135
super-passage, or other necessary work. Overfalls are made in
a variety of ways; sometimes they are vertical, and are provided
with gratings arranged like the teeth of a comb, to break the
force of the water, and with cisterns to act as water-cushions
below them, or they are made in a curved orogee' form, so
as to deliver the water at the lower level with as little violence
as possible. These works on some canals are often of con-
siderable magnitude and cost. Locks, escape - weirs, and
channels for discharge of surplus waters are also frequently
required, as well as extensive drainage works in some instances,
to prevent the adjoining country being made swampy and
unhealthy.
Such are some of the chief classes of construction met with
on irrigation and navigation canals. In the outline sketch of
the various canal systems of India which follows, it is obvious
that considerations of space will not permit a detailed notice
be in a position to follow and understand the general references
made to these works which he will meet with. Our task in the
following pages is to convey to the reader, in the smallest pos-
sible compass, a clear idea of the very great mass and value of
the irrigation works of India, which have been carried out up
to the present time by the British Government. Unhappily
for our purposes, irrigation works are almost completely out-
side the knowledge and acquaintance of the general public.
Unlike the fine works constructed all over the country in con-
nection with railways, for instance; the magnitude and utility
of which in course of time and travel, have become more or less
familiar to the eye and knowledge of thousands, the splendid
examples of engineering constructions executed for the pro-
vision, control, and distribution of the huge volumes of water
required to fertilise the ever-thirsty fields of the country, are in
general situated far from the main lines of public traffic, are
more or less entirely hidden from popular view, and are familiar
only to those whose duties or interests may be in one way or
another connected with them. Vastly important as large
irrigation works are, and interesting as feats of engineering
skill and daring-scarcely second indeed to railway operations,
they nevertheless embody a class of works which, as a whole,
136
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
gation.
Western
Jumna
Canals.
appeal far less forcibly to popular imagination than those con-
nected with railways, owing in great measure, no doubt, to this
relative unfamiliarity. The works we are about to sketch, in
mere skeleton outline, embody an enormous aggregate ; yet
large as this aggregate undoubtedly is, it represents but a frac-
tion of what is becoming more and more desirable, in order
that the agricultural operations and productions of India may
keep pace with the general advancement in other directions.
The Punjab system of provincial canals contains the first
irrigation work undertaken by the British Government, which
was the restoration of Shah Jehan's old Delhi branch-canal.
About the year 1753 this branch-taken off, as we have lately
seen, in 1626 by Ali Murdan Khan, from Feroze Shah's old
line to Hissar-ceased to flow. In 1817 the British Govern-
ment appointed Captain Blane to restore it, and in the year
1820—after a closure of about sixty-seven years--water was
again introduced into Delhi; irrigation having been com-
menced during the previous year.
A few years later, viz., in 1823, the restoration of Feroze
Shah's original canal to Hissar was commenced, and during the
next twenty years the system now known as the Western
Jumna Canals' was fully developed. The head of the main
channel was situated on one of the numerous side streams into
which the Jumna is divided as soon as it issues into the plains
from the Sewalik, or sub-Himalayan range. Here, by deepen-
ing the channel, and by running out spurs or dams either
partially or completely across the main stream, the water used
to be intercepted. The dams or spurs were rudely constructed
of boulder stones and coarse gravel, taken from the bed of the
river ; the smaller materials being packed into cribs or frames
of basketwork. The intercepted water was first led by an
artificial cut into the Putralla river, and then along the bed of
that stream as far as its junction with the Sombe. In order to
pass the canal water beyond the latter river, a permanent
masonry dam 777 feet long, in place of the old earthen dam
which was formerly employed, and which had to be annually
reconstructed, was substituted in the year 1833.
The foundations of the dam consist of masonry blocks sunk
1
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
137
S
.
blocks are connected on both up and down stream sides, by
lines of curtain works, and the floor is formed on flat arches
abutting on the pier foundations. Both above and below the
dam there is an 'apron' or slope formed of stone, and rough
masonry, retained by timber piles driven closely together.
Beyond this piling, on the down-stream side, is another flooring
of river stone, packed in cribs, and secured against movement
by another line of smaller piles. The floor stretches across the
bed of the Sombe, with abutments twelve and a half feet high
on each side. The whole width is divided into sixty openings
of ten feet each, by fifty-nine piers six feet in height and three
feet wide. The banks of the river are well protected by long
revetment walls—that on the west side, 750 feet long, connects
the dam with a bridge across the canal. The overfalls are
made to diminish in height towards the centre, with the object
of keeping the strength of the current in the middle of the
river, and prevent its setting along either of the abutments.
The piers are furnished with grooves to receive the sluices.1
The peculiar position of this dam and dependent works at
Dadupur, near the confluence of several torrents, all liable to
severe and violent floods, and having no established beds, has
exposed them to many dangers, which have called for the greatest
vigilance in maintaining them. The canal, once extricated from
these rivers, is carried on its course with comparative ease. The
main Western Jumna canal may be said to commence at the
Dadupur dam. As far as Karnal it was originally carried
along the low land of the Jumna river, soon however gaining
the level of the higher country to the westward, where it
presently divided into two branches ; one carrying the water to
Hansi and the other to Delhi. During comparatively recent
years the Western Jumna system has been completely re-
modelled, in order to remove the evils due to its originally
defective and low position, which caused a good deal of un-
healthy swamping of the country along its course, also to
increase the volume of water, to extend and regulate the dis-
tribution, and to improve the navigable character of the main
channel.
1 Vide Colonel Baker's Report on the Western Jumna Canals.
138
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
In 1864 an investigation into the condition of the canals was
ordered, many plans for their improvement were suggested,
but a definite scheme was not sanctioned until the year 1874.
The main features in the alterations of the older works carried
out, were, the construction of a permanent weir and head-works
on the Jumna ; a new main line of canal taken off from the
old channel 15 miles above Karnal, extending as far as the
Delhi branch, in place of about 50 miles of lower and very
defective line, and a new channel along 55 miles of the
Delhi branch itself, together with a considerable extension of
distributing channels and various drainage works.
At the head the main canal is 360 feet wide, decreasing
gradually to 120 feet as water is drawn off. The total length
of the Western Jumna main and branch canals is 280 miles, of
which 243 miles are navigable, with over 900 miles of distri-
buting channels, irrigating in good years about 550,000 acres.
It is said that during the terrible famine of 1837-38 the value
of the crops saved by its waters was £1,462,800, supporting
the inhabitants of 500 villages, who would otherwise probably
have died of starvation. From the beginning it has been an
exceptionally remunerative undertaking. At the end of the
year 1890-91 the accumulated net profits at credit of the canal
amounted to very little short of three millions sterling.1 An
important new branch taken off from the main channel about
the 45th mile, and running to Sirsa, has lately been commenced.
This branch will be 138 miles long, with 500 miles of distribu-
taries, irrigating about 175,000 acres.
Very soon after the annexation of the Punjab in 1849 a pro-
ject for providing irrigation in the arid districts lying between
the Ravi and Beas rivers was taken up by the Government.
As previously mentioned, in this district, known as the ‘Bari
Doab,' an old native canal existed, constructed in 1633 under
the Emperor Shah Jehan, called the ' Husli'canal. Although
constructed primarily for the supply of water to the royal
gardens at Lahore, the channel served to irrigate a certain area
Bari Doab
Canal.
generally so defective that no use could be made of it in the
1 Revenue Report of the Irrigation Department, Punjab, 1890-91.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
139
20
Scau.
alignment of the modern ‘Bari Doab Canal,' although small
portions of it have been incorporated in the distributive
system.
The ‘Bari Doab Canal,' as now existing, was commenced in
the year 1850, but progress on it was much delayed by various
revisions and alterations of the original project. A few miles
of the present system was opened in 1859, but up to the year
1868 no permanent head-works had been constructed, and only
a comparatively small portion of the main and branch canals
were completed. The system has, in fact, been gradually
developed almost up to the present time. The head of the
canal is situated on the Ravi at Madhopur, where the river
issues from a low portion of the Himalayan range. Here, in
1868, the construction of a permanent weir was commenced,
which was completed in 1873. The bed of the river at Madho-
pur is composed of boulder stones of large average size, and
the fall is 26 feet per mile. With such a heavy inclination as
this the velocity and force of the current is of necessity exceed-
ingly great.
The weir consists of two parallel walls of masonry 35
feet apart and 5 feet high, the intermediate space being
filled in with boulders set in cement for a thickness of 3
feet, and there is a long protective apron or slope of boulders
below the down-stream wall. The weir was constructed straight
across the river at right angles to the direction of the current,
but this was subsequently found to be a mistake, as, owing to
the nature of the river bed the scouring sluices provided in the
body of the weir failed to keep up a sufficient scour, so that the
boulders rolled along by the rapid current were banked-up to
the top of the weir-wall, almost across the whole width of the
river, and the deep-water channel near the canal entrance could
hardly be kept open. This, and other experience, has taught
canal engineers that dams or weirs across boulder streams having
a great inclination of bed should be made obliquely to the line
of the current. At Madhopur the difficulties imposed by the
original faulty alignment of the weir have by various remedial
measures been now largely surmounted.
The canal entrance is provided with regulating sluices, and
the canal, 120 feet in width, is led away from the river through
140
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
a deep cutting in the high bank of the river. In the first few
miles of its course it crosses two mountain-torrents, after which
it soon gains the table-land between the Ravi and Beas rivers.
At the 30th mile a main branch diverges and carries the
water to Kasur, near Ferozepur, and from the upper part of
this branch another is carried nearly parallel with the Beas to
a point opposite Sabraon, near the junction of the Beas and
Sutlej. At the 55th mile the Lahore branch is taken off,
and extends to Mean Meer and Lahore. The main canal itself,
after traversing the central part of the Doab, tails into the
Ravi some 60 miles below the last-mentioned town.
The Bari Doab system of canals has a total length of main
line and branches of 362 miles, with 1048 miles of distribu-
taries, commanding an irrigable area of 535,000 acres, or 836
square miles. The estimated value of the crops annually irri-
gated by it now amounts to over £1,600,000. The financial
results of working the canal during recent years exhibits a
steady advance.
The tract of country lying between the upper waters of the
Jumna and Sutlej rivers contains the watershed or ridge line of
division between the Indus and Ganges basins. This watershed
lies much nearer the Jumna than the Sutlej, and the space
between it and the latter was once watered by the Ghaggar,
the ancient Saraswati, a river which, in its higher portion, has
been for a long time unpleasantly familiar to all visitors to
Sirhind
Canals.
country, from the mountains to the Indus, near Rori, in a direc-
tion almost parallel with the Sutlej; but its vast lower beds,
locally known by the names of 'Hakra' and 'Sankra,' have
long been dry hollow wastes. The water in the modern river,
even after the heaviest rainfall, is soon swallowed up in the
ever-encroaching desert sands to the southward.
In this almost rainless region, comprising the districts of
Ludhiana and Ferozepore and the native States of Puttiala,
Jind, and Nabha, west of the Ghaggar, the want of water for
purposes of cultivation was extreme. In the year 1840 Captain
(afterwards Sir William) Baker took a line of levels across the
country from Karnal to Ludhiana. He found that the greatest
elevation of the watershed between the Jumna and the Sutlej
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
141
(lying comparatively near the former river) was 68 feet,
and after further preliminary investigation he ascertained the
perfect feasibility of conducting water from the Sutlej into an
immense culturable area, then almost a dry desert. Nothing
at this time, however, was done, owing to various causes, but
chiefly owing to the difficulties imposed by the intervention of
several native States, which would have to be traversed by the
canals proposed. Twenty years later the project was revived,
mainly on solicitation of the Maharajah of Puttiala, who, so
far as irrigating his own territory was concerned, offered to
defray all expenses connected with the preliminary investigation
and survey, whether the scheme proved practicable or other-
wise. In the year 1869 the matured project for the existing
"Sirhind Canals ' was finally settled, the upper portion of the
works was commenced, and in 1873 an agreement with the
several native States interested was concluded. The main
features of this agreement were, that the work was to be
designed and carried out by the British Government, and that
the entire cost of the main canal and preparation of the project
was to be borne by that Government and the native States, in
proportion to the quantity of water allotted to each. As
regards the branches and distributing channels, each party was
to bear the cost of its own portion. The management of the
main canal and branches was to rest with the Government of
India, but each party was to have entire charge of its own
distributaries, and defray all expenses of maintenance in pro-
portion to the share of the water supply allotted in each case.
The Sirhind canal system as carried out consists of a short
trunk canal drawn from the Sutlej at Rupar. At the 41st
mile a division of the water is made ; one main branch extend-
ing westwards to Ferozepore, mainly for the supply of water to
British territory, and another main branch south-eastwards to
Puttiala, principally to supply the wants of the native States of
Puttiala, Jind, and Nabha. Numerous secondary branches
extend from the above, roughly parallel with each other, in a
south-westerly direction, carrying the water-supply nearly as far
south as Sirsa, and to the upper border of the Bahawalpur
State on the west. The trunk and main branches to Ferozepore
and Puttiala respectively are navigable, and a navigable exten-
!
142
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
sion, 55 miles long, through the watershed, from a little below
Puttiala to a point on the Western Jumna Canal above Karnal
is contemplated, which will form a junction between the Punj-
ab and Bengal systems of inland navigation, through the
Delhi connection with the Agra canal in the North-west
Provinces.
As usual in the case of canals drawn from rivers not far from
where they issue from the mountains, the heaviest portion of
the works on the Sirhind canals lies in the first few miles from
the head, where the channel has to cross several mountain
torrents which intersect the Sutlej valley. A masonry dam
or weir is constructed across the Sutlej nearly opposite the
town of Rupar, and just above the weir a regulating bridge
crosses the commencement of the main canal, 200 feet in width.
The canal is carried through a hill spur in a cutting 45 feet
deep in the highest portion, and with an average depth for
about nine miles of 28 feet. The cross drainage of the valley
is conveyed over the canal by two large masonry over-passages.
Prison labour was very largely employed on this portion of the
works.
The total length of main-line and branches is 542 miles, with
4385 miles of distributing channels. 189 miles of the canals
are navigable, of which 143 are British, and 46 are in native
States. The system commands an irrigable area of over 800,000
acres, or 1250 square miles of cultivation.
The only remaining perennial canals in the Punjab are the
-Swât River Canal,' and the Chenab Canal, the latter a very
recent work, as yet only partially developed, for irrigating the
'Rechna' Doab, lying between the Chenab and Ravi rivers.
The Swât River Canal is a small work, 22 miles long, with
140 miles of distributing channels, situated in the north-
east corner of the Peshawur valley, where the rainfall is exceed-
ingly small and uncertain. The canal, which was commenced
in 1876, is drawn from the Swât river, above a dam constructed
not far from the frontier post of Abuyaee, where the river issues
from the mountains. It irrigates an area of about 89,000 acres
out of 120,000 acres commanded.
The Chenab system of irrigation in the Rechna Doab, which,
when fully developed, will be the largest and most important
Swat River
Canal.
Chenab
Canal.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
143
in the Punjab, is derived from the river Chenab, over which a
fine permanent weir, with connected canal head works at Khanke,
a few miles below Wazirabad, has quite recently been com-
pleted. The main canal (hitherto, pending the completion of
the head works, worked as an inundation canal) is carried down
the high land of the Doab, passing close to the town of Hafiza-
bad, irrigation commencing within a very short distance of the
head. The area irrigable by the existing project is 400,000
acres. The length of main channel and branches was in 1891
91 miles out of 125 projected, with a length of completed dis-
tributaries of 283 miles out of 529. It is under proposal to
double the capacity of the present main channel, to enable
the full power of the new head works to be utilised, the effect
of which will be to very largely extend the irrigable area, viz.,
from 400,000 to over a million acres, or 1563 square miles,
at a cost of about a million and a half sterling (150 lacs of
rupees).
A great number of Inundation Canals have from very early Inundation
times been in operation all over the Punjab Province. Under Canal
systematic administration these canals as a whole may be ranked
as amongst the most remunerative irrigation works in India,
although from the unavoidable irregularity and uncertainty in
their supply of water, they are of far less certain value to the
cultivators than the perennial canals. The greater portion of the
inundation systems now in operation under the management of
the Government of India Irrigation Department, are based on
old native constructions, which have been enlarged, restored,
or improved, by English engineers since the year 1849, others
are of entirely British origination. The lower Sohag and Para
canal is drawn from the right bank of the Sutlej, about 50
miles below Ferozepore. It has 95 miles of main chan-
nel and branches, with about 40 miles of distributaries, and
an irrigable area of 93,000 acres; the area annually irrigated
varying greatly, according to the season, as is the case with all
this class of irrigation works.
An interesting example of one of these canals of recent Sidhnai
British construction is the “Sidhnai' taken from the lower part Caual.
of the Ravi near its junction with the Chenab. Owing to the
small depth of water in the Ravi at the time of year when it is
144
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
chiefly required, it was found necessary to construct a dam to
head up the water. Subsequently a lock to provide for a small
amount of river navigation was added. The dam has been con-
structed on a principle borrowed from a French source, called
the needle system. In this system the level of the water on
the up-stream side of the dam is raised or lowered as required,
by the insertion or removal of a line of vertical timbers called
' needles ; ' each needle being 7 feet 6 inches long, with a handle
18 inches long in continuation, and 5 inches by 31 inches in
section, weighing about 40 lbs. The needles are made to abut
closely the one against the other, in a slightly inclined position,
resting against a timber beam above, the lower end falling into
a notch cut along the crest wall of the main dam. The inser-
tion or removal of the needles is effected from a small foot-
bridge, provided with rails for the passage of trollies. The
support the upper beam against which the needles rest, and to
carry the small rail-bridge.
By closing up, pushing forward, or bodily removing a suffi-
cient number of the needles in any or all of the bays, the level
of the water in the river above the dam is maintained at the
height required to feed the canal, which is drawn off through a
regulating bridge with sluices above the dam. The canal was
commenced in 1884, and the whole irrigation system was in full
operation in 1887. The main channel at its head is 80 feet
wide, and 6 feet in depth at full water, and has a slope of 1
foot in 8000 feet. The length of main line and branches is 58
miles, with 146 miles of distributing channels, irrigating an area
of about 122,000 acres. From the very commencement the
work has proved exceptionally remunerative. In 1891, the
balance of net revenue to the credit of the canal, after paying
interest charges, amounted to over £25,000, after but little
over four years of actual operation. The remaining systems of
minor inundation canals in the Punjab are the · Upper Sutlej
series,' derived from the right bank of the Sutlej below Feroze-
pore; the “Lower Sutlej and Chenab series ' near Multan ; the
• Indus’ and · Muzaffargarh 'series, and the “Shahpur' series ;
the latter drawn from the left bank of the Jhelum. These
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
145
groups of canals have an aggregate length of main line and
branches of 2605 miles, with 591 miles of distributaries, irri-
gating about 1,016,000 acres, or 1558 square miles.
As commercial undertakings the irrigation canals in the General re-
Punjab have been very successful. In the whole Punjab Pro- sults Punjab
Canals.
vince the total expenditure by the British Government on such
works, up to the end of the year 1890-91, amounted to
L6,435,818, in addition to a further sum of £1,402,450 con-
tributed by native States. The total mileage of completed
main and branch canals was 4058 miles, with 7545 miles of
distributing channels, of which 223 miles of main channel and
1940 miles of distributaries are in native States. Of the main
channels 432 miles are available for navigation. The per-
ennial canals, in the year 1890-91, irrigated an area of 2601
square miles, and the inundation canals irrigated 1840 square
miles. The whole area irrigated was therefore 4441 square
miles of cultivation, and the estimated value of the crops raised
by canal irrigation throughout the Punjab in the same year
reached the enormous total of £8,815,777. On the seven large
productive' works constructed by the British Government,
the percentage of revenue earned to capital outlay was 5.91 per
cent., and the net surplus of revenue for the year, after deduct-
ing all interest charges, amounted to £132,747. The accumu-
lated balance of net revenue at the credit of the system of
productive canals in the province, for which interest accounts
are kept-principally due to the valuable Western Jumna
system—was £2,203,187, and including all the inundation
canals L2,926,936.1
1 For details of individual works in the Punjab vide Appendix A.
CHAPTER IV
NORTH-WEST PROVINCES
North-west Provinces irrigation-Eastern Jumna Canals-Ganges Canal-In- .
ception--Head works-General course followed-Branches—First twenty
miles—Slope of the country-Ramipore torrent–Superpassage-Patri
River superpassage-Rutmoo torrent-Solani valley and aqueduct-
Aqueducts and ordinary bridges compared–The Solani torrent-General
description of aqueduct-Embankment-Masonry revetment walls-
Execution of earthworks-First locomotive engine used for constructional
purposes in India--General description of the Solani River crossing-
Details of construction-Piers and abutments-Foundation works and
arching—Completion of Ganges Canal-Opening by Lord Dalhousie
-Subsequent remodelling of canal.
North-west In the North-west Provinces the earliest work undertaken by
Provinces the English Government was in connection with the Eastern
Irrigation-
fern Jumna Canal. This canal, which, as we have seen, was origin-
Jumna Canal. ally constructed by Ali Murdan Khan, under the Emperor
Shah Jehan, was abandoned in 1628 shortly after its construc-
tion, owing to the excessive slope of the bed and the difficulty
of maintaining its passage across the mountain torrents near its
source. It is said to have been partially restored in 1764 by a
chief named Zabitha Khan, but again fell into disuse. The
canal was re-opened under the British Government in 1830 ; the
work of improvement having been commenced in 1823. The
original defect of excessive slope, however, soon again made
itself apparent, and to remedy this, the construction of a series
of masonry over-falls, to correct and regulate the slope of the
bed, was constructed. A portion of the canal was again
remodelled in 1854. A new cut of more than 5 miles in
length was excavated, and the adjustment of the bed slope was
finally completed.
The head of the Eastern Jumna canal is about 3 miles
146
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
147
below that of the Western Jumna system, on the opposite bank
of the river. For the first part of its course it occupies the
shingly bed of the Budhi Jumna for 4 or 5 miles to
Nayashahr, where a masonry dam with 30 sluices was con-
structed across that stream. It then enters a difficult tract of
country, having to cross on the level four mountain torrents
within a distance of 10 miles. Two of these, the Nowgong
and the Muskarra, are wide and rapid, and are furnished with
masonry dams to regulate the flood waters. On gaining the
high ground between the Jumna and Hindun, the canal con-
tinues nearly parallel with the former river, and only a few
miles distant from it, until it again re-enters the parent stream
at Delhi. For a length of about 40 miles the canal is carried
on embankment from 6 to 12 feet above the level of the
country. Its length is 130 miles, with 640 miles of distributing
channels, watering a tract about 120 miles long and 15 miles
broad. The canal commands a culturable area of 589,000
acres, of which 350,000 acres are irrigable by the present
channels. The Eastern Jumna is one of the best-paying canals
in India, returning a very high percentage on the capital
expended upon it by the British Government, which, however,
is short of the full value of the work, by whatever sum may be
assigned as the value of the old native works utilised.
Encouraged by the favourable results of the Western and Ganges Canal.
Eastern Jumna canals, the English Government of India took
up in a large and liberal spirit the consideration of numerous
irrigation projects. In the year 1836 the first studies for a
large original canal to be derived from the Ganges, for the
irrigation of a considerable portion of the Ganges Jumna Doab,
were made, and the supreme necessity for such a work was
terribly illustrated by the fearful loss of life and sacrifice of
revenue entailed by the calamitous famine of the following
year, 1837-38. Complete investigation and detailed surveys
and estimates for various projects were made, and exhaustively
discussed, labours which eventually resulted in the well-known
Ganges Canal.
When this magnificent scheme, which was practically com-
menced only in 1848, was, after various vicissitudes, completed
in 1854, it was the largest work of the kind in existence in the
148
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
'
world. Even at the present time there are few canals that can
compete with it in boldness and originality of conception, and
although the original design and execution of the work in some
important particulars was almost of necessity injuriously affected
by the absence, at the time of its projection, of previous ex-
perience in canal-engineering on anything like so large a scale,
it still remains one of the most remarkable public works of its
class to be found in any country. The early history and
minute description of its engineering details, written by its able
designer and constructor, Şir Proby Cautley, has rendered it
also perhaps better known to those specially interested than
almost any other similar work.
The Ganges Canal commences at Myapore, at a short dis-
tance below the sacred town of Hardwar, almost at the point
where the Ganges river, forcing its way through the “Sewalik'
sub-Himalayan range, debouches into the plains. A little above
Hardwar the Ganges divides into two branches, which again
unite about a mile and a half below the town. The canal is
taken off from the southern, and smaller, of these two branches,
which is carefully regulated and kept clear to feed the canal.
A permanent masonry dam, provided with sluices, is thrown
across the river branch. This dam is 517 feet long between
the flanks, and is pierced in the centre by fifteen openings, each
10 feet wide. The piers, which are 8 feet high, are fitted with
grooves for the sluice-shutters. On either side of the central
openings are overfalls of stepped masonry 182 feet in maximum
height. A tramway, provided with a travelling crane for work-
ing the sluices, extends along the top of the dam, and is a later
addition. At the entrance to the canal is a regulating bridge
of ten openings, each 20 feet wide, furnished with sluice-gates,
which can be raised or lowered by means of capstans. The
bridge, besides serving to carry the canal head sluices, carries
the public roadway from Hardwar to Kunkhut.
By means of the two sets of sluice-gates, viz, those in the
dam, and at the regulating bridge, either the whole amount of
water in the river branch can be intercepted and sent down the
canal, or the whole, or any part of it, can be shut off from the
canal, and allowed to escape through the dam, to rejoin the
main Ganges river below.
I
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
149
From the regulating bridge the canal flows in one continuous
stream for 180 miles, with a bottom width at the commence-
ment of 140 feet, and not far short of 200 feet on the surface of
its full water, diminishing gradually to 80 feet bottom width
at the 181st mile. Here the canal bifurcates into two separate
canals; the point of bifurcation being provided with a regulat-
ing bridge fitted with sluice-gates, precisely similar to that at
Myapore, to control the quantity of water passed down either
branch. One of these branches, 170 miles long, and navigable
throughout, extends with a gradual reduction of width to
20 feet, to Cawnpore. Passing between the cantonment and
the city, it re-enters the Ganges through a series of locks and
gates, adapted for the entrance and exit of boats. The other
branch, also after a course of 170 miles, and a gradual reduction
of width to 20 feet, passes into the Jumna near Hamirpur.
For the first 20 miles of its course from Myapore to Roorkee,
the main canal passes over the ‘Khadir,' or low valley land of
the Ganges river, and is taken across a number of large moun-
tain streams, subject to sudden and violent floods, which
descend from the neighbouring sub-Himalayan range of hills.
Along this tract of apparently level country the slope of the
ground is in reality so great that the beds of these streams
for the greater part of the year consist only of dry sand and
shingle, but during the rainy season they become wild and
foaming torrents. “To carry the great canal——itself a small
river—across such a country—to see it pass silently on, un-
interrupted and uninjured by these torrents, while the torrents
themselves pass through the canal unchecked, as well as over
it, and under it in several places—is a triumph of art and
engineering ability."1
About 6 miles from the head works, the Ramipore torrent
is passed over the canal by a masonry aqueduct or “super-
passage.' This aqueduct carries a volume of water 196 feet
wide and 14 feet deep. The canal passes below through eight
arched openings, each of 25 feet span, on the up-stream side of
which a masonry overfall of 9 feet carries the canal to a lower
S
1. Public Works in the Bengal Presidency,' by Major-General B. H. Tremen-
heere. linutes of Proc., In2st. of Civil Engineers, vol. xvii.
150
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
bed. On the left there is a lock and channel, by means
of which boats can pass round the aqueduct. In the 10th
mile the Patri river is conveyed across the canal by a grand
aqueduct, similar to that at Ramipore, but on a still larger
scale ; the width of waterway for the river being no less than
296 feet, carried on nine arches, extending the whole width of
the aqueduct. The canal passes beneath through eight of these
arches, and a curved masonry line of descent on the up-stream
side carries the water to a 9 feet lower level. The ninth arch
opening is utilised for the lock, bringing the navigable channel
down to the same extent.
In the 13th mile, the canal meets the Rutmoo torrent on
the same level with itself. The flood-water of this torrent,
which carries the drainage of 126 square miles of country, and
which has a bed-slope of 8 feet in every mile, is allowed to
mingle with the water of the canal. It is admitted through
an inlet-dam, consisting of a masonry platform provided with
regulating sluices, and it passes out over another masonry
escape-dam, situated opposite the inlet one. The torrent is
only passed completely across the canal during the period of
highest floods, when communication with the lower portion of
the canal is shut off to the extent required, by the flood-gates
of a regulating-bridge just below the cross-passage. At such
times the flood-waters of the torrent, and the head-water of
the canal itself, both pass over the escape-dam, and are carried
away down the lower channel of the torrent. The escape-dam
is provided with 47 sluice-openings, each 10 feet wide, separated
by piers 31 feet thick, the bottom of the sluice-openings being
flush with the bed of the canal. On each side of the central
portion there are five additional sluices of the same width, viz.
10 feet, but having the bottom, or sill’of the sluices placed
6 feet higher. Beyond these higher sluices, on each side, a
masonry platform extends at a height of 10 feet above the
canal bed. Up to 6 feet in depth of water, therefore, there
is a free passage 470 feet wide. Above this, up to a height of
10 feet, the width of the free passage is increased by the ten
higher sluice-openings to 570 feet, and if the water should rise
higher than 10 feet it passes over the whole width of the
masonry platform, with a total waterway 800 feet long.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
151
In the 16th mile of its course from the head-works at
Hardwar, the Ganges canal encounters the Solani valley and
river, at the very extremity of the low “Khadir' land of the
Ganges, and just before it gains the high ground of the Doab,
a short distance beyond Roorkee. This valley is crossed on a
magnificent aqueduct, having a total length of nearly 3 miles,
a work which at the time of its construction was the most
considerable then attempted in India.
A canal aqueduct differs in no way from an ordinary bridge,
except that it has to carry a water-channel over it, instead of
a road or railway. It is often of much greater width than
other kinds of bridges, and it is obvious that the carriage of a
volume of water, probably of considerable depth, and exerting
considerable pressure, requires that the side walls or parapets,
which in this case support the water, should be made much
thicker than those required for road or railway bridges.
Special precautions also are necessary to prevent leakage in
every part of the structure. The term railway-bridge,' or
road-bridge,' is usually confined to the masonry or iron struc-
ture crossing the ordinary water-channel of the river ; but it is
usual in the case of canal “ aqueducts' to include in the term,
not only the real bridge spanning the water-channel, but
also the whole length of the approach embankments across the
river valley, where these are carried at a considerable elevation
above the natural ground. The reason of this is, that in the
case of railway or road-bridges, the raised approaches on either
side crossing the valley of the river, are usually plain earthen
embankments; whilst in the case of canals, the embankments
are commonly lined with masonry throughout their entire
length, or some other special expedients are adopted to pre-
vent the percolation and escape of water through their sides.
As we have already seen, when a canal meets a natural
river, and it is necessary that it should be carried forward
beyond it, it must either be conducted over the river on a raised
bridge or aqueduct, or it must cross on the level, or it must
be carried by a syphon or tunnel under the river. The adop-
tion of one or other of these expedients will chiefly depend
upon the relative necessary levels of the water in the canal and
the river, at the point of their intersection.
152
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The Rutmoo torrent in the 13th mile having been
passed on the level, in the manner lately described, the Ganges
canal is carried through the ‘Peeran Kulliar' ridge, in a deep
cutting 40 feet deep from the canal-bed to its highest point,
and nearly two miles long. On emerging from this cutting,
the passage of the Solani valley and river commences. The
Solani is a mountain torrent of considerable size, draining an
area above the aqueduct of about 216 square miles ; the drain-
age basin being about 27 miles long and 8 broad. About a
remainder on rapid but gradually decreasing slopes. At the
site of the aqueduct the fall in the bed of the river is 5 feet a
mile, and at highest floods the torrent discharges 35,000 cubic
feet of water per second. The width of the river valley at the
point where it is crossed by the canal is 13,265 feet, or a
little over 21 miles; and the total length of the masonry
works of the aqueduct required to convey the canal over
it, from one extremity to the other, is 15,698 feet, or within a
few feet of 3 miles. The Ganges canal on meeting the valley
is 140 feet in bottom width, with side slopes of 1.1 to 1,
carrying a body of water having a maximum depth of 10 feet.
Essentially, the works constructed to enable these large
natural and artificial water channels safely to get clear of each
other, consist of a massive masonry bridge or aqueduct having
1
height of 24 feet above the river bed, and two masonry pro-
tected earthen embankments, which connect this structure
with the high land on either extremity of the valley; the
masonry protected embankment on the south or Roorkee side
of the river being 2733 feet, or over half a mile long; and
that on the north side being 10,713 feet, or over two miles
long. In addition there are various works for the regulation
of the river during floods, to prevent it wandering beyond its
assigned limits, and for the proper control of the water flowing
over the masonry aqueduct itself.
The general design of the Solani aqueduct will be gathered
from the adjoined illustration and figures. It is not only one
of the largest works of its kind in India, but taking into
account the early date of its construction, it may be considered

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IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
153
as the most interesting and remarkable modern structure in
that country. The total elevation above the river-bed is 38
feet only. Owing to this deficiency of height, as compared
with length, the aqueduct as seen from below is by no means
7
immense breadth and solidity are apparent, with its line of
masonry-channel extending for nearly 3 miles, the effect is most
striking.
Work was commenced on the earthen embankment lying
north of the river in the cold season of the year 1845, and the
whole aqueduct was practically completed by the year 1854.
During the first two years much time was of necessity
expended in manufacturing the enormous quantities of bricks
and other materials required for the masonry; in collecting
the necessary working-plant, and in bringing together, organ-
ising, and in great measure educating, the skilled labour
needed, which at that time was greatly, if not almost entirely,
wanting.
The height of the earthen embankments on the north and
south sides of the river, from the surface of the natural ground
up to the bed of the canal, is variable, but averages about 16
feet over its entire length, and reaches a maximum height of
24 feet. Above the level of the canal bed, the two portions of
the bank forming the canal sides, rise to an additional height
of 12 feet, the width of each being 30 feet on the top. The
total height of earthwork, therefore, averages 28 feet, with a
maximum of 36 feet. At the level of the canal bed the
embankment is 290 feet wide, reaching 350 feet in width on
the lowest ground surface.
Longitudinally through the whole length of the embank-
ments, masonry walls, at a distance apart of 150 feet (or the
width of the canal), are carried. These walls are founded in
the natural ground, and are built up to above the highest
water level in the canal, they are entirely concealed in the
earthen embankment, except the inner portions lying above
the canal bed. This portion is worked back into a series of
steps, which form the interior sides of the canal, along which
the water flows. The internal construction of the aqueduct
embankments, with the enclosed revetment-walls, will be best
154
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
understood from a glance at the figures 1 and 2 below, which
represent an embankment and wall cut open from top to
bottom, on lines drawn across them—or what are called “cross
sections.
FIG. I.

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It will be observed that each line of revetment is formed of
double walls of masonry 8 feet 6 inches apart, and 3 feet
thick; the two walls being joined together above by archwork,
arranged so as to admit the super-construction of the series of
steps forming the actual revetment of the canal sides. The
pair of walls forming the masonry heart of the embankment
are also joined together at intervals of every 15 feet of their
great length of more than twice 21, miles, by cross walls built
between the brick walls, and up to the under side of the arch-
work is filled in with earth or clay, well beaten down, which
formed, in fact, the centering' or support on which the arch-
work was built.
The earthwork of the embankment was executed in a variety
of ways. On the early commencement of the work on the north
side of the river in 1845, earth was dug from side trenches 188
.
.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
155
feet wide and 54 feet deep, and was thrown up to form a raised
bank along the central axis of the alignment. On the south
side the canal excavation through the high ground near Roorkee
furnished material for the first portion of the aqueduct embank-
ment which was pushed forward, and carried out into the valley
working on continuous lines of planks. It soon, however, be-
came necessary to lay down a tramway of light rails, and to
employ large numbers of tip-wagons. At first the tip-wagons
were propelled by manual labour, but as time went on horses in
great measure took the place of men. Eventually, on the 22d
December 1851, a steam locomotive was got to work to haul
trains of earth or “ballast’ wagons across the whole extent of
the valley. This engine, which was named the “ Thomason,' is
interesting as being almost certainly the very first locomotive
engine used for constructional purposes in India.
It was a small but compact machine, with both engine and
tender on one frame, and it was supposed to be able to draw a
maximum load of 200 tons on the level at four miles an hour.
The engine, however, did not turn out a success; meeting with a
bad accident it was discarded at the end of a few months' use.
machinery in the workshops at Roorkee. Inexperience in
management-perhaps a little prejudice against it—and the
want of proper facilities for expeditiously carrying out repairs,
were no doubt the chief causes of the failure.
The double pair of walls in the embankment were built up
to the level of the canal-bed gradually in proportion as the
earthwork advanced in height. The line of rails occupied a
bank raised along the central axis of the work, and at intervals
of every 200 feet cross banks of earth were extended laterally,
right and left, to the revetment walls. These cross banks
served a double purpose, viz., as a passage for carrying earth
for the embankments outside, or to the rear, of the masonry
walls, and also for forming a series of rectangular hollow spaces,
each about 200 feet long, between the central line of rails and
the side walls, which acted as reservoirs or ponds for receiving
and holding water during the rains, thus ensuring a good com-
pression and consolidation of the earthwork in that part of
156
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the embankment immediately below the canal bed, where it
was most desirable.
Outside the revetment masonry, the earthwork above the
level of the canal bed was completed by tip-wagons running on
lines of rails carried along these portions of the bank. The
earthwork filling between the double walls was brought up to
the height necessary to serve as a centering on which the arch-
work connecting them was constructed, this done, the masonry
steps forming the visible revetment along the sides of the canal
were finished off. At each end of the aqueduct embankments,
the masonry revetment walls and earthworks terminate on the
high ground at the edge of the valley, in contact with masonry
bridges and structures built across the canal.
The Solani aqueduct embankments north and south of the
river, over 21 miles in combined length, contain approximately
about five million cubic feet, or nearly 200,000 cubic yards of
brick masonry, and 59 millions of cubic feet, or nearly 21
million cubic yards of earthwork,—a mass of material that,
piled together, would form a pyramid about 700 feet square on
the base, and 400 feet in perpendicular height.
The Solani River itself is crossed by a masonry bridge 1110
feet in clear length. The open waterway is 750 feet long, com-
posed of 15 arched openings each of 50 feet span. The width
of the arches from face to face is no less than 192 feet, and their
thickness at the crown is 4 feet 6 inches. They are segmental
in form, with a rise of 8 feet in the centre. The piers are 10
feet thick at the springing of the archwork, and 121 feet in
height. Above the arches the parapet or side walls of the
aqueduct are 8 feet thick and 12 feet high above the canal
bottom. Between these parapets the water flows with a width
of 172 feet, and a full depth of 10 feet, but the complete width
is divided into two channels, each 82 feet wide, by a longitu-
dinal partition-wall along the centre. At each end of the
partition-wall cross piers are built, fitted with grooves, corre-
sponding with similar grooves in the side parapet-walls, into
which planks can be inserted, so that either half of the aqueduct
longitudinally can be closed and cleared of water whenever
necessary for carrying out repairs. The water in the closed
half is got rid of by discharging it into the Solani River
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
157
through sluices and passages in the aqueduct abutments pro-
vided for the purpose.
As seen from above the four corners of the structure are
terminated by rusticated wing-walls, surmounted by pedestals,
each carrying a recumbent lion, constructed of masonry and
stuccoed. The lions face inwards towards the river, seeming
to guard the portal by which the Solani is permitted to
pass through the works. Other lions facing outwards are
placed at the extreme ends of the masonry-protected
approaches.
The piers and abutments of the main aqueduct are founded
on blocks of brick masonry, sunk 20 feet deep into the river
bed, which consists of sand intermixed with clay. The blocks
are each 20 feet square, and are therefore cubes of brickwork of
20 feet a side. They are each pierced with four rectangular
(or octagonal) openings or wells 'through which the river-bed
material was withdrawn during the process of sinking. Other
blocks of varying dimensions support the 'cutwaters' or pro-
jecting portion of the piers, and the wing-walls and defences of
the abutments. When the blocks were sunk to their full depth
the well-openings were filled in and arched over at the top, so
as to form a level platform on which the piers or abutments
were built up.
The total width of the foundation works of the Solani aque-
duct is 252 feet, and the quantity of masonry sunk out of
sight below the river bed is probably not far from that visible
above it. The construction of the archwork was commenced
on the 1st December 1851, and the last arch was keyed in on
the 4th July 1853. As we have stated, the total width of the
archwork is 192 feet, but in order to lessen as far as possible
the liability to distortion from any unequal settlement of so
wide a mass of masonry, and for purposes of economy in
centering, and general convenience, the archwork was con-
structed from shore to shore, in two half-widths, each of 96
feet. This series of up and down stream arches lie quite close
to each other, but are not actually in contact. The construc-
tion of the whole magnificent work was practically completed
by the end of March 1854.
In addition to the fine works above specially referred to, the
158
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Ganges Canal in its short passage of about 20 miles across the
low-valley land of the sacred river, admits into its bed five other
smaller torrents, controlling these uncivilised and turbulent
kinsfolk by means of suitable masonry works. The width of
water-passage for these torrents is in two cases 150 and 100 feet
respectively, in two cases 50 feet, and in one case 30 feet. At
Roorkee the canal gains the high land of the Ganges-Jumna
Doab, and continues its course free from the immense obstruc-
tions encountered in its first section. The main canal lies
along the centre of the table-land between the Ganges and the
Jumna, throwing off several main branches along the ridges
between the intermediate smaller rivers, all adapted for internal
navigation, as well as for irrigation. Irrigation commences
just beyond Roorkee, at a little over 20 miles from the head-
works.
Water was admitted into the canal by Lord Dalhousie on
on the 8th April 1854. It is said that before the opening of
the canal a considerable body of the Hindu priests, attached to
the numerous temples situated along the bank of the river in
front of the town of Hardwar, steadily refused to believe that
the water of the Holy Ganges would ever consent to enter the
canal, and so confident were they in this opinion that they
formed themselves into a solid phalanx in the bed of the canal,
just below the intake of the water, so that when the sluices were
opened they might from this apparently dangerous position,
duly emphasise before the assembled people the great miracle
that would take place. As however the Ganges water proved
amenable to the laws of gravity, the canal bed was expeditiously
abandoned very soon after the gates were opened. This story
may have some slight basis of fact, but is probably in the main
apocryphal. The enormous benefit conferred on the community
by the Ganges Canal is illustrated by the statement that pro-
bably as many lives were saved by it in Bengal during the year
1865-66 as perished during the same terrible year in Orissa.
From statistics showing the amount of grain carried down country
from the canal districts by the East Indian Railway, and by
river transport, it is estimated that the canal in that year fed
little short of 21 millions of people. In the same year it re-
paid to the country more than its then total cost.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
159
Subsequent experience showed that the slope allowed to the
bed of the Ganges Canal was too great to allow, without danger-
ous erosion, the passage of the full volume of water originally
contemplated, and some considerable remodelling was necessi-
tated, which has proved successful in removing the main evils.
CHAPTER V
NORTH-WEST PROVINCES
Lower Ganges Canal : outline of newer system Description and details of weir
at Narora-Original Nadrai aqueduct-Partial destruction by floods--The
new Nadrai aqueductDetails of the structure-Foundation arches and
general construction–Agra Canal-General course followed-Description
of head works at Okla-First example of a weir in India crossing a river
bed of fine sand of unknown depth-Betwa Canal-Origin of project-
Particulars of head weir—Minor canals in the North-west Provinces—The
Dun canals—The Rohilkund and Bignor canals--General results of irriga-
tion in the North-west Provinces.
Lower Ganges THE Ganges Canal as originally constructed was fully able to
Canal.
supply the wants of the upper portion of the Ganges-Jumna
Doab, but lower down there remained large districts over which
its influence did not, and could not, extend. This consideration
led to the projection and subsequent construction of a lower
system of canals derived from the Ganges, from above a weir
which has been constructed at Narora, a place situated a few
miles below Rajghat, where the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway
crosses the river. In order to apportion a better distribution
of the available water between the upper and lower halves of
the Doab, various additions and extensions of the main branches
and distributaries of the original work were incorporated in the
new scheme.
The whole system of irrigation in the Ganges-Jumna Doab
has for purposes of administrative convenience of late years
been divided between what are now called the “Upper' and
"Lower' Ganges Canals, the lower portions of Sir Proby Cautley's
original work forming a part of the latter. The lines of main
canal and principal branches of the whole combined system are
exhibited on the accompanying map, and it will be convenient
to consider the details of the upper and lower canals separately,
160

HYMALAY.
LAYAN MOUNTAIN
SEWALIC
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VAKANLI
GANGES JUMNA DOAB. NWP.
Showing Ganges Canal.
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IZ
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Reorkee
S
Scale 64 Miles to the Inch.
oiput
astern Jumna
Western Jumna canal
MEERU
mwest Kali Nadina
lumna Canal
CANCES RIVER
Narora Weir
Futehgurn Branch
LUCKNOW
I|Rohtuck
Delhi Branch
and Futehgurh
WOKDAver
ALLAHABAD
DELHI
Bulunshar Branch
TANGESMEANAL
KALI NADI
CAWNPORE
JUMNA RIVER
moinde in
Futlepore)
Muttra
Agra Canal
AGRA
R. Chambul
Betwa Canal
R. Betwa
Hamirpore
C Drummond &C., Lith.14,Henrietta St, Covent Garden, W.C.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
161
as they are now officially divided. The Upper Ganges Canal
has a length of main line and branches of 456 miles, of which
213 miles are navigable, with upwards of 2500 miles of distri-
buting channels. The maximum discharge of water by the
canal is 6799 cubic feet per second, and it commands an irrigable
area of 1,600,000 acres, irrigating in favourable years about
1,500,000 acres, or 2344 square miles.
The Lower Ganges Canal system, fed from the Ganges River
at Narora, has a total length of main line and branches of 557
miles (including about 300 miles of what originally formed part
of the old Ganges canal), with over 2000 miles of distributing
channels. It commands an irrigable area of 1,187,326 acres, or
1855 square miles, but the system has not yet developed any-
thing like its full working capacity, actually irrigating some-
what less than half of this area. The weir across the Ganges
at Narora, with the adjoining scouring sluices, canal head, and
navigation channel with lock, forms one of the finest and most
imposing engineering constructions in India. It was begun in
the year 1873, and was completed in 1878. This splendid weir,
including the scouring-sluices in prolongation, is 4244 feet in
length, or considerably over three quarters of a mile. At the
point where the weir is constructed, the bed of the river consists
of a very fine smooth sand, which, when wet, is almost fluid.
Into this sand a long line of hollow blocks or wells, each 10 feet
square, was sunk, down to a depth of about 30 feet for a dis-
tance of 500 feet from the scouring-sluices, which immediately
adjoin the canal head, and to a depth of about 10 feet for the
remaining part of the length of the weir. When sunk to the
required depth the hollows in the blocks were filled in solid
with concrete, and on this block foundation the main weir-wall
was constructed, consisting of a wall of masonry 9 feet 9
inches high, and 8 feet thick, extending for a length of 3800
the work has been constructed as an 'overfall’ weir; there is,
therefore, on the lower side, a floor 40 feet wide and 5 feet thick
to receive the water falling over the weir-wall, and along the
lower edge of this floor a line of circular wells, each 8 feet in
diameter, is sunk to a depth of 20 feet below low water. To
prevent the escape of the fine sand between these wells, the
: L
162
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
TI
small spaces between them are filled in by piles driven as closely
together as possible. For a long distance on the down-stream
side of the floor, an apron or slope of large heavy blocks is
thrown to protect the river-bed from the action of the water.
The weir is designed to raise the old cold-weather level of the
water 7 feet, and in order to prevent a heavy deposit of sand
taking place above the weir, which would inevitably block up
the entrance to the canal, a line of scouring-sluices 444 feet in
length, consisting of forty-two openings, each of 7 feet 3 inches
clear width, is constructed on the side adjoining the canal head,
in continuation of the weir proper. The scouring-sluices super-
structure forms a handsome double-storied building, and stands
on a stone and concrete flooring 5 feet thick, 427 feet long, and
155 feet wide, the whole being enclosed and supported by foun-
dation blocks or 'wells,' 10 feet square and 12 feet deep.
At an angle with the line of the weir, the entrance of water
into the canal is controlled by a regulating bridge having
thirty sluice-openings, each feet wide; and to admit the
entrance and exit of boats, a navigable channel, having a lock
150 feet long and 20 feet wide, has been provided at a short
distance above the regulator. About 32 miles from the head-
works the main channel crosses the Kali Nadi at Nadrai by a
splendid masonry aqueduct.
The existing Nadrai aqueduct is a recent structure, having
been commenced in the year 1885, and completed in October
1889, in replacement of an older work which was destroyed
is the latest, so it is also one of the finest of the many remark-
able canal aqueducts to be found in India.
During the construction of the main Lower Ganges Canal,
the original Nadrai aqueduct across the Kali Nadi, or River,
was built in the years 1874-76. The river above the site of the
work was said to receive the drainage of over 2500 square miles.
Owing, however, to its reception of spill-water from Ganges
floods, the data for estimating its true maximum discharge
was somewhat uncertain. The original aqueduct consisted of
feet of waterway, and for an estimated discharge of about
18,000 cubic feet per second. The piers and abutments were
IRRIGATION
163
ORKS IN INDIA
founded on wells sunk in sand to a depth of 18 to 20 feet below
the bed of the river. The canal passed over the aqueduct in a
channel 192 feet wide and 9 feet deep, with a water velocity of
3 feet a second. On the 2d October 1884, this less than ten-
year-old aqueduct was partially destroyed by a very heavy flood
in the Kali, which undermined the foundations and carried away
about a fourth of the structure. On the 17th July of the
following year a still heavier flood occurred, which completed
the destruction of the aqueduct, and it became necessary to
design and commence the erection of an entirely new work
with a greatly increased waterway.
About half-a-mile below the site of the work was an old
native road-bridge, said to have been built more than a century
ago, having a waterway consisting of seven openings of 10 feet
6 inches by 141 feet, and two side openings of 8 by 5 feet,
giving a total water area of 1146 square feet only—or less than
one-half that of the canal aqueduct. This old native bridge-
the existence of which had been supposed to justify to some
extent the waterway allowed in the case of the original Nadrai
aqueduct, was in no way injured by the floods which destroyed
the latter. It happened-as had no doubt happened many
times before—that the earth approach-banks on either side
were washed away for the length of perhaps half-a-mile, giving
an ample passage for the water, and leaving the bridge itself-
not exactly high and dry—but isolated, as an island, in the
middle of the current. It is in this way that many of these
old native bridges of small dimensions find relief, and are saved
from destruction in the highest floods, whilst the massive and
substantial approach embankments of a canal aqueduct, or of a
lofty railway bridge, confine the flood waters to the particular
open waterway assigned, so that if this waterway happens to be
insufficient the bridge is either undermined or overwhelmed.
After the partial destruction of the aqueduct in 1884, and
its complete destruction in 1885, fresh investigations and cal-
culations were made to ascertain the true maximum discharge
of the river, and it was eventually determined to allow in the
new structure an area of waterway more than four times greater
than in the old one destroyed.
The new Nadrai aqueduct over the Kali river, the architec-
164
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
tural features of which are illustrated by the accompanying
engraving, is constructed of brickwork, and is 1220 feet long
over all, consisting of fifteen segmental arch openings of 60 feet
each, carrying the canal, 130 feet wide and 7 feet deep at full
water, at an elevation of 24 feet 3 inches above the bed of the
river. On one side it carries a roadway, 10 feet, and on the
other a bridle path, 5 feet in width. The breadth of the struc-
ture from face to face of the arches is 1484 feet; the extreme
width from nose to nose of the piers being 181 feet. The
thickness of the arches at the crown is 3 feet 9 inches. The
piers are 10 feet thick at the springing of the arches, 12 feet at
at the bottom and 114 feet high above the river bed.
For purposes of economy and convenience the fifteen arches
are divided into three bays or groups of five arches each, by two
abutment piers, which are twenty feet thick at the top.
The aqueduct superstructure is founded on circular wells,
those under each ordinary pier consisting of a single row of
eight wells, each 20 feet in external, and 11 feet in internal,
diameter. The abutment piers and shore abutments are founded
on double rows of wells of 13, and 12 feet external, and 6 feet
3 inches internal diameter. These wells were sunk from 45 to
50 feet into the river bed; the first 25 feet or more being sunk
through sand, and the remainder through a hard, tenacious
clay. When pushed down to the full depth the wells were
filled in with concrete, and the tops were overlaid with a solid
masonry platform 4 feet in thickness, to form the base of
the superstructure. The number of wells sunk was 268, and
their united length was 15,019 feet, or nearly three miles of
brick well-work.
Owing to the great breadth of the aqueduct, the arches were
turned in three, and latterly in two, sections, each one-third or
one-half of the total width of the archwork. The line of
separation between the sections was, after the arches were com-
pleted and had finally settled into position, covered by arch
rings of brickwork, 5 feet wide and 15 inches thick, let into the
upper surface of the archwork.
The main arches cover an area of over three acres, and weigh
over 30,000 tons. The centering on which this immense mass
of arch masonry was constructed, 75 feet in width and 60 feet
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IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
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long, were moved bodily on wheels and tram-roads, from section
to section, or from arch-group to arch-group. By this means a
very great saving in time was effected, with the result that the
arches were built in 176 days, or at the average rate of less
than twelve days per arch, out of which twenty-five days only
were occupied in moving the centerings. Upwards of fifty-
eight millions of bricks were used in the construction of the
aqueduct, and the total cost of the work, including subsidiary
operations, amounted to about £360,000, or thirty-six lacs of
rupees.?
Another of the principal canals of the North-west Provinces Agra Canal.
is the “Agra Canal,' taken from the right bank of the river
Jumna at Okla, about eight miles below Delhi. The Eastern
and Western Jumna Canals, situated higher up the river, draw
off the whole of the water from the Jumna in the dry season,
leaving the bed quite empty; nevertheless, by the time the
river has reached Delhi underground filtration and inter-
mediate drainage has furnished a fresh supply, amounting to
an average of about 700 cubic feet per second during the hot
weather. At first it was contemplated to utilise this water in
the Ganges Jumna Doab, to supplement the irrigation in the
Ganges Canal districts, but eventually it was decided to con-
struct a large canal on the right bank of the river to irrigate
a very dry and parched tract of country lying between Delhi
and Agra.
As it was designed to draw off the whole of the water in the
river Jumna at Okla during the dry season, the bed of the river
between Delhi and Agra would be left practically dry, al]
navigation by the natural stream being of course stopped. The
Agra Canal, therefore, has been made navigable throughout, so
that boats quitting the Jumna at Delhi proceed by the canal,
and rejoin the river through a navigable channel and lock at
Agra. A navigable branch also connects the main canal with
the populous city of Muttra, and an extension of the Delhi
branch of the Western Jumna Canal, to link it with the Agra
Canal, was also designed. Through this link, when the Punjab
1 The data in this description is abbreviated from a paper on the construction
of the new Nadrai Aqueduct, by Mr. W. Good. Vol. cv. Proceedings of Insti-
tution of Civil Engineers.
166
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
system of canals is completed, inland navigation will extend
through the watershed separating the Ganges and Indus basins,
so that boats will be able to traverse the whole length of
country from the mouths of the Ganges to the mouths of the
Indus.
The Agra Canal was opened in the year 1874. It has a
total length of main line and branches and navigable channels
of 134 miles, with nearly 600 miles of distributaries, com-
manding an irrigable area of 240,000 acres, or 375 square
miles. The head of the canal is situated just above the weir
thrown across the bed of the Jumna at Okla. This weir was
the first made in India in a river bed consisting of fine semi-
fluid sand. It consists of two parallel masonry walls 26 feet
apart and 2428 feet long, laid on the river bed itself, without
any sunk foundation. The space between the walls is filled in
with large blocks of stone, well packed. On the up-stream side
of the front wall a heavy protection of loose stone, 40 feet or
more in width, and having a slope of 1 foot in every 4, is
carried from the river bed to the crest of the wall. On the
down-stream side of the rear-wall there is a wide apron formed
of heavy stone, no less than 180 feet in width, with an easy
slope of 1 foot in every 20 feet. The total width of the
weir, therefore, over all is more than 250 feet, and the main
weir walls are so encased and protected by masses of packed
stone on either hand as to be quite beyond the reach of any
scouring action of the water.
The front wall is 8 feet thick at the bottom, where it
rests on the sandy bed of the river, and 4 feet thick at the top,
which is placed at y feet above the lowest water-level. The
rear wall is somewhat smaller. The rise of the river in times of
high floods is about 11 feet, and at such times the obstruc-
tion presented by the weir causes a fall in the surface of the
water of between 3 and 4 feet. There is, consequently,
a very severe action on the down-stream apron of packed stone,
which, soon after the weir was first made, did a good deal of
damage, necessitating the subsequent breaking up of the rear
slope, and binding it together by additional longitudinal walls
carried through it. On the side of the river, where the canal
head is situated, there is a set of scouring sluices, to prevent
1
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
167
the accumulation of sand above; and an embankment is carried
along the river bank for about eight miles to protect the adjoin-
ing lands from inundation, and to prevent the water wearing its
way round the end of the weir. From its regulating bridge at
Okla the canal follows a course nearly parallel with the Jumna,
and at no point very far from it. The tail end of the canal is
led into the river Utongou, about twenty miles below Agra.
So far back as the year 1855 a scheme was proposed by Betwa Canal.
Captain (afterwards Major-General) Strachey for a canal to be
drawn from the left bank of the river Betwa near Paricha, a
point about thirteen miles east of Jhansi, to irrigate the tract
of country lying in the angle between the Betwa and the
Jumna, in the centre of which is the town of Jalaun, and a
party sometime afterwards appointed to investigate the subject
perished during the Mutiny. Nothing was done until the
years 1867 to 1869, when a detailed project and estimates were
prepared, which, however, fell to the ground, and the scheme
was in abeyance until 1872-73, when further studies and
estimates were made. A matured project was finally sanctioned
as a famine “protective' work in 1881, and the existing Betwa
Canal was opened in the year 1885.
A fine masonry weir was constructed across the Betwa at a
point where the river is crossed by several rocky barriers. The
weir, which is of serpentine form, taking in an island and a reef
of rocks in its passage, is 4246 feet long, including the-island,
and 4000 feet of clear construction. In height, owing to the
irregularity of the river bed, it varies from 3 feet up to 60 feet
in the deepest channel. At right angles to, and adjoining the
canal head, a set of four under sluices with a training wall,
stands in front of the canal mouth. The regulating bridge
across the entrance to the canal has five openings of 6 feet each,
provided with sluice gates, and divided by piers 4 feet thick,
The canal starts with a bottom width of 25 feet, and at a little
over twenty miles from the head it divides into two main
branches, one extending to the Jumna near Hamirpur, and the
other tailing into the same river higher up, near Kathaund.
From the Hamirpur branch a secondary branch runs to Kalpi.
The canal has a mileage of main line and branches of 168
miles, with over 300 miles of distributing channels, command-
1
168
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ing about 150,000 acres, but hitherto irrigating only a com-
paratively small portion of this area. Incorporated with the
Betwa canal a small amount of irrigation is carried on from the
Jhansi and Hamirpur lakes through about 70 miles of dis-
tributaries, irrigating about 2000 acres.
Minor Canals. The remaining minor canals in the North-west Provinces
are the “Dun Canals,' the “Rohilkund Canals,' and the “Bignor
Canals. The Dun Canals are situated to the north of the
Sewalik range, between the Jumna and the Ganges. There
are five principal channels, having a total length of 74
miles, and irrigating from 20,000 to 25,000 acres. The
Rohilkund Canals are a group of small irrigation channels
situated in the Bareilly district between the Ramgunga and
337 miles of distributaries, irrigating about 95,000 acres. The
Bignor Canals are a much smaller group in the Moradabad
district, having about 38 miles of channels, and irrigating
about 9000 acres.
General re- In the whole North-west Provinces, up to the year 1889-90,
sults North- there have been constructed by the British Government 1465
west Pro-
vinc
es Canals miles of main canal and branches, of which 535 miles are navig-
able, disseminating the fertilising influence of water through
6646 miles of distributing channels, and irrigating two millions
of acres, or 3125 square miles. The capital cost of these works
amounted to £8,059,300. In the year mentioned above the
total net direct and indirect revenue derived from the whole of
the provincial canals amounted to £370,563, or 4:58 per cent.
on the capital expended.
The accumulated surplus, after deducting interest charges,
amounts to £689,615, or over 81 per cent. on the capital cost
of the works, due, however, to the Eastern Jumna Canal, which,
taken alone, exhibits a clear accumulated net revenue of
£1,357,699. The total value of the crops irrigated by the
North-west Province Canals in the year 1889-90 amounted to
no less than £6,527,234.1
i For details of individual works in the North-west Provinces vide Appendix B.
CHAPTER VI
BENGAL AND CENTRAL INDIA
Bengal Canals—New conditions of rainfall, and peculiarities--Outline of Bengal
Canal system-Orissa Canals—Delta Canals and formation of Delta lands-
East India Irrigation Company—Description of Orissa Canal system-Head
works and weirs at and near Cuttack, Midnapore Canal—General course
and particulars—Sone Canals-Largest scheme in Bengal-Early history-
Description of Sone Canals—Details of weir at Dehree-Construction-
Hidgellee Tidal Canal-Orissa Coast Canal— Particulars of works-Calcutta
and Eastern Canals—Sarun Canal-Eden and Madhuban Canals—General
results of irrigation in Bengal–Central districts of India—Colonel Dixon
and Rajputana tanks.
PROCEEDING now to a consideration of the various irrigation and Bengal
other canals constructed by the British Government in the pro- Canals.
vince of Bengal, we find ourselves at the outset confronted
with an entirely new set of circumstances and conditions. As
we proceed eastwards from the irrigated districts of the North-
west Provinces, and follow the Ganges river towards its delta
at the head of the Bay of Bengal, we find the average annual
rainfall gradually increasing, and the absolute necessity for
irrigation becoming less and less, until, on reaching the extreme
eastern side of the province, the rainfall is so large and invari-
able that any failure of the crops from scarcity of water is a
contingency hitherto unknown.
In Behar, on the western side of the province, artificial
irrigation of the soil from numerous wells, small surface tanks,
or inundation canals, has for ages been commonly practised,
more especially for the extensively grown winter crops, which
cannot be efficiently cultivated without a regular supply of
water. Farther to the south and south-east an increasing rain-
fall and a general prevalence of wet-season cultivation, causes
artificial irrigation to be more and more a means of improve-
ment, of enhancement of the out-turn, and an insurance against
169
170
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
bad years, than an absolute necessity : hence its introduction
has been slow and difficult, being against the conservative
tendencies of the cultivators, who have been, and still are, to a
great extent apathetic, or even actively opposed, to the intro-
duction of artificial irrigation-or rather to payment for the
use of canal water. In the district of Orissa, bordering the sea,
the rainfall is usually large and ample for the rice crops which are
mostly grown, but sometimes, at long intervals, a total failure
of the monsoon occurs, and from the formerly isolated position
of the district such times have been attended with the most
disastrous consequences, as in the terrible famine of 1866.
In this part of Bengal, as elsewhere over a great part of the
province, although the out-turn of the rice fields is greatly
enhanced by the systematic and regular employment of an
unfailing water supply—and is absolutely dependent on it in
bad seasons, the expense of canal water, even at the lowest rates,
is sufficient to create in the minds of the peasants a strong dis-
inclination to use it, and a disposition to trust entirely to the
ordinary chances of the annual rainfall. On the eve of the
famine year 1866 a new assessment of the land-tax was impend-
ing in Orissa, and a popular saying of the peasants is quoted,
which at the time became famous, as follows: “It is better that
one or two of us in each family should die of famine, than that
by using irrigation for our land we should give the government
an excuse for raising the tax on ourselves and our children for
generations.' Of late years, however, some of this prejudice,
and absence of intelligent foresight, has been slowly overcome,
although much remains to be done before a knowledge of the full
benefits and advantages, insured by an unfailing water-supply
for purposes of cultivation, is likely to be at all widely diffused
in Bengal.
From the above and other causes, amongst which to the
circumstance that most of the large irrigation projects, as
carried out in the Bengal Province, are truncated and con-
tracted portions of larger schemes, each provided with initial
main works capable of dealing with a far greater quantity of
water than has hitherto been actually used, and consequently
much more costly works than if they had been originally de-
vised to irrigate only the smaller area, the financial working of
I
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
171
the Bengal irrigation canals has not as yet been a success.
There appears, however, little reason to doubt that in course
of time, as the demand for water increases, and the maximum
number of distributaries capable of being fed from the main
channels are called for and constructed, the canals may become
commercially remunerative.
In the Province of Bengal there are three canal systems of
large size and importance, all of which combine navigation
with irrigation. These are the Orissa Canals,' the “Midnapur
Canals,' and the “Sone Canals.' In addition to these there are
three canals, which are entirely for navigation purposes, viz.,
the “ Hidgellee Tidal Canal,' the Orissa Coast Canal'in con-
tinuation, and the “Calcutta and Eastern Canals.' There are
also three small systems, viz., the "Sarun,' the "Eden, and the
• Madhuban' canals, mostly used for irrigation purposes, and
the ‘Nuddea rivers system, the works on which are designed
for the improvement and maintenance of the river channels,
and to secure a continuous supply of water from the Ganges to
the Hoogly to facilitate navigation.
The Orissa' system of canals irrigate large tracts in the Orissa Canal.
deltas of the Mahanadi and Brahmani rivers. The term
Delta is usually applied to that fan-shaped area of country
which lies between the two main branches of the series of
channels, into which large rivers break up on entering the sea.
This tract of country is generally formed somewhat like the
Greek letter delta' (A), hence the name given to it. The
term, however, strictly includes all the land at the river-mouth
formed by overflow deposit from the river itself.
The formation of a delta is a continued process of land for-
mation, incessantly going on at the mouth of every large river
bringing down great quantities of matter held in suspension in
its water. If we could accurately measure the precise quantity
of solid material so brought down every year by any river, we
should be able to measure the exact rate of the growth of its
delta.' As soon as the river joins the sea, the “silt' or solid
matter brought down by its flood water is slowly deposited.
In process of time a spur of land is built up, which gradually
rises higher and higher. The velocity of the water becomes
more and more checked, and the deposit during the highest
172
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
floods slowly builds up the adjoining land, and forms banks
which are only occasionally topped by the river, which, so long
as it continues confined to its channel, carries much of its solid
material farther and farther out into the sea, lengthening the
spur of new land. Presently the discharge outlet of the river
becomes so impeded by the raised level in its front that during
some extra high flood the banks are burst, and a new channel
or channels are scoured out in the newly-made ground. Such
channel or channels, which soon become important river
branches, take the most direct and shortest road to the sea.
As time goes on, the process repeats itself in the new branches
themselves, and other channels are then successively scoured
out, each in its turn building up new land in its vicinity, which
thus becomes spread out into a fan-shaped prominence. The
whole delta continues to extend itself farther and farther into
the sea at a slowly diminishing rate, until the wearing away
and transporting action of some oceanic current may balance
the amount of deposit brought down by the river.
The irrigation of the Mahanadi and Brahmani deltas was
first suggested about the year 1858 by Colonel (afterwards Sir
Authur) Cotton, who drew up a scheme intended to irrigate
about 21 million acres, and comprised 530 miles of navigation
channels. In the year 1861 a company called the “East India
Irrigation Company was formed, which, under contract with the
Government, undertook to execute in the Deltas extensive
works for irrigation, the opening out of communications, and
the protection of the country from the severe floods to which
it was peculiarly liable. In this district, which is almost a
level plain, the average annual rainfall is as high as 57 inches ;
but the cultivation consists almost entirely of wet-season crops,
consequently any failure or early cessation of the rains leads to
inevitable disaster, and the main object of the works which
were intrusted to the Company was to ensure a large area of
country against recurring risk of famine.
The works were commenced in 1863; but the progress and
development of the scheme proving unsatisfactory, in the year
1868 the Company was bought out by the Government, and
the whole project was revised and re-estimated. Under the
scheme as actually initiated, the Orissa canals were intended to
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
173
irrigate 1,147,000 acres ; but the project was eventually so
curtailed that the works as now completed and contemplated,
command an area of but little over 500,000 acres. The Orissa
canal system—unlike the greater part of those systems which
we have lately described in the Punjab and North-west Pro-
vinces does not consist of a single main canal, giving off
numerous lateral branches, but consists of several detached
canals, derived from the Mahanadi or its offshoots, at the head
of the Delta, from which point, as from a centre, they radiate,
and spread out like the ribs of a fan, following a general course
parallel to the Delta streams.
The head works of the system, which consists of several
weirs and canal heads, lie at, and about, Cuttack, at a short
distance below the point where the Mahanadi issues from the
line of hills along the coast. The weirs near Cuttack are three
in number. The first is situated a few miles above the town,
at Naraje, and is thrown across the “Katjooree' river, close to
the point where this branch bifurcates, and leads off from the
right bank of the Mahanadi. The Naraje weir is 3600 feet
long, and 12 feet high above the river bed. During high
floods, 15 to 18 feet in depth of water passes over the summit
or crest' of the weir wall. Near the right bank a set of
sluices supplies a channel conveying water to the town of
Cuttack. The weir has no canal head above it, its object
being merely to regulate the quantity of water allowed to pass
down the ‘Katjooree,' or the main Mahanadi channel, respec-
tively. The vertical masonry wall, 12 feet high, forming the
weir, is protected on the up-stream side by rough blocks of
stone forming a slope of about 2 to 1. On the down-stream
side, there is an apron of rough stone, varying from 120 to
300 feet wide, composed of very large stones, each about two
tons in weight. The slope is broken up by two masonry walls
running parallel to the main weir wall, and by numerous cross
walls running at right angles to the same, thus dividing the
apron into a series of rectangular compartments, into which
the rough stone is carefully packed.
The second weir is across the Mahanadi itself at Cuttack.
It is 6349 feet, or about 11 miles long, and 12 feet in height
above the low-water level of the river, which rises over 20 feet
174
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
in high floods. The weir is formed of three vertical and
parallel walls, founded on circular wells 6 feet in diameter,
sunk 6 feet into the river bed. The space between the walls is
filled in with rough stone, finished off at the top with blocks of
stone of large size, set on edge, with an inclination towards the
current. In the centre of the weir a set of scouring-sluices is
provided, having wide bays or openings, 50 feet in width,
fitted with folding back gates or shutters, on the French sys-
tem, nearly similar to those described further on in the case of
the Sone weir. There is also a long set of 'under' or scouring
sluices, on the right flank of the weir, adjoining the regulator
of the Central Delta,' or "Talundah' canal, which takes off
at this point. The Talundah canal is 27 miles long, and not
far from its head it gives off a main branch called the “Mach-
gong, 32 miles in length.
The third weir is thrown across a second, and left branch of
the Mahanadi, called the “Beropa' river. This weir is 1980
feet long, and 9 feet high in the deepest part. In construction
it is similar to that over the Mahanadi at Cuttack. From the
pool above the Beropa weir, canals are taken off from both
sides. It is therefore provided with two sets of scouring
sluices, adjoining the canal heads. The canal drawn off from
the right bank is the “Kendrapurni’ Canal, 55 miles long,
giving off two main branches, viz., the “Patamoondi, 47 miles
long; and the Gobree,' 21 miles long. The Kendrapurni
channel runs parallel with the left bank of the main Mahanadi
to Jumboo, on the sea coast. The second canal drawn off
from the left flank of the Beropa weir is the ‘High level canal,"
641 miles long. This channel traverses the foot of the high
ground from Cuttack to Bhuddruck, and forms a connection in
its passage, between the Mahanadi, Brahmani, and Byturni
rivers, obtaining from the two last-mentioned streams a supple-
mentary supply of water by means of two secondary weirs
thrown across them. A small independent canal 63 miles long,
called the Jajepore,' is also led off from above the Byturni
weir.
The Orissa system of canals and distributaries is not yet fully
completed. At the end of the year 1890-91 it had a total length
of main and branch canals of 252 miles (of which 177 miles are
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
175
navigable), with 765 miles of distributing channels. In the
same year it irrigated 189,299 acres. When the project is
completed, as at present contemplated, it will have a total
length of main canal and branches of 284 miles, with 2147
miles of distributaries, and will be capable of irrigating nearly
400,000 acres.
The ‘Midnapore Canal,' the first portion of which was opened Midnapore
in 1871, formed a portion of the original scheme for irrigation Canal.
and navigation canals in Bengal, undertaken by the East India
Irrigation Company, by which Company the works were com-
menced, but they were eventually finished by Government
agency. The canal forms a navigable connection, through
the Hooghly, between Midnapore and Calcutta. It is derived
from the Cossye river, from above a weir which has been con-
structed at Midnapore. The total length is divided into four
detached portions. The first length after a course of 25 miles
again joins a lower reach of the Cossye at Panchkoora, where a
second weir is built across the stream. After crossing the river
through entrance and exit locks, the second length, 12 miles
long, is locked into the Roopnarain river. Five miles lower
down the Roopnarain channel, the canal again leaves it by a
lock on the opposite bank, and the third length, after a short
stretch of 4 miles, reaches the Damooda river, which it also
enters and leaves by locks on either bank. The fourth length,
y miles long, takes the canal to the Hooghly, which it enters
by a lock at Oolooberia. From this point to Calcutta by the
Hooghly channel the distance is 17 miles.
The Midnapore system of main and branch canals has a total
length of 72 miles, all being navigable, and 339 miles of dis-
tributing channels. It commands an irrigable area of 180,000
acres, but actually irrigates from 80 to 100 thousand acres,
according to the season; nearly the whole of the irrigated crop
consisting of rice. A large portion of the revenue receipts from
this canal is derived from the navigation, including the traffic
worked by the steamers of the Calcutta Steam Navigation
Company.
By far the largest scheme for irrigation in the Bengal Pro- Sone Canals.
vince is the system of “Sone Canals,' irrigating an extensive
triangular tract of country lying south of the Ganges. The
176
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
northern base of the triangle extends from Patna on the
east to Dildarnagar on the west, the apex lying at Dehree,
on the Sone, about 25 miles from the point where that river
issues from the Kymore range of hills, and close to the fine
causeway on which the Grand Trunk road crosses the Sone
river.
The first suggestion for the irrigation of the districts west of
the Sone was made by Lieut. (now Major-General) C. H. Dickens,
in the year 1853, who proposed to employ storage reservoirs
situated in the hills to the south. This idea was, however,
abandoned, and a project for utilising the waters of the Sone
river was substituted. In 1862 an offer was made by the East
India Irrigation Company to carry out the works, and a very
large amplification of the original proposal, by means of which
connections would be made with Allahabad on the west, and
with the Hoogly on the east, was mooted, but the scheme
was considered by the Government to be of too extensive a
character. In 1864 an agreement was entered into with the
company for the construction of a restricted system of irriga-
tion and navigable canals, more in accordance with the original
project, lying to the southward of Patna on the east, and of
Chunar on the west. The company, however, failed to raise
the necessary capital, and, after some negotiations, the project
was taken over by the Government in 1868; the small ex-
penditure of £14,000 incurred by the company in preliminary
operations being refunded. In 1869 the works were com-
menced by the Government, but in 1871 it was decided to
restrict the scope of the scheme to the limits as now actually
carried out, principally owing to considerations connected with
the seasonable supply of water to be derived from the Sone
river. The Sone Canals, in outline, consist of the following
works. A magnificent weir across the Sone at Dehree, from
above which two main canals are led off-one from each bank.
That on the east side, or the 'Main Eastern Canal,' is a short
navigable connection, 77 miles long only, from the Sone to the
Poonpoon river. From about the middle of this length the
'Patna Branch Canal,79 miles long, and navigable through-
out, issues, and is carried nearly parallel with the east bank of
the Sone to the Ganges near Dinapore. This branch in its
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
177
course to the Ganges descends through thirteen locks, and
irrigates by means of numerous minor channels the districts
lying between the Sone and the Poonpoon rivers. The second
canal taking off on the west flank of the weir, or the ‘Main
Western Canal,' is also of the short length of 211 miles. At
the fifth mile the “Arrah' navigable branch, 651 miles long,
branches off, and runs with a fairly straight course to Arrah,
terminating in the Gungi nala, which communicates with the
Ganges. There are thirteen locks on this branch, with an
aggregate fall of 161 feet. From its western bank two large
irrigation branches issue, viz., the “Dumaon' branch, 401 miles
long, and the “Behea” branch, 31 miles long. At the ninth
mile the Main Western Canal crosses the Kao river by a large
masonry aqueduct, and at the twelfth mile gives off the ‘Buxar'.
navigable branch, 451 miles long, extending to the Ganges at
Buxar. On this branch there are twelve locks, with an aggre-
gate fall of 154 feet. At the nineteenth mile the Main Western
Canal gives off the Chowsa 'irrigation branch, 39) miles long,
which tails into the Karunmasa nala a few miles south of
Dildarnagar station on the East India Railway.
The whole system of Sone Canals' consists of 3674 miles of
main and branch canals, of which 2184 miles are navigable, and
1488 are exclusively for irrigation. There are also 1211 miles
of distributing channels. The area commanded by the system
is 1,728,509 acres. In the year 1884-85 the canals irrigated a
maximum of 370,661 acres, but the average area irrigated for
the ten years, 1881 to 1891, is 293,153 acres. Hitherto the
Sone system has yielded no return on the capital, inclusive of
interest, spent on its construction.
The site of the enormous weir across the Sone at Dehree is
about 600 yards above the Grand Trunk Road causeway. It
is the longest weir in one uninterrupted line of masonry that
has yet been anywhere constructed, the total length between
the abutments being 12,550 feet, or nearly 2} miles, and its
construction involved the carriage and building up of 750,000
tons of stone. At the point where the weir crosses the Sone
the river has a clear continuous waterway, with no islands in
mid-channel to contract the length of the artificial works.
The banks on either side which are high—are not overtopped
M
1
178
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
11
by the highest floods, and the bed of the river is composed of
coarse sand and pebbles.
The weir consists of three parallel walls, 9 feet high, above
the bed of the river, the spaces between the walls being filled
in with rough stone, finished off at the top by a course of large
sandstone blocks regularly laid. It is founded on a series
of hollow rectangular blocks, or wells,' of rubble sandstone
masonry, sunk to a depth of about 10 feet, and the hollows
filled in with concrete. The blocks are 10 feet by 6 feet
in outside dimensions, with walls 15 inches thick. To prevent
them from splitting during the process of sinking-which was
effected by the use of mechanical excavators taking out the
river-bed material from the central hollow spaces--sets of
blocks were tied together by an arrangement of iron rods,
so contrived that as soon as the set was sunk the rods could
be withdrawn and utilised for the next set. On the up-stream
side of the front wall there is a protective slope of rough stone,
having a slope of 2 to 1. On the down-stream side the weir
apron, about 100 feet wide, extends with a slope of 1 in 10.
There are three sets of “under' or scouring sluices in the body
of the weir, each set 500 feet long; one in the centre of the
river and one adjoining each bank, just below the head sluices of
the two canals led off. These under sluices are constructed with
openings, or bays, of 20 feet each, and the bays are opened or
closed by two sets of folding-back shutters, or gates, the front
set being fitted with hollow iron backstays, or struts, which
act as hydraulic brakes. When the shutter-gates are down the
hollow tube forming the backstay fills with water, but in
moving the shutter, either up or down, the water is forced out
of a small vent hole by a movable piston, or plunger. The
resistance of the water, escaping only through the small hole,
acts as a brake, and prevents the sudden shocks apt to be
caused by the force of the current against the shutters whilst
in motion. The depth of water passing over the Sone weir
during the highest floods is 7 feet, with a maximum velocity
of about 8 miles an hour.
The Hidgellee Tidal Canal,' the Orissa Coast Canal,' and
the “Calcutta and Eastern Canals,' are navigation channels only.
The first, having the Orissa coast canal in prolongation, com-
Hidgellee
U
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
179
mences on the right bank of the Hooghly, just below the junction
of the Roopnarain River, and the two canals together serve to
connect the Hooghly with the water system of Orissa. The
Hidgellee Tidal Canal is 29 miles long, divided into two lengths
—one of 11 miles from the Hooghly to the Huldee River, which
it crosses through locks on either bank—and the other of 18
miles from the Huldee to the Russulpore River, which it enters
• Orissa Coast Canal,' which latter thence extends for a distance
of 971 miles in a south-westerly direction through Balasore,
keeping roughly parallel with the sea-coast.
The Orissa Coast Canal was fully opened in the year 1887-88. Orissa Coast
It is divided into three ranges or sections by locks at the Canal.
passages of two important rivers, viz., the “Soobarnrekha' and
the ‘Burbullong;' the middle section, or that between these
two rivers, being divided into two sub-sections by locks at the
crossing of the ‘Panchpara’ River. The lengths of the three
main sections are 36, 237, and 38 miles respectively, the sub-
sections in the middle range being 17 and 61 miles.
The works consist of the above-mentioned separate lengths
of simple canal with level beds connecting the rivers named,
provided with terminal locks at each extremity to retain in the
canals the requisite depth of water required for the navigation.
The bottom width of the canal varies from 46 to 50 feet, and
the minimum depth of water retained is feet. The canal
embankments are carried to a height of 3 feet above the highest
floods..
During the dry season the canal sections are fed by the tidal
waters of the different rivers connected by them, and during the
rainy season the drainage intercepted by the canals themselves
is utilised. The navigation terminates on the left bank of the
nection with the inland water system of the district.
The Calcutta and Eastern Navigation Canals' have an Calcutta and
aggregate length of 47 miles, and serve to maintain communi- Eastern
Canals.
cation between Calcutta and the Eastern districts of Bengal,
through the numerous channels of the Sundarbands.
The “ Sarun Canal Scheme’ is a small irrigation and drainage Sarun Canal.
system on the Gunduck River, cuts from which supply water
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Eden and
Madhuban
Canals.
General
results.
to numerous old channels which intersect the district. The dis-
tribution of the water is undertaken by the landholders and
planters immediately concerned. The length of main line and
branches is 19 miles only, in addition to which about 28 miles
of supply channels are maintained. The system commands an
area of 64,000 acres, the area actually irrigated being very much
less than this, but varying greatly from year to year.
The · Eden Canal' is a small work for flushing some of the
streams in the Burdwan district with water from the Damooda
River, chiefly to give a good supply of drinking water, and the
“Madhuban? Canal is a very small irrigation work in the
Champarun district.
In the province of Bengal up to the end of the year 1890-91,
there has been constructed under the British Government 710.1
miles of main and branch canals for irrigation, and 1731 miles
of canal for navigation purposes only, or a total length of 884
miles. The irrigation canals are provided with 2315 miles of
distributaries, exclusive of numerous village channels. The
area commanded is 2,483,781 acres, of which in the year 1890-
91, 545,541 acres only were actually irrigated, but this area
varies largely according to the rainfall of the year. The value
of the irrigated crops in the same year was £1,665,481.
The capital cost of the Bengal canal systems was £7,200,196.
None of the four large schemes classed as "major works' have as
yet given any return on the capital, inclusive of interest charges,
and of the minor systems two only yield a small profit. The
net deficit on the whole provincial system of canals in the year
including interest on the capital, in the case of those works
constructed with borrowed funds, the net deficit reached the
sum of £2,754,253. The heavy cost of the Orissa and Sone
systems, the high average rainfall, accompanied by the general
prejudice against the use of canal water at anything like remu-
nerative rates existing in the province, and the absence of any
large irrigation works of long standing, such as exists in the
Punjab and North-west Provinces, to balance the immediate loss
on the newer works, has told with great severity against the
comparative net commercial results of the Bengal canals, but
when that length of time which nearly all irrigation works take
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
181
to fully develop has passed, these canals under careful and judi-
cious management may yet arrive at the remunerative stage.1
Westwards of the great basin of the Mahanadi, across the Central dis-
line of tributaries to the Godavery and Nurbudda rivers, arti- trict
ficial irrigation is extensively practised on a small scale over con-
siderable areas by means of surface tanks, but the country
being for the most part broken up into more or less confined
valleys, is destitute of large and important irrigation works. In
the district of Nimar, acquired from the Peishwa in 1818, a
storage tank 3 miles round, called the Lachma Lake-an old
native work which was found to be in ruins, was soon afterwards
restored, and over one hundred smaller tanks were put in
working order. In the years 1845-46, Captain Ffrench, the
political officer then in charge of Nimar, made a masonry dam
across the Chuli ravine, and another large earthen dam across
the Chapri, thus forming the considerable Chuli' and 'Mand-
leswar' tanks.2
In any account of the irrigation works of India it would be Rajpootana
unpardonable to omit mention of the system of storage tanks Tani
in Rajpootana, in the districts of Ajmere and Mairwarra,
initiated by Colonel Dixon in the year 1835-36. In the ten
years, 1836 to 1846, upwards of 2000 tanks and over 9000 wells
were constructed, irrigating 15,000 acres of cultivation. The
soil of the districts, owing to its sandy nature, is unsuitable for
earthen reservoir embankments. Colonel Dixon, therefore,
largely employed masonry in his dams, in some cases support-
ing a wall of masonry by an earthen bank behind it, in others
building the entire dams of stone. These works were carried
out in the midst of a then notoriously turbulent population,
which was by tact and energy led to agricultural pursuits, and
gradually reduced to order and quiet. The unruly Mairs under
the influence of the improvements effected, were rapidly con-
verted into the peaceful and industrious peasantry which they
have since remained.
Some of the tanks constructed by Colonel Dixon are of con-
siderable size. The' Kabra Tank’in Mairwarra has an embank-
i For details of individual works in Bengal, vide Appendix C.
2 Parliamentary Paper, vide note, page 8.
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ment faced with a heavy masonry wall 620 feet long, 27 feet
wide at the base, and 10 feet thick at the top : the height from
the foundation being 33 feet. Another reservoir in Ajmere
has a dam 60 feet high, built entirely of stone, and many other
works of scarcely inferior dimensions were constructed.
CHAPTER VII
MADRAS IRRIGATION
Madras canals—Delta irrigation schemes-Kaveri and Kalerun deltas-Dis-
tinguishing features of Madras irrigation - Rainfall-Varying conditions in
Northern and Southern India-Immense extent of Madras irrigation--A
few selected examples only possible—Kaveri delta canals—'Grand anicut'
- The Upper' anicut--Effect of works—Area irrigated— Particulars of
irrigation-Godavery della canals-Outline of system and works-Weir at
Dowlaishweram-Kistna delta canals-Kistna weir-Main canals—Pennair
delta canals—Sangam irrigation-Srivaikuntham canals, and outline of
system.
ALL the great · Delta' irrigation schemes of India, with the Madras
exception of the Mahanadi in Orissa, of which we have already Canals.
spoken, are situated in the Madras Presidency, and it is in
Madras that this class of works originated. When the districts
of Tanjore and Trichinopoli first came under British rule, a
large amount of irrigation which had existed from very ancient
times, was found in operation in the delta of the Kaveri and
Kalerun rivers, by means of native works which had made these
districts among the richest in India. The improvement of
these old works--commenced in 1834, nearly sixty years ago
was, with the exception of the Western Jumna Canal in the
Punjab, the earliest irrigation work carried out in India by the
British Government. It is here that the characteristics and
peculiarities of delta rivers, and the special adaptation of delta
areas for purposes of irrigation on a large scale, were first studied
and understood, and led to the extensive irrigation schemes
since carried out in the larger deltas of the Mahanadi, Godavery,
and Kistna, and elsewhere on the East coast.
These great delta schemes, and the wonderful amount of irri-
gation carried on by means of storage reservoirs, of which we
have already made mention, constitute the chief distinguishing
153
184
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
features of irrigation as practised in the Madras Presidency.
South of the Mahanadi basin the general slope of the country
is from west to east. A high range of hills skirts the whole
Western coast from the Gulf of Cambay to Cape Comorin, and
on this range the main portion of the South-west monsoon is
precipitated. A large portion falls over the crest of the ghâts
and abundantly supplies the sources of the greater rivers, which
flow from the eastern slopes of the range, across the peninsula
into the Bay of Bengal, breaking through the line of “ Eastern
ghâts' in their passage at varying distances, but comparatively
near, their entrance into the sea.
Over all the central parts of the country the average rainfall
is less than 30 inches, but below the Eastern ghats---dependent
on the North-east monsoon from the Bay of Bengal—the
average annual rainfall lies between 30 and 40 inches. The
great rivers, in ordinary years, bring down from the Western
hills a practically unlimited supply of water, a supply, however,
entirely dependent on the vicissitudes of the South-west mon-
soon, and which, owing to the heavy general slope of the
country, is—if not intercepted—carried off with great rapidity.
The main crops in this part of India are grown from June
to November, at the time when the rivers are at their maximum
volume. Irrigation from the large rivers, therefore-unlike
the conditions prevailing in Hindustan—is unlimited in average
years. The Northern provinces of India possess in the snow-fed
rivers of the Himalayan range, a regular and perennial source
of supply, but on the other hand, the main crops being grown
in the cold season, the area of cultivation has of necessity to be
adapted to the comparatively small volume of water then avail-
able in the rivers. The essential distinction, therefore, between
the ordinary conditions of Northern and Southern India is,
that in the North, the area of main crops is restricted by a
limited and more or less fixed quantity of water, whilst in the
South the only limitation is the area of cultivable land. The
North has the enormous advantage of a perennial, although
limited supply, whilst the South is too often subject to the dire
effects of a total or partial failure of the seasonable rainfall on
which the irrigation depends. It is principally owing to this
essential difference in the local conditions, that the extraordinary
O
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
185
development and wonderful extent of irrigation-work through-
out the Southern Presidency, as compared with other parts of
India, is to be attributed.
Outside the areas commanded by the large rivers, the country
is mainly dependent on the comparatively small supply of water
in the shape of local rainfall, or that brought up from the Bay
of Bengal by the North-east monsoon. This supply is every-
where utilised, almost to the last drop. Throughout the whole
of the Madras provinces, in every valley, arrangements of some
kind exist for retaining, storing up, and utilising the water drain-
ing off its sides. There is scarcely a water-course which along
its whole length is unprovided with a succession of dams, con-
verting its course into a series of tanks, or reservoirs of greater
or less dimensions, and along the foot of the Eastern ghâts
almost every gorge offering the smallest facilities for the inter-
ception of the drainage by means of a dam, or dams, across its
exits, is, or has at some time or other been so provided, and
the precious water seized upon for the irrigation of the fields.
The great body of water delivered by the South-west monsoon
over the crest of the Western ghâts, and carried to the Bay of
Bengal by the large rivers of the country—such, for instance, as
the Godavery, with a current two or three miles broad and 25
feet deep-cannot necessarily be constrained to pay tribute to
anything approaching an exhaustive extent, nevertheless a very
large amount of this water is intercepted and utilised—especially
at the head of the great Deltas by the splendid series of works,
which have almost entirely been initiated and carried out by the
British Government.
It would be impossible in the limited space available in this
volume to give even a mere outline of each one of the large
number of irrigation works initiated and constructed, or entirely
remodelled and enlarged by the English Government in the
Madras presidency; the purpose in view will be sufficiently
attained by a selection of a few of the larger examples of each
class of work, and a general summary of the whole.
There are eight principal systems of various size, classed as
major works,' regarded specially as productive,' the ex-
penditure on which has been incurred from Imperial loans, and
twenty-one other works classed as “minor provincial works'
186
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
carried out by provincial funds ; of these last, three are large
reservoir systems, and four are canals exclusively for navigation
purposes. In addition to the above, there is an enormous
aggregate number of smaller irrigation works of all classes
administered by the irrigation department, but which in-
dividually are not sufficiently important to require separate
capital or revenue accounts. Two large projects of the first
class, estimated to cost L564,000 and £432,000 respectively,
are (1893) under construction, but are not yet in operation.
There are, therefore, thirty-one distinct systems, having separate
capital and revenue accounts.
Kaveri Delta The largest -as regards irrigated area—oldest, and also the
Canals.
most remunerative of these works, is the Kaveri Delta system,
irrigating over a million acres, which is a development and
enlargement of a very ancient native system of irrigation in
Tanjore. The river Kaveri, rising on the Western ghats and
among the hills of Coorg, drains an area of about 28,000 square
miles. It flows in a general easterly direction to the Bay of
Bengal. The head of its delta—which has an area of 2700
square miles—is situated nearly 100 miles from the coast at a
short distance above the town of Trichinopoli, where the river
divides into two separate streams at the western extremity of
Seringham, formerly an island, and still so called. The upper,
or northern branch, is named the Kalerun. This branch, which
in reality is the main drainage line to the sea, has a greater
volume, a more direct course, and a far heavier fall per mile,
than the smaller and more useful southern branch, which retains
the name of Kaveri.'
The latter, after its separation from its main branch at
Seringham, gains rapidly in elevation of bed, and flowing with
a comparatively smooth and gentle current, soon divides and
subdivides itself into numerous channels until its waters are
spread over nearly the whole of the Tanjore district. In very
ancient times, in order to counteract the tendency of the smaller
and less rapid branch to become choked up with deposit, and
to increase the volume of water passing down it, the large dam,
or anicut, previously mentioned in the chapter dealing with
native works, known by the name of the grand anicut,' was
constructed across the river near the eastern, or lower end, of
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
187
Seringham island. This was the beginning of the delta im-
provement works, and its effect must have been of enormous
benefit to the Tanjore irrigation. The supply of water, how-
ever, in later years became insufficient for the growing area of
and silt, accumulating between the grand anicut and the point
of separation of the two rivers, necessitated for many years the
adaptation of various expensive expedients in order to prevent
serious diminution in the supply of water.
In this state of affairs, when valuable and extensive tracts of
rich country were gradually being thrown out of cultivation,
Captain (afterwards Sir Arthur) Cotton, engineer of the Division,
in the year 1834 devised and constructed the dam now known
as the upper anicut,' across the Kalerun at a point about
100 yards below the bifurcation of the two rivers. This dam,
obstructing only in a small degree the passage of high and
destructive floods, at the same time diverted into the Kaveri all
the water formerly carried wastefully into the sea, even in the
driest seasons by the Kalerun branch, and rendered it available
for the delta irrigation. Subsequently, in the year 1845, after
the bed of the Kaveri had been deepened by the new volume of
water thus thrown into it, a masonry regulating-dam was carried
across that river on the opposite side of Seringham island.
The upper anicut,' or dam, is 2250 feet long, divided into
three parts by two islands. It consists of a massive vertical
wall of masonry, varying from 54 to 7 feet high, supported on
lines of brick-cylinders or wells, 6 feet in diameter, sunk to a
depth of 6 feet into the sandy bed of the river. A stone floor-
ing 30 feet wide and 4 feet thick extends below the dam to
receive the overfall of water, below which again is an apron of
rough stone about 20 feet broad. Twenty-two sluices were
provided in the body of the main wall for the purpose of
creating a scour, and prevent the filling up of the bed above the
dam. The rise of the water in high floods above the bed of the
river is 14 feet.
The effect of these works was to give a perfect regularity of
current to the Kaveri river, and perfect control over the water
passing down both streams. The Kalerun, with its heavy fall,
is the main drainage outlet of the delta, whilst the Kaveri
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
below the regulating dam is practically converted into an irri-
gation canal. In the year 1836 another dam of similar con-
struction to the upper anicut' was constructed across the
Kalerun, some seventy miles below it. Its object is to intercept
and divert some of the water in the intervening part of the
river bed—which is increased by drainage from cultivation and
by springs—for the purpose of irrigating large tracts of very
fertile land in the north-eastern part of the delta, and in South
Arcot.
Before the construction of these works the area irrigated
dependent on the Kaveri and Kalerun rivers was but little
over 600,000 acres ; this area is now considerably over a
million acres. The special peculiarity of the Kaveri delta irri-
gation is, that in all other cases of delta works the main distri-
1
channels, generally following a parallel course to the principal
diverging river branches, but in the Kaveri delta the chief dis-
tribution is naturally effected by means of the river itself, and
by the numerous branch channels thrown off by the Kaveri
between the point of its separation from the Kalerun and the
sea. From these branches innumerable distributing streams
are led off to convey the water over all the village lands of the
delta. To render this system effective it was necessary to
regulate, divide, and sub-divide the water by regulating sluice-
gates, placed at the head of all the main channels. In addition
to these works, by degrees the various natural courses have for
all practical purposes been converted into irrigation canals
by straightening their channels and by correcting and making
uniform the width of their beds. The whole has been rendered
secure by various works, affording protection to the delta lands
from the effects of inundation by flood-waters rising beyond
what can be safely carried away by the irrigating streams.
In the Kaveri delta there are 844 miles in length of main
irrigation channels, and 1250 miles of distributaries. In the
year 1890-91 the area of land irrigated was 1,013,344 acres,
with a total value of irrigated crops amounting to £2,530,345.
Owing to the peculiar conditions and economical nature of the
engineering works necessitated, the capital outlay has been
relatively exceedingly small, whilst the area of irrigation affected
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
189
is exceptionally large. Hence the Kaveri system is the most
remunerative in India, yielding a return of over 37 per cent. on
the money expended by the British Government, and a large
annual surplus revenue, after deducting interest charges.
The Godavery and Kistna deltas, lying between Cocanada
and Pedda Gangam, on the East coast, adjoin one another, and
form one extensive and connected irrigation area nearly 200
miles long and 50 miles broad. Both these rivers break through
the line of the Eastern ghâts, within fifty miles of the sea, and
in course of ages have built up the wide stretch of delta lands
beyond them, for no doubt at one time the waves of the Bay of
Bengal washed the base of the hills.
The head of the Godavery delta is at Dowlaishweram, from Godavery
which point the river flows to the sea on an elevated bed, Delta Ca
varying from 6 to 24 feet above the general level of the country.
At Dowlaishweram the river forks widely into two branches,
which we may call the Eastern Godavery' and the Western
Godavery.' These branches divide the delta into three distinct
areas, viz., the eastern delta, the central delta (lying between
the forked branches), and the western delta. Each delta
division is supplied with a separate system of irrigation canals,
derived from the raised level of the Godavery, above a huge
weir or anicut, which has been constructed at Dowlaishweram,
just above the point where the single river separates and forms
the river is nearly four miles.
The Godavery works were commenced in 1844. The fine
weir is one of the most magnificent of the many examples of
such constructions in India. At the point where it crosses the
river, the latter is divided into four portions by three inter-
vening islands, which occupy about 3000 feet of the total width.
The anicut, which, divided by the islands, may be considered
as composed of four separate lengths of main weir, has a total
length of masonry construction of 23 miles. The Godavery
drains an area of about 115,000 square miles, and as the rise of
its water in floods at Dowlaishweram is 28 feet, it will readily
be conceived that the construction of the enormous weir, to
raise and control its waters, was a most exceptional and formid-
able undertaking
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The lengths of the four portions of the weir, which are the same
in general construction, with only slight differences in dimensions,
are as follows, 4872 feet, 2862 feet, 1548 feet, and 25841 feet,
respectively. In structure the work consists of a mass of stone-
work, some 130 feet wide at the base, 12 feet high, and 21
miles long. The front and rear walls rest on two lines of brick
wells, each 6 feet in diameter, and sunk 6 feet below the deepest
bed of the river. The space below the walls is filled in with
river sand and quarry spoil. The cross outline of the weir
consists of, first a level floor or waste board of masonry, 19 feet
broad and 4 feet thick, next of a slightly concave tail slope,
which is practically an inclined plane, 28 feet wide, and also 4
feet thick ; the upper surface in each case being protected by a
stone apron of massive blocks, which extends some 80 or 90
feet down stream below the tail slope. On both sides of each
length of weir masonry, wing-walls and lines of revetments con-
nect the work with the main or island banks, as the case may
be, and prevents the water passing round the extremities.
Between each length of weir a substantial embankment of earth,
protected by stone, is carried across each of the islands. On
the extreme right and left flanks there are fifteen scouring
sluices, each 6 feet in width, and on each main river bank,
canal head regulating sluices and locks, each 100 feet long, are
constructed. On the central island, forming practically the
point of division of the two main branches of the river, is
situated the head sluices and lock of the main canal carrying
water to the central delta lying between the branches.
radiate. One to supply the eastern delta has a bottom width
of 184 feet, and carries eight feet in depth of water. One to
supply the central delta is 114 feet wide, and carries 7 feet in
depth of water ; and one to supply the western delta—the
water being here carried by several channels, but where collected
together in one—225 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
From each of these main canals numerous branches issue,
spreading over and commanding the greater part of the delta
area, and generally terminating on the sea coast. One of the
principal canals in the central delta is carried across a minor
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
191
branch of the Godavery on a fine brick aqueduct, having forty-
nine arched openings, and a total length of 2248 feet.
Altogether, in the Godavery delta there are 506 miles of
main and branch canals, of which practically the whole are
navigable, and 1732 miles of smaller distributing channels.
The cultivable area commanded is 772,000 acres, of which
nearly all is under irrigation. In the year 1890-91 the value
of irrigated crops raised was over a million and a half sterling,
and the net revenue earned was nearly 121 per cent. on the
capital outlay, with a surplus of £114,000, clear of interest.
The delta of the Kistna river, as we have already stated, Kistna Delta
immediately adjoins that of the Godavery, and is divided by Canals.
the river into two portions, each of which is covered with
irrigating channels, fed from main and branch canals derived
from above an anicut or weir, situated at Bezvada, exactly at
the apex of the delta, where the river narrows in its passage
through a line of rocky hills on either bank. The Kistna weir
was commenced in 1852. In position and in conditions of con-
struction it is entirely different from that over the Godavery.
Above and below the gorge across which the weir is thrown the
Kistna has a width of nearly one mile and a half, but is con-
tracted in its passage between the hills to 3900 feet. The
velocity and depth of the current is consequently very great.
The site was chosen, however, on account of the excellent supply
of good stone immediately available. The weir is 3840 feet
long, and consists of a single front wall of rough masonry, 16
feet high above the summer level of the water, 21 feet above
the deepest bed, and 12 feet thick at the base. The wall is
founded on a double row of wells 7 feet deep, which fill up the
space between the deep bed and the lowest water level, around
which a broad base of heavy stones was deposited. An apron
of rough stone, 200 feet in width, extends below the weir, and
at 100 feet from the latter a second parallel dwarf wall of
rubble masonry, founded on the rough stone, was built after
it had well settled. On each flank of the weir sets of scouring-
sluices of fifteen openings, each 6 feet wide, are provided to keep
a clear channel in front of the regulating head-sluices of the
two main canals which there take off. In high floods the water
rises nearly 20 feet above the top, or crest of the weir, with a
192
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
velocity said to approach 11 miles an hour. Just above
each canal head a lock and channel for the navigation is con-
structed in the river bank.
The main canals taken off for the supply of the eastern and
western portions of the delta are 200 and 230 feet wide
respectively, each carrying a maximum depth of water of 8 feet.
The Kistna delta canals have a total length of main line and
branches of 325 miles, of which 284 miles are navigable. There
are also 1614 miles of distributing channels, commanding over
800,000 acres. In the year 1890-91 the value of irrigated
crops raised was £1,123,705. The system like that of the
Godavery and other delta irrigation works in Madras is ex-
ceedingly remunerative.
Pennair Delta The delta of the river Pennair has a very much smaller area
Canals.
than either the Godavery or Kistna. An anicut across the
river at Nellore was first proposed in 1849, and it was com-
pleted in 1855, but was a few years after partially destroyed
during a furious storm. It was restored, and again completed
in 1861. In the year 1871 it was lengthened to its present
dimensions. The anicut, which is now 2031 feet long, crosses
the Pennair close to the town of Nellore, and a system of canals
having 142 miles in length of main line and distributaries, is
derived from above the weir on its right flank, and provides
irrigation on the south side of the river. The water supply,
which is very precarious, is supplemented by storage from the
Nellore and other tanks.
Sangam Irri Subsequently, in 1886, a second weir, 4076 feet long, and 12
gation. feet high, was constructed across the river about 17 miles
higher up, opposite Sangam, for the supply of irrigation to the
tracts lying to the north of the Pennair. Two main canals
taken off above the Sangam weir lead the water into several
large reservoirs, and the irrigation of the district is supple-
mented by water stored in numerous other tanks. There are
in all 259 miles of main line and distributaries connected with
the Sangam irrigation. The combined area irrigated on the
north and south sides of the Pennair delta is about 133,000
acres.
Srivaikun- In the extreme southern part of the Peninsula the Tambra-
tham Canals. purni river flows into the sea a few miles south of Tuticorin in
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
193
Tinevelly. Mention has already been made of the many ancient
anicuts placed at intervals across the Tambrapurni, and the
large amount of irrigation carried on by means of the numerous
channels led off from it to feed old native reservoirs, which are
dotted over the whole face of the country.
Notwithstanding this extensive irrigation, some portion of
the Tambrapurni water still escaped to the sea, and to inter-
cept and utilise this an anicut thrown across the river at
Srivaikuntham, about 16 miles from the coast, was con-
structed and completed in 1874. From each side of the anicut
main irrigation channels are led off, which convey water for
irrigation purposes, over the whole of the tracts lying imme-
diately north and south of the Tambrapurni, between the
anicut and the sea. The canals irrigate directly, but chiefly
serve to feed innumerable tanks, some of very large superficial
area, which are scattered over the district. From the upper
end of the Karampallam tank-the northern extremity of the
series—a fresh-water channel provided with head sluices con-
veys water to the town of Tuticorin. The project, although of
relatively small size, is yet of considerable value and importance.
The Srivaikuntham anicut system has 28 miles of main
and branch canals, and 62 miles of distributaries, irrigating
about 30,000 acres.
CHAPTER VIII
" **
MADRAS IRRIGATION . .
Madras irrigation continued—Soonkesala, or Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal-
Guaranteed company-Early days of public works–Madras Irrigation
Company-Employment of irrigation companies unsatisfactory—Kurnool-
Cuddapah Canal the financial drag weight of Madras system of irrigation-
Outline of project and main works-Weir over the Tungabhadra at
Soonkesala—Course of main canal-Works on Pennair river-Peculiar
features of Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal-Larger irrigation schemes in Madras
-Minor canals too numerous for detailed mention-Main results_East
Coast, or Buckingham Canal-Outline history of project and constructive
features—Periar project Description and scope of scheme--Particulars
of concrete dam and principal works-General results of irrigation in
Madras.
03
Madras
LEAVING now the great delta schemes of the Madras Presidency,
Canals, con- we will turn our attention to one of the principal works in the
tinued.
upper country, viz., the “Soonkesala Canal,' or as it is officially
Soonkesala,
or Kurnool-
designated, the “Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal.' This canal pre-
Cuddapah sents the only example in India of an extensive irrigation work
Canal.
constructed by, and for a long period worked under the admin-
istration of, a guaranteed company. In early days all public
works in India were projected and carried out by the Engineer
Department of the army, working under a military board ; and
all expenditure incurred was charged against the revenue of the
year, but as the necessity for opening up the resources of the
country increased, it was soon found necessary to discriminate
between the two great classes into which public works are
naturally divided, viz., those of special and marked public
utility, such as railways," canals," "harbours, etc., by which
the wealth and prosperity of the country is directly promoted,
and those works such as civil and military buildings, local
roads, etc., whose chief end is to facilitate and render effective
the general administration. The first class of works are virtually
194
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
195
large commercial undertakings, and these soon, of necessity,
came to be constructed by means of borrowed capital; the
second class remaining, as before, a charge against the general or
local revenues of the year. In 1846, the construction of rail-
ways by companies, on whose capital expenditure the Govern-
ment guaranteed a fixed interest, was initiated, and continued
in force up to the year 1868. Two attempts only were made
to apply the same system to the construction of irrigation
canals. · In the year 1858 the “Madras Irrigation Company'
was formed, which under a Government guarantee of 5 per
cent. on a capital of one million pounds, undertook to carry
out the works of the Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal, of which we are
about to give an outline description, and a few years later the
' East Indian Irrigation Company' was formed, and undertook
—but without any guarantee—the construction of canals in
Orissa and Bengal. This Company carried out a good deal of
work in the districts named, of which we have already made
mention, but was bought out by the Government in 1867-68.
The “Madras Irrigation Company' constructed and admin-
istered for many years the existing Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal,
but the works were eventually purchased, at a cost of over two
millions sterling, by Government in the year 1882. Both these
irrigation and navigable canals proved expensive failures to the
State, the causes of which we are happily not here required to
enter into.
The original Tungabhadra project—as the work we have now
under consideration was then called-contemplated a canal for
irrigation and navigation, derived from the Tungabhadra river,
a few miles above Kurnool, passing via Cuddapah, and ending
in the Kistnapatam estuary on the sea-coast a few miles south
of Nellore. Only the portion between Kurnool and Cuddapah
was, however, actually carried out, the work on which was
practically completed by the Company in 1871. The remain-
ing length of about eighty miles, between Cuddapah and the
coast, or some modification of the original proposal which will
place a large area of the interior upper country in convenient
navigable connection with the “East Coast Canal,' and with the
capital city of Madras, will probably before long be undertaken.
196
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal is unfortunately the financial
drag weight of the Madras system of irrigation works, failing
at present to pay its ordinary working expenses, and showing
a net deficit at the end of 1890-91 of over £800,000. It is
practically the only irrigation project in the Madras Presidency
on which any important deficit occurs, the majority yielding a
considerable yearly revenue. The canal commands the large
area of 321,500 acres, but irrigates only about 25,000, whilst,
owing to its disconnected position, the navigation traffic is
small. The population of the districts affected by the canal
are largely unused to wet cultivation, and the project-unlike
the greater number in the Madras Presidency~does not so
much afford facilities for the extension of an already highly-
valued irrigation, but in reality introduces it for the first time,
requiring for ultimate success the virtual substitution of a wet
for a dry system of cultivation. The difficult character of the
country through which the upper portion of the canal had to
be carried has moreover weighted the project with a heavy
initial outlay.
The canal begins at Soonkesala (17 miles above Kurnool),
with a weir across the river Tungabhadra, 1500 yards, or not
far short of a mile, in total length of clear overfall, which is
broken into two lengths by an intervening island. This weir
is constructed partly of solid rubble masonry, and partly of
concrete, faced with masonry in front and rear. In height it
varies from 6 to 26 feet, with an average height of 18 feet.
The maximum flood waters pass at a depth of 7 to 8 feet over
the crest.
The weir is built on the rocky bed of the river, and is not
carried in a straight line across it, but follows in a serpentine
course the line of the highest sound rock. The down-stream
face of the weir wall in the highest portion is vertical; the
water falling on to the natural gneiss rock below. Of late
years the bed, especially below the scouring sluices, has shown
signs of erosion and disintegration, necessitating a protective
covering of masonry.
From the right-hand side of the pool above the weir the
water is admitted into the canal by head-sluices, the river faces
of which are kept clear by a line of ten under-sluices placed at
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
197
UA
a low level in the adjoining weir; the current being forced
across the line of canal sluices by a long curved spur, or'groin.'
The canal for the first 75 miles of its descent has a bottom
width of 90 feet, and carries 8 to 9 feet in depth of water. In
this length it has a very tortuous and difficult course, crossing
many tributaries of the Tungabhadra by aqueducts, of whicl.
the principal is that over the Hindry, carrying the canal 90 feet.
broad, and 8 feet deep, over the river at an elevation of 32 feet
above the bed, on fourteen arches, each of 40 feet span. The
total length of the aqueduct is 651 feet.
At the 75th mile the canal passes through the watershed, or
ridge of separation, between the Tungabhadra and Pennair
drainage systems, by a long and deep cutting. From this
point the natural watercourses of the country become the
main-supply channels, the water being taken at four points
by means of anicuts thrown across the Kali, Koondur, and
Pennair rivers. Between the 75th and 95th miles the canal
drops 180 feet through twelve locks, each 120 feet long and
20 feet wide, and between the 118th and 146th miles it passes
through seventeen locks, with an aggregate fall of 1871 feet,
the width of the canal being here reduced to 50 feet. At the
146th mile the canal touches the Koondur river at Rajoli, where
a supply weir is thrown across the river. At the 172d mile
the irrigation channel ceases. From thence to the river Pennair
at the 181st mile (to which it descends 901 feet through nine
locks) the canal is a still-water navigation channel only.
The works on the Pennair river—which is crossed by the
canal—consist of a masonry weir, with head and scouring-
sluices, and an entrance lock, the gates of which are 25 feet
high. The weir, which for the greater portion of its length
lies on sand, is supported on double and single rows of wells,
sunk deeply into the river bed. Below the down-stream slope
of the weir there is a rough stone apron, 105 feet wide. Beyond
the Pennair river the canal at present extends for a distance
of 8 miles only, irrigating a small area. The length is in fact
the first portion of the proposed extension to the coast near
Nellore.
The peculiar feature of the Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal is the
height and length of many of its embankments. These range
198
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
up to a height of 50 feet from the ground surface to the water-
line in the canal, and are 35 and 40 feet high over long stretches.
The banks are constructed in various ways, the largest being
faced with masonry walls, supported by gravelly banks on the
outside. Some have a core of clay, or 'puddle,' in the centre,
on each side of which rough stone is packed. Others have a
thickness of clay puddle on the inner face of the slope, overlaid
with loose stone. There are altogether some 10 or 12 miles of
these embankments, presenting somewhat novel and unusual
forms of construction.
The total length of the Kurnool-Cuddapah Canal, which is
navigable throughout, as at present constructed, is 190 miles,
with 313 miles of distributing channels. As already stated, it
irrigates only about 25,000 acres out of 321,500 acres com-
manded. In the year 1890-91 the value of irrigated crops
raised was £70,050.1
The above works represent the most important of the large
irrigation systems of the first class in the Madras Presidency.
The eight works comprising this class, which have been con-
structed at a capital outlay of borrowed money of over 51
millions sterling, yield a yearly revenue of £372,000, or nearly
q per cent. on their cost, and £174,000 annually after deduct-
ing interest charges. This revenue would be far greater were
it not for the heavy loss sustained in the case of the Kurnool-
Cuddapah Canal. The combined eight works irrigate an area
of over 21 million acres, or 3666 square miles, and command
upwards of 3,000,000 acres. Of the enormous number of the
works of the minor class, constructed by provincial or local
funds, there are twenty-one systems of a prominent character,
of which four are exclusively canals for navigation. Space will
not admit of any separate consideration of these works, which,
however, include the numerous ancient tanks, or reservoirs, re-
stored and maintained by the Government, some of which are
of very great magnitude, such, for instance, as the Cummun and
Chembrambaukam Tanks, of which we have already spoken in
the chapters dealing with native works, as well as the ‘Palar?
1 Adapted from a paper on the 'Soonkesala Canal,' by J. H. Latham.
Minutes of Proceedings, Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. xxxiv.
Vide
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
199
and “Lower Kalerun’anicut systems, each irrigating about
100,000 acres.
The comparatively few large productive' works, as they are
officially designated, are of great value and importance, both to
the people and to the State, but they are surpassed in local value
by the aggregate of minor works of secondary individual import-
ance. These minor works irrigate a total area of no less than
3,167,452 acres, or 5000 square miles, by means of 2422 miles
in length of main canals and distributaries, and yield a yearly
revenue of £435,000.
Of the four works constructed exclusively for navigation Buckingham
purposes, one only is of any special interest, and will serve Canal.
as an illustration of this class of canal. The “East Coast,' or
' Buckingham’ Canal, is a salt-water tidal channel, extending
along the east-coast of the Madras Presidency for a distance of
262 miles, of which 196 miles lie north of Madras city, and
extends to Pedda Gangam, at which place it is in communica-
tion with the navigable canal systems of the Kistna and
Godavery deltas. South of Madras city the canal extends
66 miles to Merkanum, a place situated about 23 miles from
the northern boundary of Pondicherry.
The canal runs everywhere quite close to the sea, and is
nowhere more than 3 miles distant from it. It has been con-
structed by degrees, at varying intervals, almost from the
beginning of the century. The general features of the sea
coast on this side of India consist of long parallel lines of
sand dunes, lying along the shore, and between these dunes
there are often considerable stretches of shallow depressions or
hollows. These hollows, frequently forming backwaters, are
filled with sea-water, and are of sufficient depth in many
places for navigation, being supplied through the bars of the
rivers, with which they are in connection.
So far back as the year 1801, the narrow strips of backwater
found at the mouth of the river Kortalayar, suggested to a Mr.
Heefke the idea of obtaining a Government concession to cut a
canal, about 11 miles long, from Madras to the southern end
of the Ennore breakwater. This permission was granted, and
Mr. Basil Cochrane became surety for the projector. Mr.
Cochrane subsequently obtained entire control of the work,
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
which he called “Lord Clive's Canal,' and shortly afterwards
he extended the navigation 16 miles further north, to Pulicat
lake. This gentleman remained sole proprietor of the canal,
with authority to levy tolls, for forty-five years, dating from
1802. In 1837, he having left India, the canal got into bad
order, when his rights were bought out by the Government,
who paid him at the rate of £1406 a year, up to the year
1847, when his lease expired.
This was the commencement of the “Buckingham Canal,
then known as “Cochrane’s Canal,' a name which still adheres
1854 a lock was built 74 miles north of Madras, partly as a
sanitary measure, and to maintain a sufficient depth of water
for the navigation. The channel was also extended to 69 miles
north of the same place. About the same time the canal was
excavated south of Madras 40 miles to the Palar river. At
intervals, for many years afterwards, further extensions in both
directions were made, the ultimate object in view being to effect
a junction with the Kistna delta navigation in the north, and
to connect the canal with the French possession of Pondicherry
in the south.
In 1876-77, under the pressure of famine, it was decided that
considerable extensions of the canal should be carried out by
famine labour, and under the orders of his Grace the Duke of
Buckingham, then Governor of Madras, large gangs of work-
people from the famine-stricken districts of Bellary, Kurnool,
and Cuddapah were marched down to the coast, and were set
to work along the whole line. At one time it was reported
that 100,000 men, women, and children were thus employed.
On the termination of the famine the whole length of the
existing Buckingham Canal—as it then came to be called
may be said to have reached a certain stage of completion.
Subsequently, in the year 1883, funds were assigned for the
full completion of the canal, from Pedda Gangam on the north
to Merkanum on the south. The work throughout is of a
simple character, consisting for the most part of a cut carried
along the sand dunes, taking advantage of all the natural back-
waters, having a bottom width varying from 20 to 30 feet, with
side slopes from 21 up to 4 to 1, according to the nature of
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
201
the material, and a depth of 3 feet below the lowest recorded
tide in each reach. The several reaches of the canal, which
intervene between separate drainages, are for the most part
isolated by means of flood-gates, so as to exclude whenever
desired all extraordinary floods, and at all points where drainage
crosses the line of the canal the watercourses are trained, so as
to preserve a deep channel for the passage of boats. The side
embankments are made up to a level of 3 or 4 feet above the
highest known water level.
The canal affords 307 miles of cheap water communication
out of 387 miles, which intervene between the city of Madras
and the Hyderabad coalfields, and also places that city in direct
water communication with the well-irrigated deltas of the
Kistna and Godavery rivers, and thus forms a most valuable
line of connection during periods of famine.
In the year 1884 a project of an exceptionally interesting and Periar
novel character, having some features of enormous proportions, Project.
was commenced, and is now approaching completion, in the
Madras Presidency, of which it would be a great omission not
to make mention in this outline description of the principal
Madras irrigation works. South of the Kaveri river the dis-
tricts of Madura and Ramnud depend for their supply of water
(other than the scanty local rainfall) on the river Vaiga, which
rises on the eastern slopes of the hills of Travancore. The
streams which form its sources are very little affected by the
south-west monsoon, here scarcely topping the crest of the
ghâts, and the supply of water afforded is altogether inadequate
for the wants of the districts named, which frequently have
suffered severely from famines. It is said that not a drop of
the Vaiga water reaches the sea, and that its channel in some
years runs dry, even a few miles below the town of Madura.
Yet whilst such a scanty and insufficient supply of water reaches
the thirsty Eastern plains, the great river Periar, rising among
the valleys on the other, or western side of the hills, under the
the influence of over 100 inches of annual rainfall, carries an
enormous volume rapidly down to the coast, where it is for the
most part dissipated and lost in the backwaters of Cochin.
The object of the Periar irrigation project, the works of which
are now nearly completed, is to utilise a considerable portion of
202
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
this superabundant rainfall running to waste down the western
slopes of the ghất by catching and diverting it to the opposite
or eastern side of the dividing ridge. This is being effected in
the following way. At a selected point in the upper valley of
the Periar river a lofty dam will intercept the water draining
from 300 square miles of its catchment basin, raising its level
at the waste-weir of the dam to a height of no less than 144
feet above the deep bed of the river, and forming behind it an
immense reservoir, storing 13,300 millions of cubic feet of
water.
At a height of 113 feet above the bed of the river, at the
dam, but at the opposite or upper extremity of the reservoir, a
deep cutting is carried northwards for a distance of 5400 feet.
At this point the cutting is replaced by a tunnel 6650 feet, or
14 miles in length, through which the water will be conveyed
from the western to the eastern side of the dividing range of
hills, and will be discharged into a tributary of the Vaiga
river.
Of the total water stored in the reservoir, when full to the
level of the two waste escapes, one on either side of the main
dam, 6815 millions of cubic feet is available for irrigation in
the eastern districts, and it is estimated that about 30,000
millions of cubic feet will be annually available. The Periar
dam, which closes the valley of that river, is 220 feet long at
the bottom, and 1200 feet long on its top line, and rises to a
height of 155 feet above the deep bed of the river. On the
summit is a parapet-wall 5 feet in height. The dam is being
constructed entirely of concrete, made by mixing together
hydraulic lime, sand, and broken stone; the latter obtained
from the excavations for the escape weirs, occupying saddles in
the adjoining rocky hillsides. At its highest portion the dam
is 116 feet thick at the base and 12 feet thick at the top, 4 feet
of the top width being occupied by the parapet wall.
On each side of the main dam the waste weirs have a length
of 500 feet and 420 feet respectively, their crests being 11 feet
below the top of the dam. The water falling over the escapes
is received into basins, which form water-cushions below them.
The rock-cutting, over a mile in length, conveying the water
from the upper end of the reservoir to the mouth of the tunnel
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
203
or subterranean aqueduct is 21 feet broad, with a fall of 12
feet per mile, and it gradually increases in depth up to 30 feet,
when the tunnel is commenced. The tunnel through the high
portion of the ridge is 12 feet wide and 71, feet high, with a fall
of 1 foot in 75. Suitable regulating sluices control the entrance
of water into the tunnel, and are elsewhere provided as neces-
sary, so that perfect control may be exercised over the move-
ments of the water, whether at ordinary times or during periods
of extraordinary floods. On the eastern side of the ridge
various works are constructed to regulate the flow and distribu-
tion of the water.
The scheme, when completed, will provide irrigation for
140,000 to 150,000 acres of land, commencing at about 80 or
or 90 miles from the head reservoir. The estimated cost
of the project is £634,000. It is one which will be of enormous
benefit to the districts affected, and will doubtless prove very
remunerative after it has been a reasonable time in operation.
We can now briefly sum up the quantities and values result- General
ing from the mass of irrigation works constructed in the Madras results.
Presidency, as exhibited in the official returns, which it should
be remembered—only include those works under the care and
administration of the Government Irrigation Department.
Altogether, there existed in the year 1890-91, 3089 miles of
main and branch canals, and 6627 miles of distributing channels
(exclusive of a large mass of minor works, for which this par-
ticular detail is not given, but which, together, irrigate an area
larger than that irrigated by the mileage of channels above
stated). Of these canals, 1275 miles are navigable.
The area actually irrigated, including all the minor works,
was 5,514,184 acres, or 8615 square miles. The capital outlay
incurred by the British Government in the Madras Presidency
on the major and principal minor works amounts to over 6%
million pounds, yielding a net revenue of £751,000, and a
surplus annual revenue, after paying interest on money bor-
rowed, of over L550,000.1
For details of individual works in the Madras Presidency, vide Appendix D.
CHAPTER IX
SCINDE AND BOMBAY IRRIGATION
Bombay and Scinde canals—Inundation canals in Scinde-General results-
Bombay irrigation—Principal rivers— Main object of Bombay Irrigation
Engineers-Area irrigated small as compared with other Provinces—Works
of the first class—Jamda canals—Khrisna Canal-Ekruk Tank-Fife
reservoir and Mutha canals—Nira canals—Bhatghar reservoir-Mhasvad
reservoir--Hathmati Canal-Minor systems - Areas irrigated — General
results of irrigation in Bombay-Concluding remarks, and general summary
of irrigation throughout India--Recent review of irrigation works in India
up to end of the year 1890-91-Conclusion-Note on Government classifica-
tions of canals.
Bombay and In the British province of Scinde, on the lower part of the
Scinde
Indus valley, and forming a part of the Bombay Presidency, a
Canals.
very large area of cultivation is annually irrigated by means of
a complicated network of inundation canals and their branches,
originating in the Indus. The average rainfall in this part of
India is barely 9 inches, and many localities may be said to be
practically rainless. Unlike the rest of India, therefore, culti-
vation is here entirely dependent on irrigation, either from the
canals or from wells. The annual rise of the Indus, due to the
melting of the Himalayan snowfall, which commences in May,
again subsiding in August-by which rise the inundation
canals are fedtakes the place of the annual monsoon in other
parts of the country.
In the previous chapters dealing with ancient native irriga-
tion works, mention has been made of the enormous develop-
ment, from very early times, of the system of inundation canals
in the Indus basin, and of the main features of this kind of
irrigation work. As the large majority of the inundation canals
in Scinde are old native works, in many cases enlarged and
improved under the British Government, it will not now be
necessary to do more than indicate the general results of their
working. Anything like a detailed description of these
204
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
205
numerous channels, which, although of the utmost simplicity in
their constructive features, are yet in some aspects among the
most interesting class of works in India, would nevertheless
probably fail to enlist the interest of the general reader.
It has already been mentioned that the chief difficulty
attending the working of these inundation canals is the inces-
sant labour required to keep them clear owing to the enormous
1
clearance was effected by means of statute labour, and each
cultivator was legally bound to furnish a number of labourers
during the cold season, from December to April—when the
clearances were chiefly effected—proportionate to the area of
land cultivated by him. Statute labour was, however,
abolished by the Government in 1856, and the annual work of
keeping the channels clear of deposit, has since become the
chief source of expense to Government in the maintenance of
The whole of the Scinde inundation canals are, for adminis-
trative purposes, divided into seven district groups, which con-
tain an aggregate length of irrigation channels amounting to
5924 miles. To protect particular areas from excessive and
violent inundation during the period of highest floods, there
have also been constructed, and are maintained, upwards of
650 miles in length of protective embankments.
In the year 1889-90, the total area irrigated by the system General re-
of inundation canals in Scinde was 2,349,819 acres, or 3671 sults
Scinde Canals
square miles. This area varies annually according to the ex- *
tent and duration of the summer rise of the river. Four im-
portant canals, viz. The ‘ Desert Canal,' “Unharwah,' · Bigari,'
and · Eastern Nara Works' are classed as major (productive)
works, and yielded a return of about 81 per cent. on the
capital expended, and show an accumulated net revenue of
£153,237, after deducting interest charges. The numerically
large group of works classed as “minor' yielded an aggregate
net return of 22 per cent. During the same year, the net
revenue earned on the whole of the irrigation canals in Scinde
amounted to £232,365.1
1 For details of individual works in Scinde, vide Appendix E.
206
Bombay In Bombay proper, three principal rivers take their rise on
Canals. the Western ghâts, and flow eastwards, viz., the Bhima,
Krishna, and Tumbudra. These, uniting below Kurnool, form
the single Kistna river, which, after traversing the Madras
Presidency, enters the Bay of Bengal. Fed by numerous tribu-
taries rising among the same hills the upper portions of these
three rivers pass through the south-eastern section of Bombay,
and their waters are utilised in various ways for irrigation.
The difficulties, however, in the case of these larger rivers, are
very great, owing to the comparatively slight fall of their
dry season. In the northern portion of the Presidency (exclud-
ing Scinde) the Nurbudda and Tapti rivers flow from west to
east and enter the Arabian Sea.
The main object of the Bombay Irrigation Engineers, is,
first, to retain and store up the ample supplies of water de-
livered by the south-west monsoon, and prevent its running to
waste during the rainy months; secondly, wherever possible, to
give it a sufficient elevation to command the dry and thirsty
lands situated on the sides of the valleys of the country. For
the most part the natives of the Bombay Presidency have not
attempted to store the waters of the larger rivers ; but small
tanks on the minor tributary streams are very numerous.
As compared with the other provinces of India, the area of
land artificially irrigated by means of large Government works
in Bombay is very small, and, as a rule, the works that exist
command a far larger area than they actually irrigate; the
amount of irrigation being enormously affected by the occur-
rence of favourable and well-distributed monsoon seasons. In
such years, principally owing to scarcity of labour, the crops
which require to be matured by artificial irrigation are largely
reduced in favour of other crops that are best matured by
direct rainfall.
In the Bombay Presidency there are nine irrigation works of
the first class in actual operation ; and two projects are in
course of construction. Works of the second or minor class
number 27 in all. In actual operation, therefore, there are 36
separate irrigation works, the larger number of which are of
small size and importance.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
207
The earliest work of any consideration undertaken by the Jamda
Government in the Deccan was the Jamda Canals, the con- Canals
struction of which was commenced in 1863. These consist of
two canals, drawn, one from the right, and the other from the
left of the Girna river, a tributary of the Tapti. The head
works of these canals are situated at Jamda, in Khandesh, where
a weir 1540 feet long, and 18 feet in maximum height, founded
on a rocky bottom, is constructed across the river. The canal
drawn from the left bank is 27 miles long, that on the right
being 12 miles only, with 75 miles in all of distributing chan-
nels. A portion of the left bank canal was opened in 1866,
and has therefore been in operation for 26 years. The right
small demand for water for monsoon crops. The canals com-
mand an irrigable area of 30,500 acres, but actually irrigate
but a very small portion of this.
In the same year, viz., 1863, a canal derived from the Krishna
Krishna (the upper part of the Madras “Kistna' river) was (anal.
commenced, and was completed in 1868. Above the head-
works of the Krishna canal, the river, rising in the Western
ghâts, drains an area of over 1200 square miles, having a rain-
fall of 30 inches, it has therefore a considerable volume in the
rainy season. A weir of rubble masonry, 1200 feet long, and
21 feet high in the highest portion, is built across the river,
along a rocky barrier, which is situated at Korsee, close to the
town of Karad, in the Satara district, where the Koina and
Krishna channels meet each other. From above this weir the
Krishna canal, 61} miles in length is derived. The bed of the
canal is 4 feet lower than the crest or top of the weir, which is
provided with a line of scouring sluices. The canal is calcu-
lated to discharge 140 cubic feet of water per second, for eight
months in the year, but in order to take advantage of freshes,
the works are designed so as to be capable of passing 300 cubic
feet per second, whenever such a supply is available. Pro-
vision is also made for constructing at the end of the rains a
temporary earthen bank on the top of the weir, with suitable
escapes at each end, in order to store water brought down by
the slight freshes, which often occur in April or May. The
Krishna canal commands an irrigable area of 25,533 acres, but
irrigates only about 4000.
208
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Ekruk Tauk. One of the finest of the earlier works of the reservoir class in
Bombay is the Ekruk Tank, situated four or five miles due
north of Sholapore. The construction of this reservoir was
commenced in 1866. An earthen bank or dam, 7000 feet, or
1} miles in length, with masonry flanks, and 76 feet in maxi-
mum height, is reared across the valley of the Adhila river-a
tributary of the Bhima. This dam is designed to raise the
water to 60 feet in depth, when the reservoir is full, at which
time the area of its water surface is 4640 acres, or 71 square
miles, and its contents 3350 millions of cubic feet of water.
The sites of five villages were submerged under its area. The
surplus water passes over two waste-weirs, having a combined
length of 750 feet, into a ravine channel, which rejoins the
Adhila about a mile below the dam.
Three canals are fed from the reservoir, having an aggregate
length of 48 miles. Two of these, drawn off at the high-level
of 14 feet below the full water-line of the reservoir, are designed
to furnish irrigation for four months in the year only, and are
18 and 4 miles long, respectively. The third or low-level
canal, 26 miles long, is drawn off at 39 feet below full water,
and is a permanent canal, providing perennial irrigation. Each
of the three canals is capable of extension, commanding an
additional area.
At present the total area commanded is 15,320 acres ; but
the area irrigated in 1890-91 was 2599 acres only, partly
owing to a favourable rainfall in that year, but greatly due to a
diminished capacity of the main canal in the first eight miles.
This channel is designed to carry a maxium of 70 cubic feet of
water per second; but only 30 cubic feet could be passed down
it, pending some necessary repairs and improvements. The
construction of the Ekruk reservoir dam was completed in
1869, but the canals were not completed to their present
lengths for many years afterwards.
and Mutha
Canals.
tion and water-supply scheme is the Fife reservoir and Mutha
canals system near Poona. This scheme was proposed by
Colonel Fife, R.E., in 1863, and was commenced in 1868.
The Fife reservoir has been formed by the construction of an
enormous masonry dam across the valley of the Mutha river,
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
209
at a point about ten miles south-west of Poona. This masonry
dam at the time of its construction was probably the largest
work of the kind then attempted.
· The Mutha river is a tributary of the Bhima, and rises in
the Western ghats, some 20 to 25 miles above the reservoir.
The catchment area is 196 square miles, with an average rain-
fall of 34 inches. At the point selected for the reservoir dam,
sound rock was met with near the surface. The dam is con-
structed of uncoursed rubble masonry—its length, exclusive of
the waste-weir, being 3683 feet, the waste-weir being 1453
feet long. The maximum height of the dam, from foundation
to summit, is 106 feet, or 96 feet above the lowest bed of the
river. The crest of the waste-weir is 87 feet above the same
point, or 11 feet below the top of the dam.
The contents of the reservoir when full is 5200 millions
of cubic feet, and the area of the full water-surface is 3300
acres, or slightly over five square miles. In order to gain the
elevation necessary to command the station of Poona, and the
districts beyond, the level of the bed of the canals fed by the
reservoir is placed at 59 feet above the river-bed. There is,
therefore, 28 feet in depth of available storage between the bed-
level of the canals and the crest of the waste-weir, representing
2680 millions of cubic feet of water, or a maximum of 3283
millions of cubic feet, when, at the end of the rains the water-
level is raised some 4 feet above the top of the waste-weir, by
means of posts and sliding planks which are fixed along the crest.
It is estimated that during an average season the reservoir fills
sixteen times, and that one-sixth of the whole discharge of
the river is utilised.
Two canals are supplied from the reservoir, one, on the right
bank of the Mutha, about 70 miles long, passes through the
station of Poona, then turning to the eastwards, it irrigates a
long tract of country lying in the dry zone of the Deccan,
between the river and the foot of the hilly range to the south.
The second canal, which is 141 miles long, extends only a
short distance beyond the military station of Kirkee, at which
place water is supplied to the powder-works.
The total area irrigable by these canals is nearly 50,000 acres,
but only about 11,000 to 12,000 acres are actually irrigated.
210
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Besides providing for irrigation, the project is designed to
station, and cantonments of Poona and Kirkee, and to numer-
ous villages lying along the course of the canals. A considerable
portion of the yearly revenue is derived from this source. In
the year 1890-91, nearly 277 million gallons were delivered
from the canals for the Poona water-supply, the population
of the area served being by the last census 32,242 persons,
and the average consumption per head per day amounted
to 23 gallons.
The water-supply for the city is drawn off at the 10th mile,
and through the station of Poona—in order to avoid inter-
ference with public buildings and the parade ground-the
canal is carried underground in two tunnels. At the end of
the first tunnel, near the centre of the cantonment, there is an
overfall, the force of which has been utilised to drive a large
undershot water-wheel, which works a set of pumps for raising
the canal water into the filter-beds, settling-tanks, and covered
reservoirs of the high and middle-service systems of the water-
supply. For the low-service system, mains and branches are
led off directly from the canal itself.
The ‘Nira Canal’ and Bhatghar reservoir, is a project carried
out to a great extent in recent years. The main Nira Canal
was opened in the year 1885. It is derived from the left bank
of the river Nira, an important tributary of the Bhima at
Vervadi, situated about 40 miles south-east of Poona. The
completed length of the canal and branches is designed to be
á little over 100 miles, of which 957 miles are now open, with
109 miles in length of distributing channels. The canal
follows a very winding course along the foot of the high
ground lying north of the Nira, passing near Baramati, and
extending to Sudrapur, near the confluence of the Nira and
Bhima. Numerous branches are carried down from the canal
towards the former river, irrigating about 17,000 acres. The
Nira Canal.
of 227,000 acres.
Bhatohar Re- The water-supply of the river is supplemented from a very
servoir. large reservoir situated a few miles above the head of the canal
at Bhatghar. The Bhatghar reservoir has a catchment area of
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
211
1
128 square miles, with an annual average rainfall of 145 inches.
The water is retained by a masonry dam, 127 feet high above
the lowest foundation, and 108 feet above the river-bed, form-
ing above it a huge lake, containing an available storage-supply
of 5500 millions of cubic feet, and having a water-surface area
of 3584 acres, or more than 57 square miles. The estimated
cost of the complete work is £637,000.
Another recently constructed reservoir of great size is the Mhasvad
Mhasvad Tank, in the Satara district. An earthen embank-Tank.
ment, 80 feet high, closes the valley of the Mau river, cutting
off a catchment basin of 480 square miles, having, however, but
a small annual rainfall. The reservoir stores an available water-
supply of 2633 millions of cubic feet, and has a water area of
4013 acres, or 64 square miles. The reservoir feeds 27 miles in
length of main irrigation canals, and 664 miles of branches and
distributaries, which first came into operation in the year 1887.
In that year the canals irrigated but little over 1000 acres, but
by the year 1890-91 this had increased to 7106 acres. The
total acreage irrigable by the existing works is 106,000 acres.
The Hathmati Canal was commenced in the year 1869, and Hathmati
was brought into partial operation in 1873. It is derived Canal.
from the Hathmati river-a tributary of the Salarumati, about
40 miles above the town of Ahmedabad. The head-works of .
the canal consist of a weir of rubble masonry, 1000 feet long,
and 22 feet in maximum height. From the pool above the weir
the canal, which is 21 miles long, with 30 miles of distributaries,
is drawn. The canal commands an irrigable area of 8000 acres,
of which it actually irrigates rather less than half.
The above works comprise all the more important of the
Bombay irrigation projects of the first class. Space will not
permit any separate mention of the numerous minor systems
of the secondary class, which number twenty-eight in all. These
Government works, however, are very far from representing the
true extent of irrigation carried on in the Bombay Presidency.
The thirty-six major and minor works taken together irrigate
only about 76,000 acres of cultivation ; but, in addition to this
area, over 145,000 acres are irrigated by the aggregate mass
of still smaller works, 1270 in number, scattered all over the
Presidency districts, which are looked after and kept in repair
212
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
General
results,
Bombay
canals.
by the Irrigation Department. For the most part these lesser
works consist of small tanks, and of weirs called bhandaras,
on the smaller streams, the larger number being of ancient or
modern native construction. In the Dharwar district alone
there are said to be 473 tanks, irrigating 65,000 acres.
According to the official returns, there are in the Bombay
Presidency 606 miles of main canals and branch canals supplied
with 564 miles of distributing channels. During the year
1890-91, 221,464 acres of land, or about 341 square miles,
were irrigated, yielding a total value of irrigated crops of
nearly £400,000. The total capital outlay by the Government
on all classes of irrigation works in Bombay was £2,465,024,
earning a net revenue of £56,033, or 2.2 per cent. on the
capital cost. Including interest, however, the thirty-six works
of the major and minor class resulted in a deficit of £70,743.
The mass of smaller agricultural works taken together yielded
a profit of £33,913, giving a net deficit of £36,830.1
We have now sketched in general outline the main features
of the irrigation works of British India, both as regards the
type and character of early native constructions, and the
extensive improvements and additions introduced by modern
engineers since the country has been brought under British
rule. The picture we have been able to draw is, of necessity,
projected on so small a canvas as to be altogether inadequate
to convey to the eye more than a mere outline of individual
works-nor has it been attempted to do more than this. The
object aimed at has been to implant in the mind of the reader
a fairly correct impression of a great whole by means of a rapid
exhibition of the general dimensions, number, and value of its
main component parts. To do this, it has been unfortunately,
but unavoidably, necessary to quote largely figures expressing
volumes, areas, and linear dimensions, as well as money ex-
penditures and revenue returns, which, it is feared, may have
unduly taxed the patience of the reader. Nevertheless, in con-
clusion, it will perhaps serve to impress more firmly on the
mind what we especially desire to imprint, if the main figures
and results of irrigation works throughout British India are
1 For details of individual works in the Bombay Presidency, vide Appendix F.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
213
LI
finally summed up in one general statement, the reader being
careful to bear in mind that these totals are approximate
only; some of the figures entering into them being for the
year 1889-90, and others for the year 1890-91. Although not,
therefore, comparable with the statistical data of any single
year, they will nevertheless serve the only purpose we have
in view, viz., to convey to the reader a general and approxi-
mate idea of the large total value and extent of irrigation and
navigable canal operations in India, exclusive, it need not be
said, of that large amount of secondary irrigation carried on by
unassisted native agency.
In the whole of India about 16,000 miles of main and branch
canals have been constructed by the British Government, of
which 2882 miles are navigable. These canals distribute their
waters by means of over 23,500 miles of minor channels, and
irrigate from 12 to 13 millions of acres, or about 20,000 square
miles of country. The annual value of irrigated crops, exclud-
ing Scinde, for which the figures have not been obtained, is
probably not far short of 30 million pounds. The capital sum
expended by the Government on all classes of irrigation and
navigation canals throughout India is a little above the same
amount, and the net revenue annually earned is nearly 11 millions
sterling, or about 51 per cent. on the capital cost. The sum
realised, after defraying interest charges, is over £725,000
annually.1
In a recent review of irrigation works up to the end of the
year 1890-91 by the Government of India, dealing with those
works for which both capital and revenue accounts are kept, the
directly remunerative character of the total outlay incurred on
irrigation throughout the country is clearly exhibited. As this
review is based on figures far more complete than those we
have been able to utilise, and is moreover brought up to a
uniform, and in some instances to a later, date, the following
general results will be of interest. It is shown that, for irriga-
tion works only, the capital expenditure on major productive'
works to the end of 1890-91 amounted to £25,465,011, yield-
? For approximate total results of irrigation and navigation canals in all India,
vide Appendix G.
214
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
OT
ing a net return of 4:81 per cent., without taking into account
the old irrigation in Madras. Including this, the net return
is given as 5:80 per cent., whilst including protective' works,
and that portion of the minor works for which capital and
revenue accounts are kept, the total percentage of net revenue
on capital outlay is shown to be 5:69 per cent. The protective
works taken alone yielded 0·79 per cent.
· The direct capital outlay on navigable canals, including both
major and minor works, is £1,887,033, the net revenue being
0·82 per cent. on their cost.
Altogether, on 120 works of irrigation and navigation,
costing £31,620,310, the net revenue derived in 1890-91 was
£1,710,136, or 5:40 per cent., and the area of land irrigated,
excluding the lesser classes of minor works, was 9,275,102 acres,
or nearly 14,500 square miles.1
Chenab Canal, the Sangam, and the Periar works, which, being
incomplete, yielded nothing on their capital outlay. The very
unremunerative Orissa and Kurnool-Cuddapah canals are of
course included. It is stated that “on the whole, the returns
from the systems which fulfil the conditions of being productive,
are more than sufficient to cover the deficits on systems which,
although classed as productive, do not attain to the necessary
standard.' The estimated value of the produce for one year on
all the irrigation canals of India is shown to be nearly equal to
the whole of the direct capital outlay incurred on the works.
A list is given of important irrigation projects that have
been submitted to the Government of India, but upon which
work has not yet begun. These are, the 'Jhelum Canal,' the
“Kalingaroyen channel,' the “Chenab extension project'-all
of which have been sanctioned—and the Cawnpore branch of
the Lower Ganges canal, a project which is under preparation.
The additional area that will be irrigable by the above works
amounts to 1,291,000 acres, or 2017 square miles, and the
estimated returns are calculated at over 137 per cent. The
Chenab Canal extension is to take precedence over the Jhelum
i Vide Appendix H.
IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA
215
on works in Upper Burma, where scientific irrigation has as
yet hardly commenced, and proposals are awaited from the
Bombay Government for the improvement and extension of
irrigation works in Scinde, upon which question a committee
assembled early in 1892.
In conclusion, if we placed end to end all the main and
branch canals of India, they would reach nearly two-thirds of
the distance round the world, and the navigable portion would
be represented by two canals--one stretching from Cape
Comorin to Peshawar, and the other from Calcutta to
Bombay, a combined distance equal to nearly the whole
breadth of Europe. The minor distributing channels, placed
together, would extend almost completely round the earth's
circumference.
Note. -. Under the Government system of accounts, irrigation and navi-
gation works in India are divided into two main classes, respectively called
'major' and 'minor' works. The major class comprises all those works
estimated to be directly productive' within ten years from completion,
and certain special works called 'protective,' primarily undertaken to
protect certain districts from famine, whether likely to be directly pro-
fitable or not.
The second or “minor' class is, for accounts purposes, divided into
several sub-classes, viz. :-
(1.) Works for which both capital and revenue accounts are kept.
(2.) Works for which only revenue accounts are kept.
(3.) Works for which neither capital nor revenue accounts are kept.
(4.) Agricultural works (sub-divided in the same manner), being
chiefly river embankments, etc.
The quantitative and financial results of irrigation works, as exhibited
in general Government returns, relate only to those works for which both
capital and revenue accounts are kept. The exact total figures for the
last three sub-classes of 'minor' works not being available, these are
necessarily excluded from general statements of irrigation operations.
Collectively, however, these lesser sub-divisions of the minor works
class are of importance and interest. So far therefore as it has seemed
possible to ascertain and extract them from the various provincial returns,
we have included them in the totals of the tabular statements A to G,
which will be found as an Appendix at the end of this volume, as well as
in our general summary of irrigation works throughout India.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN OF RAILWAYS
Origin of railways-Wonderful influence in regenerating India-Caste-barriers
largely affected-Reduction of distances Birth of the locomotive engine-
Rude germs of a line of railway in old Italian stone tracks-- Timber wheel-
roads in colliery districts-Tramroads—Use of cast-iron for rails— Edge'
railway-Early inventors and improvers-Steam-power-Stationary engines
and horses-Messrs. Trevithick and Vivian-Mr. Thomas Gray- The man
with one idea— His book on steam land-conveyance-Working out practical
details—Mr. Blenkinsop-George Stephenson-Sketch of his life and work
-Stockton and Darlington Railway-The Quaker family of Pease-Opening
of the Stockton and Darlington line The “Experiment’—The Liverpool
and Manchester Railway-Motive power—Premiuin offered for best loco.
motive-Public trial—Success of the 'Rocket '-Causes of superiority-
Condition of early railroads in England-Extract from a speech by George
Stephenson.

za
-
.
kas
C
ONCERTO
Alai
.
HERE is perhaps nothing more sur- Origin of
prising to be met with in the history Railways.
of human progress than the startling
rapidity with which the lives and
habits of mankind have been bene-
ficially revolutionised by the introduc-
tion of steam locomotion. Compared
with the effects of any other social
influence that can be named, this
rapidity is only fitly to be measured
by the difference between the speed
of an express train, and that of all
former instruments of human progression.
If we reflect how very slow in operation, and how very gradual
in results great social movements usually are, it becomes truly
lll.com - The IIALI
het in
So
ID
ORG
MIHI
Soe
219
220
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
startling to consider that the whole of those wonderful ramifi-
cations and systems of railways and ocean steam-lines of transit,
which in modern times have so profoundly modified the funda-
mental conditions of human intercourse, and which to-day bind
together every part of the civilised world, and bring into such
close and intimate relations the inhabitants of every civilised
country, is the growth of a period of time well within the limits
of an ordinary human life. That all those facilities of move-
ment and intercommunication to which we have grown so
accustomed, and which now appear to us so indispensably
necessary to the prosecution of the most ordinary business
and pleasures of existence, have been virtually acquired
under the rule of the present reigning sovereign of Great
Britain.
In the Western world the diffusion of happiness and prosperity,
and the entirely altered conditions of human progress which
attended the invention and introduction of the locomotive
engine was surprising enough, but for some period before its
introduction, especially into England, the extensive use of
navigable canals, and the rise and ultimate prevalence of excel-
lent lines of good macadamised roads, with the employment of
an organised system of fast and well-appointed coaches between
important centres for passenger and for the lighter forms of
commercial traffic, materially smoothed the transition, and
gradually paved the way to that more rapid means of loco-
motion, and that manifold multiplication of productive energy
subsequently inaugurated, and rapidly developed by the railway
system.
It is in the relatively roadless East, and particularly in the
great continent of India, that we are enabled to witness in its
full proportions the extraordinary awakening, and the wonder-
fully rapid subversion of previous habits of life and thought,
years, by the operation and under the regenerating influence of
railway communication.
The generality of Europeans, on grounds of a sufficiently
extended experience, have long been accustomed to regard the
Asiatic as a being passively, but hopelessly, resistant to all forms
of innovation; as apathetic, torpid, unenterprising, and incur-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
221
ably wedded to the practice and routine of bygone centuries ;
but in our own day it has been reserved as one of the most
remarkable triumphs of the steam locomotive to have aroused
and awakened the Eastern world, to have undermined, and in
great measure overturned, the larger number of those deep-
rooted ancient prejudices which in India have so long and so
tenaciously resisted all previous assaults.
The strong barriers of one of the most rigid and exclusive
caste systems in the world have been penetrated on every side
by the power of steam. In India for many years past, caste
prejudices have been practically extinguished within the fences
of a line of railway, and the most sacred Brahmin will now
contentedly ignore them rather than forego the luxury and
economy of a journey by rail, whilst everywhere the usually
imperturbable and lethargic Eastern has been aroused out of
sleep, has learned to move with alacrity, and even to acquire
the virtue of punctuality, under the uncompromising and
imperious tuition of the locomotive whistle.
Railways in India have reduced the effective size of that con-
tinent to less than one-twentieth of its former dimensions, so
that places situated 400 miles from the home of an intending
traveller or producer of goods for the market, are now as prac-
tically near to him as others only 20 miles distant formerly
were, and journeys which would have occupied the time, imposed
the fatigue, and consumed the daily charges of the best part of
a month, can now, with ease, comfort, and economy, be per-
formed within the compass of a day.
To attempt an adequate delineation of the enormous social,
commercial, and other advantages which India has derived
from railway communication would carry us beyond the
limited space at our disposal, and would, moreover, in these
days be as superfluous as a thrice-told tale. “It may be
said, without undue enthusiasm or exaggeration, that this
great invention has imparted a stimulus and a vital energy
into all the affairs of man, whether connected with business
or pleasure; has multiplied in a manifold degree our capa-
cities and opportunities of enjoyment; has vastly increased
the volume of trade and manufactures in the country; and
has in a thousand ways contributed more to the happiness
222
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and welfare of our race than any other discovery or invention
that could be named.'1
The story of that portentous birth, which ushered into the
world the infant Hercules of the nineteenth century—the early
and vigorous efforts of its sturdy iron members, irresistibly
impelled by the imprisoned and forceful spirit of its mighty
solar ancestor. In other words, the story of the conception and
birth of the locomotive steam-engine, and the consequent rise
and development of the railway system, is one of perennial and
of the deepest interest to mankind. The story has been
written and re-written with the most loving care, and in the
most eloquent detail by numerous able pens. Nevertheless, to
the younger rising generation, especially in India, the interest-
ing narrative may be less familiar than to the children of those
in whose immediate presence the stirring events of railway
history were enacted. It will possibly, therefore, not be alto-
gether unprofitable if, before recounting the introduction and
growth of the railway system of India, we cast a brief retrospec-
tive glance at the early history of the locomotive and of the
railway in the land of its inception and birth.
The first rude germs of a line of railway are probably to be
found in the smooth parallel stone tracks, which were laid down
for draft purposes in the streets of many of the older Italian
cities. In England the practice of laying down timber wheel-
roads in the colliery districts of the North, and elsewhere in the
neighbourhood of mines, for the easy passage of heavily-laden
vehicles drawn by horses, appears to have arisen as early as the
beginning of the seventeenth century. These timber wheel-
tracks obtained the name of trams,' or ó tram-roads :-supposed
to have been a popular abbreviation of the name of a Mr.
Outram, who either originated, or at an early date was exten-
sively connected with their employment. They appear, how-
ever, to have been also called 'way-leaves.' Roger North,
writing in the year 1676 with reference to a visit paid by his
brother, Lord Guildford, to the neighbourhood of Newcastle,
mentions this name, and says: “When men have pieces of
1 Paper read at the Society of Arts, February 14th, 1890, by Geo. Findlay,
Assoc. Inst. Civil Engineers, on Moderne Improvements of Facilities in Railway
Travelling
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
223
ground between the colliery and the river they sell leave to lead
coals over the ground, and so dear, that the owner of a rood of
ground will expect £20 per annum for this leave. The manner
of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery
down to the river, exactly straight and parallel, and bulky
carts are made with four rowlets fitting these rails, whereby
the carriage is so easy that one horse can draw four or five
caldrons of coals, and is of immense benefit to the coal
merchants.
It was not, however, until about one hundred years later
that these wooden tramroads were superseded by the employ-
ment of cast-iron plates, laid on the surface, and firmly bolted
to the timber-ways. At Colebrook Dale, about the year 1760,
it happened that the price of iron was exceptionally low, and
naces, the owners decided to cover the upper surface of their
wooden tramroads with plates of cast-iron, in order to decrease
friction, and render the ways more durable. It was thought
that, in case the price of iron suddenly rose, these plates
could be lifted and sold as “pig'iron. The advantages,
however, of the cast-iron surface were soon found to be so great,
that instead of the plates being removed, their use was
gradually extended over the whole district; and before long
tramways exclusively of iron, supported on blocks of wood or
stone, came into extensive use, especially in South Wales, where
by the year 1811, 180 miles of such tramways are said to have
been completed.
The first solid iron rails that appear to have been used were
cast in section like an ordinary angle iron, in short lengths of
from 3 to 5 feet, and they were frequently spiked down to
cross supports of wood, named "sleepers,' let into the ground.
The vertical flange of the angle-iron rail was always placed
inside the wheels of the vehicles, which rolled along the flat, or
horizontal portion. Various other sections of metals,' as they
soon came to be called, were tried in the different mining dis-
tricts of England and Wales. One of the most successful was
the edge' railway, introduced into the slate quarries of Caer-
marthenshire. In this tramroad-or railway, as it truly was—
the rail was supported above the level of the wooden cross-
224
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
sleepers, and had a flat or slightly rounded top or edge. The
guiding flange was transferred from the rail to the wheels of
the vehicles or wagons,' which in the first instance were made
with flanges on each side, forming a grooved wheel-rim, which
fitted over the rail-head. This double-flanged wheel was soon
found to be unnecessary, and a single projecting flange inside
the rail was presently adopted. The ends of the edge ' rails
were secured into an iron box or chair' of cast-iron, securely
screwed down to the sleepers. So remarkably easy was the
haulage on this rail- or tram-way, that it was found that two
horses could rapidly draw a train of wagons weighing up to
24 tons, and the effective service of the two horses was
calculated to be equivalent to that of 400 working on a
common road-surface.
The various forms of horse-tramroad in use were for a long
time entirely confined to the vicinity of mines and to the
purposes of mineral traffic, but in the very early years of the
present century the improvements effected in their construction,
and the wonderful success and economy of these roads, began to
attract a wider attention. Many ingenious minds bestirred
themselves, and numerous enthusiastic projectors began to bring
forward proposals for their more extended application in the
service of the general public. A Dr. Anderson, in the year 1800,
proposed that iron rails should be laid down along the sides of
the principal turnpike roads, and be at the service of all who
might choose to employ them under suitable regulations. Sub-
sequently he advocated the construction of independent lines
of way, having easy gradients and curves, bridges, and even
tunnels. The idea was so far realised that in 1801 the “Surrey
Iron Railway Company'obtained an Act for the construction of
a horse-tramway for general merchandise, from Wandsworth to
Croydon, and experiments were made which showed that a
single horse could draw on the level, at the rate of 6 miles an
hour, twelve wagons each laden with three tons of stonemor
thirty-six tonsa load subsequently increased to more than
fifty-five tons. .
At this time the use of steam was already known as a motive
power, and it had been successfully applied for the working of
stationary pumping engines in numerous mines throughout
RAILWAYS IN INDIA .
225
England and elsewhere. In the mining districts the tramroads
employed in the mineral traffic generally descended from the
neighbourhood of the pits' mouth to the wharves, usually situ-
ated on some river in the valley below, so that the inclinations
of the roads were in favour of the loaded vehicles. When
the difference of level was very great, as it often was, it was
common to manage the descent, not by making the road one
uniform inclined plane, but by interposing one or more steep
slopes ; the remainder of the way being kept tolerably level.
The laden wagons were allowed to run down the steep inclines
by their own weight, and very often by the aid of a rope and
pulley; the descending heavy wagons were made to pull up the
return or empty ones.
It soon became general, however, during the first decades of
the century, to employ stationary steam-engines for hauling the
empty wagons up the steep inclines, while horse labour con-
tinued to be everywhere used on the other or more level parts
of the tramroad. In this way steam-engines and horses came
to be associated almost side by side, and shared the work be-
tween them, and men's minds gradually began to entertain
the idea of uniting the two, so as to produce a movable
engine or steam-horse. Various experiments with this object
in view were tried in different parts of the country. Even so
early as the year 1804 a rude locomotive machine, worked by
steam and moving on rails, was tried at an ironworks in Wales.
Messrs. Trevithick & Vivian, engineers, produced several steam-
locomotives with some measure of success, and before very
long in a good many of the colliery districts small locomotives
might be seen which, with much clanging and rattling, puffing
and smoking, from both steam vent and chimney, drew along
at the sufficient pace of 2 or 3 miles an hour, a dozen or more
small iron wagons laden with coal; a man would walk by the
side to open gates, remove impediments, and assist at a difficulty.
The colliers themselves would sometimes jump into the empty
wagons, as a tired carter will get into his empty dung cart, or
sit on the shaft.” 1
Such was the general state of matters about the year 1819,
1 Our Iron Roads. By F. S. Williams.
226
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
when some one remarked to the celebrated canal-making Duke
of Bridgewater, “You must be making handsomely out of your
canals ?' 'Oh, yes,' he replied, they will probably last my
time, but I don't like the look of these tramroads, there 's mis-
chief in them. What the shrewd Duke foresaw, no doubt
many other persons may have vaguely anticipated, but it is the
persistent man of 'one idea 'who generally succeeds in fixing
and forcing the attention of the public mind. Such a man was
1820, of a general system of transit by railways. Mr. Gray,
according to the well-known story, which marks the first
awakening of his “idea,' was travelling about the year 1819 in
the North of England on commercial business, and one day
stood looking at a small train of coal wagons impelled by a snort-
ing and puffing steam-engine along a tramroad which connected
one of the collieries of that district with the wharf at which the
coals were delivered. “Why?' he asked of the engineer, ' are
not these tramroads laid down all over England, so as to super-
sede our common roads, and steam-engines employed to convey
goods and passengers along them so as to supersede horse-
power ?' The engineer looked at the questioner with an
amused smile : “Just you propose that to the nation, sir, and
see what you 'll get by it. Why, sir, you 'd be worried to death
for your pains.' Thomas Gray made no reply, but went thought-
fully away—the idea had firmly lodged itself into his brain,
and worry or no worry, he could not get rid of it—-railroads,
steam-engines, horse-power and common roads superseded-
the words kept repeating themselves over and over again; he
could think of nothing else ; he could talk of nothing else. He
soon became a bore and a nuisance to his friends and acquaint-
ance, and was doubtless regarded by them as more or less
deranged. “Railroads, steam-engines, horses and common roads
superseded –nobody would listen to him, and the engineer's
words seemed likely to prove true. But the 'idea’ of Thomas
Gray was a genuine and workable idea, and would not allow
itself to be suppressed. The pregnant words were dinned with
renewed energy into the private and public ear by innumerable
at length by a printed book, the first edition of which was
:: RAILWAYS IN INDIA
227
published in 1820, with the lengthy title: "Observations on a
General Iron Railway, or Land Steam Conveyance, to super-
sede the necessity of horses in all public vehicles, showing its
vast superiority in every respect over all the present pitiful
methods of conveyance by turnpike roads, canals, and coasting
traders, containing every information relative to railroads, and
locomotive engines, by Thomas Gray.
Slowly the man of one idea emerged from the crowd. A few
commercial men began to entertain a glimmering notion of his
meaning, and to become interested. People of note looked at
the idea, discussed it, and ended in advocating it almost as
enthusiastically as Mr. Gray himself; even timid capital began
to listen to it, and to come to its aid, until at last the minds of
business men were sufficiently aroused to give the proposed scheme
its first great public trial on the road between Liverpool and
Manchester. This, however, was not until four or five years of
persistent agitation, and after several editions of Mr. Gray's
book had been published. The trial on a large scale was made,
and suddenly the idea ceased to be at all wonderful, or even
novel. It was only what everybody had always firmly enter-
tained, and what everybody took the credit of.
The merit of first advocating a novel and workable idea, and
persistently and successfully forcing it on public attention is
undoubtedly very great, even allowing that in a very short time
some other person would infallibly have done so. But it is to
the practical workers-out of detail that the success of railway
locomotion is really due. The solitary engines that here and
there throughout the country laboured with so much difficulty
along the tramroads, at 2 or 3 miles an hour, or if a greater
speed was attempted at once broke down, and had themselves
to be ignominiously hauled away by horses, would never have
emerged from their first obscurity, and have revolutionised the
world, if patient practical minds had not long and painfully
laboured to evolve workable simplicity out of that wonderful
complexity which is always the first offspring of the inventive
genius of man.
It was believed that there never could be sufficient adhesion
between the wheels of the locomotive and the iron rails, and it
was found in many of the strangely-compounded early tramroad-
228
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
engines, that if the speed was at all augmented the driving-
wheels would revolve on the smooth rails without advancing
the load a single yard. The ingenious Mr. Blenkinsop at once
devised the remedy. The plan was to notch the rails in the
form of a rack, and the wheels of the engine and wagons were
cogged with teeth to work into the notches. One of Mr.
Blenkinsop's engines of 4-horse power impelled a carriage
lightly loaded at the rate of 10 miles an hour, and hauled a
train of thirty coal-wagons at about a third of that pace. For-
tunately it was soon discovered that the conclusion on which
and that the amount of adhesion between a smooth wheel and a
smooth rail could easily be made quite sufficient for all purposes
of traction.
The united labour and experiments of numerous practical
mechanics throughout the United Kingdom were devoted to
perfecting almost piece by piece, and joint by joint, the iron
anatomy of the infant locomotive, until there presently emerged,
and towered above his fellow-workers, a man whose name has
become a household word, and whose title of originator of the
modern locomotive engine is beyond dispute.
George Stephenson, the first of the great locomotive and
railway engineers, rose to eminence from the humblest ranks of
labour. His father was a working collier, and the son from his
earliest years was dependent on the hard toil of his hands for
his daily share of bread. He was born in a small cottage in
the village of Wylam, on the banks of the Tyne, not far from
Newcastle. As a young child he was sent out to work in the
fields, from which he was shortly promoted to the more
lucrative employment of picking over coal heaps at twopence a
day. So young was he when thus engaged that he was obliged
carefully to keep out of sight of the overseer, lest he should be
considered too small to earn even this moderate wage. In his
early manhood he was successively employed as a 'brakesman'
on a tramroad, and as a stoker to a winding engine at the
wages of a shilling a day. When this was doubled he is re-
corded to have declared himself “a made man for life.' Steadily
working and toiling, often having to rise at one and two o'clock
in the morning, and labour until late at night, he struggled
RAILWAYS 5
229
IN INDIA
with his destiny, but at so low an ebb were his fortunes in the
first years of the century that he had almost decided to
emigrate to the new world. Happily, however, for his country,
he continued resolutely to battle with the difficulties of his
life in his native district, where, as time went on, he gradually
earned the character of a steady, observant, and resourceful
man. At the age of 22 he married, and in 1803 his only child
Robert was born—a child destined to become, in the world of
railways, the peer of his distinguished father. As this son grew
in years, it is related that George Stephenson, in order to meet
his increasing responsibilities, and especially to provide for his
son's education, had to turn his hand to almost every variety of
work. It is recorded amongst other items that he taught himself
to mend his neighbours' clocks and watches, to cut out clothes,
make shoes for the pitmen and his poorer relatives, and, above
all, to read, write, and to seize every opportunity of improving
His inventive genius was almost constantly at work, and so
great was the local reputation that his steadiness, ingenuity,
and sturdy integrity of character at length obtained, that
about the year 1812 he was intrusted by Lord Ravensworth,
and the Killingworth colliery proprietors, with money to make
a practical trial of a locomotive engine, on which his time and
thoughts had been for some time engaged. The engine was
built and tried on the Killingworth tramway in the month of
July 1814, and from this date the future railway engineer
became in reality what he had himself anticipated at a much
earlier period, viz., 'a made man for life. His name and
abilities became known over the whole of the Newcastle district.
Engine stoking was left far behind, he became viewer at a
colliery and engine-wright, was employed in laying down a
tramroad at Hetton, and then, for the modest sum of £115,
undertook to execute the survey for a proposed tramway, or
railroad, from Stockton to Darlington, and afterwards became
principal engineer to that line, to which we must now for a
moment turn our attention.
For many years previous to the year 1816, much discontent
had arisen in the commercial world, especially in the northern
districts of England, owing to the extravagant charges and
230
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
DY
general inefficiency of the navigable canal service as a means of
transport. The canal proprietors, possessing a seemingly secure
monopoly, had become arrogant and careless, or, it may be, un-
observant of the growing requirements of trade. In the coal
districts of Durham an extensive field was that situated a short
distance north-west of Darlington, from whence coals were
carried to Stockton, a place in communication with the sea,
near the mouth of the Tees, and in this district the difficulties
of transport had long been seriously felt. The construction of
a canal had been proposed, but, after long dispute between the
proprietors of Darlington and the merchants of Stockton, had
been laid aside. The Stockton merchants, adopting the motto
Meliora speramus, convened a public meeting to discuss what
could be done, and a special committee was appointed to
investigate the relative advantages of a canal or a tramway;
still, nothing was effected; but the friends of some form of
tramroad gradually gained the ascendant. Their proposals
were modestly limited to a timber road, over which the traffic
could be drawn either by horses or by ropes attached to the
winding gear of stationary engines, and it was estimated that
one horse could lead downwards from Darlington to Stockton
ten tons of coal, and in returning about four tons of load,
exclusive of the weight of the vehicles. No idea of conveying
passengers was dreamt of.
A company was at length formed towards the end of the
year 1816, and George. Stephenson, who had been engaged on
the preliminary surveys, was appointed engineer to the proposed
line of tramway, or railway, and lost no time in urging upon
the promoters the employment of iron rails in the place of
wood. The raising of the requisite capital was only effected
with extreme difficulty, principally through the subscriptions
and exertions of the wealthy Quaker families of the neighbour-
hood. George Stephenson strove hard to impregnate the
directors of the project with his own sanguine views as to the
certain success and economy of steam locomotion, but the
merchants and leading men of the district regarded his pro-
posals with suspicion and ridicule, and persistently closed their
purses. The capital, however, was at length raised, and the
company went to Parliament, not indeed with the declared
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
231
intention of employing locomotives for the work of transport,
but desiring only powers to provide for the making and main-
taining of the tramroads, and for the passage thereon of wagons
and other carriages by men and horses or otherwise.
So great was the opposition that on three occasions the bill
was negatived, and it was not eventually passed until the year
1821. On Tuesday, the 27th of September 1825, the Stockton
and Darlington Railway was formally opened.
The most influential friends and advocates of this com-
paratively insignificant line of railway, which practically solved
the great question of improved transport, were the Quaker
family of Pease. One day in 1821 George Stephenson had a
momentous interview with Mr. Edward Pease; induced him to
visit Killingworth, where he could see for himself what a
locomotive working on iron rails could do, and from that hour it
was mutually decided by these two strong and energetic men
that every nerve should be strained to obtain powers to work
the traffic of the Stockton and Darlington line by steam loco-
motives. Fifty years later, on the occasion of the jubilee
celebration of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1875,
Mr. Henry Pease remarked, that it was surprising that the
world should have been so many thousand years old “before it
was thoroughly known to what extent two simple parallel bars,
laid at a given distance apart, would facilitate the intercourse
of mankind.' He detailed in an amusing speech some of the
early struggles and difficulties of the project. How one of its
opponents had said, “It is folly ; you will never get your wagons
to travel on the railway.' And another, “I am sorry to find
the intelligent people of the North gone mad on the subject of
railways,' or 'It is all very well to spend money, it will do some
good, but I will eat all the coals your steam-railroads will
carry.' He did not live,' said Mr. Henry Pease, until the
year 1874 when 127 millions of tons of coal were carried by
railway, and I hope he had many good dinners on more
digestible materials.
At the opening of the line in 1825, in the presence of a
great concourse of people, a train was formed, weighing 80
tons, consisting of one of George Stephenson's engines, ' No. 1,'
driven by that able engineer himself, six wagons laden with
U11
232
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
coals and flour, a covered “coach' containing directors and pro-
prietors, twenty-one coal-wagons fitted up for passengers, and
filled by a promiscuous crowd, and lastly, six more loaded coal-
wagons. This train, gaily decorated, started off with a horse-
man carrying a flag at its head. Crowds of people stood along
the line, or ran on foot after the train, and gentlemen on horse-
back galloped across the fields to keep up with it. The speed
was gradually increased to 10 miles an hour. At a favourable
part of the road Stephenson determined to try the powers of
his engine, he called upon the horseman with the flag to get
out of the way, put on steam, and now 12 miles an hour, then
15 miles an hour were attained, and the runners of foot and
the gentlemen on horseback were soon left far behind. “When
the train reached Darlington it was found that 450 passengers
occupied the wagons, and that the load of men, coals, and
merchandise amounted to about 90 tons.' 1
The subsequent results of the opening of the Stockton and
Darlington Railway were surprising in every way, both to the
proprietors and to the public. It had not been intended to
employ the line for the conveyance of passengers ; but the de-
mand for carriage became so great that the company was soon
induced to provide the necessary accommodation. In October
'Experiment' would run from Darlington to Stockton and
back, every day except Sunday, making one journey each way
per day. Each passenger was allowed to travel and take one
George Stephenson's interesting engine, ‘No. 1,' which had
cost the modest sum of £500 only, was before long supple-
mented by other improved and stronger engines, and the road-
way itself was quickly brought into better order. As the
traffic increased a double line was laid, and trains weighing up
to 92 tons were run daily at 5 miles an hour. The rate for the
carriage of merchandise per ton was lowered from 5d. to {th of
a penny per mile. The cost of the carriage of minerals
dropped from 7d. to 1}d. per ton per mile, and the price of
coals for shipment fell from 18 shillings to 8 shillings and six-
1 Our Iron Roads, by Frederic S. Williams, London, 1888.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
233
pence per ton. As a consequence, the export trade rapidly
increased, and the company's shares rose to £40 premium each,
with plenty of buyers, but no sellers.
The small Stockton and Darlington Railway was constructed
and carried through by a body of energetic local capitalists ;
but the first line made by capital raised in the public market
marks the birth of the railway system of England and of the
world—was that between Liverpool and Manchester. It was
in the preliminary struggles of this railway, from its first incep-
battle between the new system of locomotion and the united
forces of ignorance, prejudice, and avarice, was fought out
and won ; and it was this decisive victory that threw open the
doors of public enterprise, and inaugurated the modern era of
railways.
To recount the absurdities and extravagances, the ignorance,
narrow-mindedness, and prejudice, displayed in this great en-
rapaciousness and greed aroused by alarmed self-interest, or by
calculated avarice, would excite indignation and disgust. The
interested reader will find the minutest particulars duly re-
corded in Dr. Smiles' Lives of the Stephensons. Early alive to
the serious defects of transport and the dawning of a new era,
the merchants of Liverpool in the year 1821 formed themselves
into a committee, drew up a scheme, and established a com-
pany for the construction of a tramroad or line of iron rails
between Liverpool and Manchester, wisely leaving open, as too
contentious and combustible a question, the motive-power to be
employed. So great, nevertheless, was the alarmed opposition
of ignorance and vested interests, that it was only by stealth,
by many ingenious stratagems—in the darkness of the night-
or by actual armed force, that the first surveys could be made.
It was not until the end of four years, viz., in April 1825,
that the first Parliamentary Bill, after a desperate struggle in
committee with canal proprietors and landowners, extending
over 38 days, was at length 'put and negatived' amidst the
frantic cheers of its opponents. Nothing daunted, the pro-
jectors carried out fresh surveys, appeasing some of the most
234
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
powerful opposition, and made a renewed application to
Parliament in the ensuing year, when the third reading of the
bill was at last carried by a majority of 88 to 41, at a cost to
the company of £27,000. George Stephenson was at once
appointed principal engineer, at a salary of £1000 a year. The
works were vigorously prosecuted, and the line, in spite of
many severe and unprecedented difficulties, was opened for
public traffic on the 15th September 1830.
The question of motive-power to be employed on the new
railway was virtually decided by the company's selection of
their chief engineer. George Stephenson, assisted by his able
son, had devoted himself now for many years to the perfecting
of the locomotive-engine, and so numerous were the improve-
ments he had devised and introduced, that the superiority of
the locomotive for purposes of traction over fixed engines was
now scarcely disputable. In the early part of the year 1829,
the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ap-
pointed a committee of experts to inquire into the relative
merits of locomotives and stationary engines, and, as the final
result of the recommendations of this committee—who had
visited the tramroad systems of the North of England, and had
thoroughly investigated the different methods of motive power
there employed—it was decided to publicly offer a premium of
£500 for the best locomotive that might be brought forward
by manufacturers, to compete under certain fixed regulations,
the principal of which were :—That the engines should con-
sume their own smoke; that if they weighed 6 tons they
should be capable of drawing a train of 20 tons weight, includ-
ing tender, at a speed of 10 miles an hour on a level railway;
that each engine should have two safety-valves—one beyond
the control of the driver; and that the height of the engines,
including chimney, should not exceed 15 feet. Lastly, it was
stipulated that the price of the engine was not to be more
than £550.
Only three locomotives entered the lists, viz., the "Novelty,'
by Messrs. Braithwaite & Ericson; the "Sans Pareil,' by Mr.
T. Hackworth ; and the 'Rocket,' by Mr. George Stephenson.
It was well understood that the prize of the competition was
in reality the construction for the company of its entire stock
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
235

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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of engines, and each competitor had strained every nerve to
ensure the success of his machine. The merits of the respective
engines were to be decided by the directors, assisted by three
selected experts. On the day appointed for the trial, a level
section of line about 13 miles long was marked off, over which
each engine in turn had to travel backwards and forwards ten
times, making a total run' of 30 miles. The “Novelty'suc-
ceeded only in passing twice over the distance, when the joints
of the boiler gave way. The “Sans Pareil, on examination,
was found not to be in strict accordance with the conditions ;
but it was decided that a trial of it might be made. After
passing over the measured course eight times, the pump that
supplied the boiler failed, and ended the experiment. The
“Rocket,' with a load of 17 tons attached, twice performed the
distance of 30 miles ; the first time in two hours and a quarter,
and the second in two hours and seven minutes. The maxi-
mum speed attained by it was estimated at 30 miles an hour,
and the average speed was about 14.
The great superiority of this engine over every other that
had hitherto been made was due:-First, to the introduction
by George Stephenson of a tubular form of boiler, consisting of
an arrangement of tubes passing through the water-space, by
which a very large heating surface was provided ; and secondly,
to the admirable contrivance of the “steam-blast,' which
directed the waste steam, after performing its main work in the
cylinders, into the chimney of the engine, thus creating and
maintaining during the whole time of working, a powerful
draught, which secured a more rapid combustion of the fuel in
the furnace, and generation of steam in the boiler. The suc-
cess of the “Rocket' was complete, and George Stephenson
was appointed to build the engines for the company, which he
continued successfully to do up to the time of his death in
1848.
The “Sans Pareil,' although beaten in consequence of a
trifling accident in this particular trial, was, nevertheless, a very
remarkable engine, and probably but little inferior to the
‘Rocket,' notwithstanding that the latter contained the germ
of those improvements which afterwards guaranteed the success
of the locomotive engine.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
237
The 'Sans Pareil’ for many years after the trial did a great
deal of excellent work on the · Bolton and Kenyon Junction
Railway,' running as much as 120 miles a day for years.
The successful working of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway led to the immediate construction of the line between
London and Birmingham—the parent of the modern ‘London
and North-Western system, and let loose a flood of railway
enterprise throughout the country, until the present network
of railways was gradually built up. It must not be supposed,
however, that the early lines of which we have been speaking
were in any way comparable with the comfortable and well-
equipped railways of the present day. The roads were hard,
rough, and uneven, owing to the employment of unyielding
stone blocks, instead of the elastic timber and other sleepers
now used, and to the lightness of the rails and fastenings.
Instead of the luxurious carriages of present railways, passen-
gers had to ride in what were little better than open trucks,
exposed to the inclemency of the weather, from which, as we
may read, they occasionally overbalanced themselves and fell
out, whilst the trains were in motion, or the roughest possible
kinds of covered “coaches' were provided for the higher class
of passengers. The station accommodation was of the scantiest
kind, and the trains, running at an average speed but little
superior to the fastest coaches then on the roads, were few and
far between, and started or arrived at their destinations at all
sorts of uncertain and irregular intervals. But from the year
1830, every year, and almost every month, witnessed some
improvement, either in the road, in the carriages, the engines,
or in the service of the railway, until the comforts and security
of modern travelling were gradually attained. Nor must it be
imagined that the ultimate term in railway improvements has
even yet been approached.
In concluding this rapid sketch of the rise of the railway
system in England, we cannot refrain from quoting a few
words of a speech delivered by George Stephenson in the year
1844, on the occasion of the opening of the “ Newcastle and
Darlington Railway,' containing, as it does, so many interest-
ing references to his career. “Yes,' he said, “Lord Ravens-
worth and the Killingworth owners were the first parties that
238
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
would intrust me with money to make a locomotive engine.
That engine was made 32 years ago. I said to my friends that
there was no limit to the speed of an engine, provided the
works could be made to stand. In this respect great perfection
has been reached, and in consequence a very high velocity has
been obtained. In what has been done under my management,
the merit is only in part my own. I have been most ably
assisted and seconded by my son. In the earlier part of my
career, and when he was a little boy, I saw how deficient I was
in education, and made up my mind that he should not labour
under the same defect, but that I would put him to a good
school, and give him a liberal training. I was, however, a poor
man; and how do you think I managed ? I betook myself to
mending my neighbours' clocks and watches at night, after my
daily labour was done, and thus I procured the means of edu-
cating my son. He became my assistant and my companion.
He got an appointment as under reviewer, and at night we
worked together at our engineering. I got leave to go to
Killingworth to lay down a railway at Hetton, and next to
Darlington ; and after that I went to Liverpool to plan a line
to Manchester. I there pledged myself to attain a speed of 10
miles an hour. I said I had no doubt the locomotive might
be made to go much faster; but we had better be moderate in
the beginning. The directors said I was quite right; for if
when they went to Parliament I talked of going at a greater
speed than 10 miles an hour, I would put a cross on the con-
cern. It was not an easy task for me to keep the engine down
to 10 miles an hour; but it must be done, and I did my best.
I had to place myself in that most unpleasant of all positions,
the witness-box of a Parliamentary committee. I could not
find words to satisfy either the committee or myself; some one
inquired if I were a foreigner, and another hinted that I was
mad. I put up with every rebuff, and went on with my plans,
determined not to be put down. Assistance gradually increased
-improvements were made—and to-day, a train which started
from London in the morning, has brought me in the afternoon
to my native soil, and enabled me to take my place in this
room, and see around me many faces which I have great
pleasure in looking upon.'
CHAPTER II
PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION
IT
Principles of construction of railways—Preliminary-Canals and railroads—The
'idea’ of a railway-Expense of reduction to practical form-Embankments
-Viaducts and cuttings-Land purchase and compensations—Opinions of
engineers in early days of English railways—Choice of route and deviations
-Survey and levels—'Formation and grading lines—Plans and sections-
Acquisition of land--Legal regulation of powers of railway promoters—
Compensation for damage or injury to property-Parliamentary plans and
sections-Alterations—Legal knowledge essential to the Engineer—The
Board of Trade-Powers—Maxima and minima dimensions-Superiority of
India in uniformity--Important regulations of the Board of Trade.
To understand rightly the principles involved in the application Preliminary.
of railways to the purposes of land locomotion, it is necessary
to consider for a moment what are the natural resistances
which obstruct freedom of movement—and especially rapidity
of movement of any kind. These are three in number, viz.,
Terrestrial attraction, resistance of the atmosphere, and friction.
It is beyond any human effort to remove either the first or
second, but the last is capable of being so largely reduced
as to become practically non-existent. It is therefore prin-
cipally by the application of human ingenuity to the reduction
of the resistance of friction, that the rapidity of motion attained
on a line of railway has been' rendered possible. On any form
of common road the resistance offered by friction to the rapid
draft of heavy loads can only be reduced to a certain limit,
which is very soon reached. Moreover, the expense of effect-
ing the reduction is incurred over a maximum surface. Hence,
before any further advance can be made, something altogether
new must be devised. In the history of locomotion this
something new first took the form of a yielding and mobile
water-road, in place of a hard macadamised surface. By the
239
240
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
introduction of navigable canals the resistance of friction to the
motion of heavy bodies was greatly reduced, and an important
step in advance was made; but the most notable, the most
convenient, and on the whole the most economical solution of
the problem, was soon found in the tramway, and its rapid
subsequent development into the true railway.
The “idea' of a railway is to furnish two parallel lines of
hard, smooth, and unchanging surfaces for wheels to roll upon-
no expenditure, so far as concerns reduction of surface friction,
being required on any other part of the road, except on those two
very narrow surfaces immediately under the rim of the wheels.
It is a very simple idea !—but is one of the last that took
possession of the human mind—once seized, however, mechanical
difficulties only remained, which were soon surmounted, and,
accordingly, two lines of strong straight bars of iron–21 to 3
inches wide, and 4 to 6 inches deep, laid and firmly supported
at a little distance above the general ground surface—were
placed at an even distance apart, so as to suit the width of
the vehicles; the separate lengths of iron bar were neatly
joined together, end to end, and spiked or secured to blocks of
wood or stone at short intervals; and, lo! the simple idea was
at once embodied in the form of a railway, or iron road, which
immediately opened an economical pathway for the introduc-
tion of steam, or any other source of power that man might
wish to employ for purposes of traction and locomotion.
Simple, however, as the idea of a railway is, its realisation
in practical form is often attended with prodigious expense.
The natural irregularities of the earth's surface must, in one
manner or another, be reduced or removed. Low parts, and
often deep valleys, must be filled up by embankments or
viaducts. High parts must be cut through by cuttings; or,
if the height is too great, must be bored through by tunnel-
ling. Rivers and watercourses, however large or small, must
be crossed by bridges—all with the one object of reducing the
whole route to one uniform and moderately level surface, so
as to reduce friction and prevent loss of tractive power by
operating against the action of gravity. The land also on
which the railway is constructed has to be purchased, often
at great cost, and compensation paid for interference with the
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
241
rights of property. The great strength and solidity required
in all constructions connected with the road surface of railways,
in order to withstand the impact of enormously heavy loads
moving at those high velocities which the power of steam
and the smoothness and evenness of the rails render possible,
is the cause of great outlay, and imposes on the railway
engineer works and operations of the greatest magnitude
and responsibility.
The general principles of the construction and working of a
line of railway are virtually the same in all parts of the world.
We will therefore, in the first instance, indicate a few of these
general principles, irrespectively of country or locality, so as to
familiarise the reader with the various nature and extent of
the principal operations undertaken by the railway engineer.
We will then briefly glance at the introduction of railways
into India, and note some of the special peculiarities of their
construction and working in that country, illustrating a few
of the more remarkable railway structures which have been
carried out, and supplying the reader with such information
as to the working results of Indian railways as may be of
general interest.
In the early days of English railways, the decision as to the
best route for any proposed line was often very summarily dis-
posed of. Given the chief termini, it was said, “make your
line as straight and direct as possible from one point to the
other ; disregard the smaller centres, because when once the
line is open people and trade will flock to it as bees to a
honey-pot, and in a few years it will run through a rich
and populous district, which it has itself created. If necessary,
feeders and branches can be made from any towns of import-
ance, but keep to the shortest and most direct route for your
main line. It is the through traffic that will pay; the local
traffic, which is of less importance, will create itself.' These
views, however, were soon modified. Contrary to what was
supposed, it was found that the short local traffic paid as
well, or even better, than the long through traffic, and that
it was more economical to allow extra length to a main line
rather than to multiply branches.
The selection of the exact route to be taken by any proposed
242
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
line of railway is often one requiring very great skill and
judgment, so as fairly to balance economy in construction with
commercial advantages and public convenience. Mr. Robert
Stephenson, whilst engaged in settling the precise demarcation
of the London and Birmingham Railway, is said to have walked
over the whole 113 miles of distance between these towns no
less than twenty times. After the position of all obligatory
points has been determined, the first studies for a line of rail-
way usually result in the alternative of two or three possible
routes. Trial shafts and borings are then sunk in order to
ascertain the geological formation of the country to be tra-
versed; closer trial levels are run, and approximate sections
are made, so as to exhibit on paper the main inequalities of
the ground, and to indicate the probable mass of the heavy
· embankments or cuttings required. The consideration of all
merely local deviations, necessary for avoiding expensive pro-
perties in the country, if not in the neighbourhood of cities
and towns, is for the present postponed; but the crossing-places
of the principal rivers and streams are fixed, so that they may ·
be as economically situated as possible. When all the data
necessary for forming an accurate judgment has been collected,
the engineer responsible for the project balances the evidence
in favour of or against the various trial routes, and proceeds to
mark out on the ground the exact line which he, or the pro-
This route must now be very carefully adjusted in detail and
then surveyed, and a line of close levels must be taken along
the centre line-which has been deeply nicked or scored on the
ground-on stout pegs driven at intervals of, say, every chain's
length. The survey will determine by actual measurement the
exact form and dimensions of all the natural or artificial features
of the ground to be occupied by the railway, and for some dis-
tance beyond it on either side, so that these features can be
represented graphically to scale on paper. The levels taken
will closely show all the various elevations and depressions of
the ground surface above some fixed point or "datum, usually
the mean level of the sea, and when these levels are plotted in
continuous order on a roll of paper, and the surface of the
ground is traced through them, the engineer will be enabled to
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
243
draw on the “section' thus formed what are called the “formation?
or grading 'lines--that is, those lines representing the future
surface levels of the railway. Where land for depositing soil,
or for excavating material, is very valuable, he will endeavour,
as far as possible in drawing these lines, to reduce the necessity
of its acquisition by balancing the total amount of cuttings and
embankments over given lengths of the section, so that the
material from the former will, as nearly as possible, serve to
build up the latter ; but the high or low level of the formation
lines will be principally determined with reference to the amount
of earthworks involved, and the necessity for keeping the rate
of inclination within that maximum limit which it has been
deemed expedient on various grounds to adopt.
This very important matter of 'grading the line having
been finally determined, the engineer proceeds to plan out and
design all the works and structures required from one end
to the other of the railway, whether large viaducts, smaller
bridges, tunnels, or other necessary works, and the exact posi-
tion, main dimensions, and serial number of all such structures
will be carefully marked on the plans and sections. He will
determine station accommodation of all kinds, whether for the
service of the railway itself or for the public convenience, and
will design, or provide for, all matters appertaining to the de-
tailed working of the line, such as signals, telegraphs, engine
accommodation, workshops, housing of staff, and all the thousand
minor requirements of a working railway. In the meantime the
quantities and value of all items of labour and materials that
will enter into the construction of any and every part of the
line are taken out and scheduled in regular order, until one
general “estimate'is framed, which, according to the skill and
experience of the engineer, will represent, with greater or less
approximation, the true initial cost to the proprietors of the
proposed works.
The construction of a line of railway necessitates the acquisi-
tion of a continuous strip of land to be assigned for its exclusive
use and occupation ; a strip, moreover, which in the majority
of cases inconveniently disconnects and severs from free inter-
communication the adjoining lands on either side of it. There
are consequently but few cases where a railway can be con-
244
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
structed without a more or less serious interference with private
rights, or without subjecting the owners of adjoining properties
to some degree of loss or inconvenience. Hence in all civilised
countries it has been found necessary to safeguard the legiti-
mate rights of property, and to regulate and define the powers
to be granted to railway promoters by means of legislative
enactments.
These enactments proceed on the assumption that the con-
struction of any line of railway is for the public advantage,
and—this assumption being proved—that the particular rights
of private owners should give way to the general good of the
community. In accordance with the provisions of the various
railway enactments, companies may obtain legal powers to
construct, work, and maintain a line of railway, and authority
to acquire compulsorily such lands and other private property,
as may be shown necessary for the occupation of the line,
stations, or approaches, but these powers and privileges are
only conferred under most stringent regulations, framed to pro-
tect the rights of private persons which may be interfered with
by the construction of the line, and to ensure them adequate
compensation. Nor is this compensation only a pecuniary one.
Owners are empowered to require from the railway company the
construction of all such reasonable works and conveniences which
it can be shown will neutralise, or mitigate, the damage or
injury sustained.
Before legal powers are granted, a railway company has to
satisfy Parliament—or other corresponding Government author-
ity—that the construction of the contemplated railway will
really be a benefit to the public, and that it will be constructed
and worked in such a manner as to be safe and efficient, both
as regards the general public, and the adjoining proprietors or
occupiers.
The engineer of a railway has, therefore, in the first place, to
prepare for submission to Parliament, accurate land plans and
books of reference, showing exactly what lands the railway
company propose to acquire, within certain permissible limits
of deviation. He has, in addition, to submit sections of the pro-
posed railway, showing all gradients, curves, cuttings, embank-
ments, tunnels, viaducts, bridges, or other works, and in order
UI
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
245
to ensure perfect uniformity, all these plans, sections, and
documents of every kind are required to be prepared and sub-
mitted in one and the same rigidly specified manner, whether
· with regard to scale of drawings, or in every other particular,
instructions for which are laid down in minute detail in the
standing orders' of Parliament, which must be precisely
adhered to, on pain of absolute rejection of any application for
powers. Moreover, when powers are at length obtained, no
subsequent alterations, whether of route, gauge, gradient,
curves, or structures of any kind are admissible, except within
the limits of stringent regulations expressly formulated. So
greatly, in short, are railway and other engineering works
governed and regulated by special legislative enactments, that
a very considerable amount of legal knowledge is one of the
first necessities of the professional engineer in almost every
country.
In England, on the completion of a line of railway, it is
necessary that it be found in accordance with the special re-
quirements of the “ Board of Trade,' and if on inspection by the
officers appointed by this Board it is found otherwise, the open-
ing of the railway for passenger traffic may be postponed from
month to month until such requirements are complied with, or
if the line be opened for passengers without the required per-
mission, a legal penalty of £20 a day for every day during which
the line remains open without permission may be enforced under
the provisions of an Act of Parliament. In England, there-
fore, if a railway company prefers the alternative of paying
the sum of £20 a day, a new passenger line may apparently be
opened without any inspection whatever, and the Board of Trade
appears to have no power absolutely to order the closing of a
line from any cause.
After a line has once been opened the Board of Trade has no
further powers, either of inspection, or to order any improve-
ments, or to interfere in any way with the working of a line-
except by making suggestions or recommendations—unless addi-
tional new works are undertaken, in which case these additions
are subject to inspection, and the alteration of such of the old
works as are in connection with, and dependent on them, may
then be enforced.
246
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
According to the present state of English procedure in this
particular, it would appear that the Board of Trade may
practically enforce on new lines all the latest improvements and
best precautions warranted by the most recent scientific advance-
ment, but at the same time an old line-on which in course of
years an enormous traffic has grown up, far surpassing that
likely to be attained on any new line, at least until such time
as the new precautions enforced have themselves been super-
seded—may continue to be worked in the old manner without
the use of the new precautions or improvements. In practice,
however, although the anomaly in legal powers is great, the
evil is of less importance than might be supposed, inasmuch as
in nearly all cases railway companies are so strongly interested
in the safe working of their lines, as to be willing eagerly to
adopt every possible new precaution and improvement that
presents itself as practically valuable. The deficiency in the
legal powers of the Board of Trade are perhaps most strongly
felt in the case of old lines on which—owing to various causes-
the older dimensions of fixed structures in relation to changes
in rolling stock have in course of time brought about a more
or less dangerous state of things, which, as they cannot be
altered without incurring heavy expense, are exceedingly liable
to be unattended to until some serious accident has resulted.
An absolute and rigid uniformity in the relative maxima and
minima dimensions of contiguous structures and rolling stock,
on every line of a given gauge, is a matter which was greatly
neglected in the early clays of railroads in England. In India,
on the other hand—as we shall see later—this important
particular has from the first been carefully attended to, and
Indian railways, so far as uniformity in standard dimen-
sions are concerned, are probably the most perfect in the
world.
The regulations of the Board of Trade, with respect to the
requirements necessary on the opening of new lines, are subject
to additions or alterations from time to time, and are issued
in circular form for the guidance of its own officers, and for the
information of the engineers engaged in the construction of
new lines of railway. The inspecting officers have the power
of modifying these regulations to meet particular cases, but in
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
247
the main the certificate of the Board of Trade will not be given
unless the regulations are strictly observed.
The following is a memorandum of some of the more in-
portant of these regulations to which English railway companies
opening new lines are required to conform, and which—so far
as applicable-have also been adopted on all Indian railways-
1. The requisite apparatus to be provided at the period of
inspection, for ensuring an adequate interval of space between
following trains.
2. Home signals and distant signals for each direction to be
supplied at stations and junctions, with extra signals for such
sidings as are used either for the arrival or for the departure of
trains.
3. The levers and handles of points and signals to be brought
close together into the position most convenient for the person
working them, and to be interlocked. The points to be provided
with double connecting-rods. The levers of the points to be
sufficiently long to enable the pointsman to work them without
risk or inconvenience, and not to be placed on the ground between
the lines of rails. All signals which are worked by wire should be
so weighted as to fly to 'danger' on the fracture of the wire.
4. Facing points to be avoided as far as possible.
5. It being necessary that a uniform system of signals should be
adopted on all railways, the semaphore arms should, at stations and
junctions where there is more than one on one side of a post, be
made in future to apply, the first or upper arm to the line on the
left, the second arm to the line next in order from the left, and so
on. In the case of sidings a low and short arm, distinct from the
arm or arms for the passenger lines, may be employed. Clocks
should be placed in conspicuous positions for the use of the signal-
men.
6. The signal-handles and the levers of the points should be
brought together under cover upon a properly constructed stage,
with glass sides enclosing the apparatus. They should be so
arranged that while the signals are at danger the points shall
be free to move ; that a signalman shall be unable to lower a
signal for the approach of a train until after he has set the points
in a proper direction for it to pass : that it shall not be possible for
him to exhibit at the same moment any two signals that can lead
to a collision between two trains; and that, after having lowered
248
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
his signals to allow a train to pass, he shall not be able to move
his points so as to cause an accident, or to admit of a collision
between any two trains. The facing points should be provided
with apparatus which will ensure the points being in their proper
positions before the signals are lowered, and which will prevent
the signalman from shifting the points whilst a train is passing
them. Every signalman should be able to see the arms and lamps
of his home, as well as his distant signals, and the working of his
points. The fixed lights in the signal-cabins should be screened
off, so as not to be mistakable during fogs for the signals exhibited
to control the running of trains.
7. The junctions between passenger lines and any sidings should
be protected by a home signal and a distant signal in each direction.
8. When a junction is situated near to a passenger station, or is
connected with goods or mineral sidings, the platforms and sidings
should be so arranged as to prevent as far as possible any necessity
for shunting over the junction.
9. When two single lines meet, the junction should, in ordinary
cases, be formed as a double-line junction.
10. The lines of railway leading to the passenger platforms to
be so arranged that the engines shall always be in front of the
passenger trains as they arrive at and depart from the station.
11. Platforms to be continuous, and the descent at the ends to
be by ramps, and not by steps. Pillars or columns for the support
of roofs, or other fixed works, not to be nearer to the edge of the
platform than 6 feet.
12. No station to be constructed on a steeper gradient than 1
in 260. When the gradient at a station is unavoidably steeper,
and the line is double, and when danger is to be apprehended from
vehicles running back, a catch siding, with points weighted for the
siding, should be provided farther down the incline than the
passenger platform and goods yard, to intercept runaway vehicles.
When the line is single, a second line should be laid down, a second
platform constructed, and a catch siding similarly provided.
13. The upper surfaces of the wooden platforms, of bridges, and
viaducts, should be protected from fire.
14. No standing work (other than a passenger platform) should
be nearer to the side of the widest carriage in use on the line than
2 feet 4 inches at any point between the level of 2 feet 6 inches
above the rails, and the level of the upper parts of the highest
carriage doors. This applies to all arches, abutments, piers, sup-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
249
ports, girders, tunnels, bridges, roofs, walls, posts, tanks, signals,
fences, and other works, and to all projections at the side of a
railway constructed to any gauge.
15. The intervals between adjacent lines of rails, or between
lines of rails and sidings, should not be less than 6 feet.
16. At all level-crossings of turnpike and public roads the gates
should be so constructed as to close across the railway, as well as
across the road, at each side of the crossing. They should not be
capable of being opened at the same time for the road and the
railway. Wooden gates are considered preferable to iron gates for
closing across the railway.
17. The fixed signals attached to the gates at the level-crossings
should be placed in convenient positions for being seen along the
railway, as well as along the road. When a level crossing is so
situated that an approaching train cannot be seen from a sufficient
distance, distant signals (which may both be worked by one lever)
should be supplied.
18. Mile posts, and quarter and half mile posts, and gradient
boards, should be provided along the road.
19. Tunnels should in all cases be constructed with recesses for
the escape of platelayers.
20. Viaducts of timber and iron should be provided with man-
holes and other facilities for inspection, also with hand-rails and
with projecting platforms for the protection and escape of the
platelayers.
Numerous regulations as to the strength and details of con-
struction of works in iron are also laid down.
CHAPTER III
PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION
Formation of line-Turning the first sod-Commencement of practical con-
struction--Temporary lines-Main divisions of work—Meaning of the term
'permanent way'-Construction of earthworks-Gradients-Curves-Eleva-
A Welsh engine-driver-Construction of a cutting-Width of formation-
Principal difficulties met with in cuttings Importance of drainage of
earthworks—Tunnels and tunnelling—The formation of embankments-
Settlement–Viaducts, bridges, and culverts, size of openings—Magnitude
of some examples of European and American railway structures—Tunnels
and railway bridges—Service bridges and level crossings-Fencing-Indian
and American practice.
*Formation' THE actual commencement of the works on an important
length of new railway, is generally considered a fitting occa-
sion for some public display of special satisfaction and rejoicing
on the part of all friends and promoters of the undertaking who
have successfully pioneered the project through its difficult
and dangerous periods of incubation and parliamentary contest,
and the cutting of the first sod’ is often celebrated with much
time-honoured ceremony, followed by that liberal consumption
of good cheer,' without which no true Anglo-Saxon can regard
any undertaking as properly inaugurated. The interest of
some distinguished personage of high degree is enlisted, or
the services of the highest available local magnate are re-
tained. The directors and their friends and guests—probably
including all the leading nobility and gentry of the neigh-
bourhood-duly assemble at time and place appointed. A
resplendent wheelbarrow and spade of polished wood and
shining silver is formally presented by the chairman to the dis-
tinguished personage, or local magnate, as the case may be,
who is earnestly invited in a flattering speech to convert him-
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RAILWAYS IN INDIA
251
self-ceremonially-into a navvy for a short space. Graciously
assenting, the distinguished personage divests himself of his
outer garment, and if very enthusiastic rolls up his shirt
sleeves, and plunges the elegant and costly spade into the
virgin turf; the wheelbarrow is duly filled, is rolled off along
the appointed plank-way, and is gravely overturned amidst the
cheers of the assembly. The magnate retains the valuable
implements as a worthy trophy of the occasion, and the party
adjourn to the more substantial features of the celebration.
The date of commencement of the new railway is thus for ever
marked in the public annals of the country.
The practical construction of the new line, by the contractor
or other agency employed, is always commenced at those parts
of the route where the greatest quantity of work has to be
done, and the operations throughout are taken up in such
order that the whole of the works, or those on a certain de-
fined portion, may be completed simultaneously. The lighter
portions of the road connecting the heaviest cuttings and
embankments are, however, at once brought to proper level,
and temporary lines of rails are laid down to facilitate the
transport of material from the former to the latter. Labour
and working plant is collected at the sites of all the larger
viaducts, bridges, tunnels, or other heavy works, and arrange-
ments for getting in the deepest and most troublesome bridge
or other foundations are rapidly pushed forward, until in a
very short time the greater part of the route of the new line
presents a busy scene of life and activity.
The works on a line of railway are apportioned into three
main divisions, respectively called, the “formation' of the line,
the 'ballast and permanent way,' and 'station buildings and
machinery. The "formation ’ level of a railway is the finished
top of the line of embankments, the bottom of cuttings or
tunnels, and the floor level of viaducts or bridges. Above
this level is placed the ' ballast,' and in and on the ballast is
laid the permanent way,' consisting of the sleepers, chairs,
rails, fastenings, points, and crossings, in short, all those mate-
rials which form the actual road on which the engines and
vehicles run. The term “permanent’ way serves to distinguish
the completed road from the 'temporary'lines of way used by
1
252
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
contractors or others merely for carrying materials or facilitating
construction. It is obvious that the main mass of labour and
inaterials is comprised in the first of these three divisions, viz.,
the “formation' of the railway, and of this division “earthworks'
form a very large item (the removal of all material, whether
earth, gravel, or rock, being included in this term). In a
vertical direction the construction of the earthworks ? involves
the formation of that uniforı top surface which has been
planned by the engineer to take the place of the irregular and
uneven natural surface of the ground. This uniform surface
will sometimes lie above the natural ground; sometimes below
it, necessitating here an embankment or viaduct, there a cutting
or tunnel. When completed, it will either be a level surface, or
will have a certain degree of regular slope called a 'gradient.'
The traveller by railway by observing and reading the
gradient boards' affixed at intervals along the side of the
line can always discover whether he is going up hill or down
hill, or along a level. Thus he may see an arm projecting
forwards from a low post, in the direction he is travelling,
having a slightly upward angle, and bearing, perhaps, a sign
1-350, meaning that the surface of the road is now rising
uniformly at the rate of one foot in every 350 feet of distance.
Presently he will arrive at another post, with arm projecting
downwards in a reverse or backward direction, and marked in
the same terms, but on the other or forward side of the post
he will see another arm in a horizontal position, indicating
that beginning from that point the road is now horizontal or
level, and so on at every place where the slope of the artificial
surface or 'gradient’ changes he will find it duly recorded by
the posts and arms. The object of these gradient posts is to
inform the engine-driver of the nature and degree of the road
inclination against him or in his favour.
TYY
works will always proceed in a straight line except at certain
definite places where two straight lines will be joined together
by a curve or curves. There are, therefore, two important
matters to be carefully regarded by the engineer immediately
engaged on the works, viz., the correct formation of the surface
gradients,' and the accurate tracing and preserving the align-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
253
ment of the various straight lengths and curves as exhibited on
the plans. For a long time after the first introduction of rail-
ways it was held as the very first principle of construction that
the running surface should be everywhere made as nearly level as
possible—original outlay being held of secondary consideration
as compared with the supposed subsequent economy of working.
The original London and Birmingham Railway, and in some
degree the Great Western, are examples of this mode of con-
struction. On the former line no gradient exceeded 1 in 330,
with the exception of the Camden Hill incline, which it was in-
tended to work, and which for some years was actually worked,
by a stationary engine.
It was conceded, however, after some experience had been
gained, that a series of moderate undulations, or up-and-down
gradients, although enormously cheapening original construc-
tion, do not result in any serious increase in working expenses ;
the power saved in the descending portions of the road com-
pensating in great measure for the excess on the rising gradients.
Moreover, the enormous improvements in the capabilities and
power of modern locomotives, permits gradients to be now
adopted which a few years ago would have been prohibitory,
and have enabled engineers to carry lines of railway over dis-
tricts which in earlier days would have been regarded as econo-
mically impassable.
In an ordinary plain country the total length of curves on a
line of railway will generally be very small as compared with
the total length of the straight portion, the average degree of
curvature will also be very much less than in a hilly district.
In the infancy of railways, curves, unless of very large radius
that is, of very gentle curvature-were regarded with very much
alarm. Under Parliamentary standing orders the necessity for
curves of less than a mile radius (5280 feet) was required to be
separately inquired into. It was supposed that the resistance
offered by curvature of the line would be exceedingly great, and
that the tendency of trains travelling at high speeds to con-
tinue their motion in a straight line, instead of following the
curved track, would cause them to leave the rails, and lead to
inevitable disaster. Experiments, however, did not confirm
these apprehensions. It was found that the resistance offered
254
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
by curves having a radius down to 2500 feet, or even less,
was hardly appreciable at any practicable rate of speed. By
slightly raising the level of the outer rail on curved portions
of the line an inward inclination was given to the moving
vehicles, which largely counteracted the centrifugal force tend-
ing to cause them to leave the rails—just as the body of a circus
horse galloping round a ring will, in proportion to his speed,
be strongly inclined inwards towards the centre of the curva-
ture. The amount of elevation given to the outer rail is found
by calculation, and is dependent on the radius of the curve, the
gauge of the railway, and the maximum speed of the trains.
This expedient, combined with the lateral play or side move-
ment allowed to the coned wheels—which will be more specially
referred to when we are speaking of the permanent way,
imparts to the vehicles travelling on a curve a certain degree of
natural tendency to move in a circle, just as a cone placed on
its side will roll in a circular path, and thus the amount of
resistance and danger of leaving the track was reduced to a
minimum, and the employment of curves of much smaller
radius than those formerly allowed was rendered possible.
It is obvious that there are some situations, such, for
example, as the approach to a terminus, or to important
stations, over which the starting or arriving trains will always
curves may with safety be introduced, than on middle sections
of the line, travelled over with great velocity. The danger of
very sharp curves is moreover increased in proportion as the
inclination or 'gradient'is also great. Nevertheless, in moun-
tainous districts the combination of exceedingly steep gradients
and very sharp curves is commonly obligatory, and such lines
can be safely worked with special precautions as to limitations
of speed, or by the help of auxiliary appliances, such, for
instance, as the cogged rail employed on the Righi mountain,
near Lucerne. On Alpine railways, and in many of the mountain
lines in America, the extent and degree of curvature now safely
worked over without the use of extraordinary appliances and at
ordinary speeds, would startle the timid and inexperienced first
projectors of railways. In many of the more hilly districts of
Wales mineral and passenger lines of narrow gauge have been
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
255
carried in and out of the intricate valleys of the country in a
manner truly surprising. The long trains sometimes double
round on themselves in such a manner that passengers from a
window in a foremost part of a train will see the hindermost
portion pass by them, moving in a direction contrary to their
own motion. Series.of sharp double reverse curves impart such
a snake-like and winding aspect to these trains as almost to
warrant the bold hyperbole of a certain Welsh engine-driver,
who is asserted to have said that, one dark night, when he was
new to the road, he was pulled up by the tail danger-lights of
his own train.
Having now given our readers some particulars of railway
gradients' and 'curves,' we may return to the earthworks of
our new line in course of construction. As soon as the tempo-
rary line of rails in those lighter portions of the road lying
between the heaviest cuttings and embankments has been laid,
so that the material from the one may be trained to the other,
gangs of workmen attack the face of the hill through which the
cutting is to be carried, and soon a narrow passage or "gullet,'
just wide enough to receive a row of tip-wagons is formed and
projected into the body of the hill, and into this gullet the
temporary line is prolonged. The 'stuff' from the walls of the
gullet is showered into the wagons, now lying just alongside,
and as soon as they are filled they are led away, or are allowed
to run down by their own impetus, if the inclination of the road
is favourable, to the 'tip' of the neighbouring embankment.
· Near the embankment end of the temporary road the line
forks into two or more lines, forming sidings, and the wagons
descending or led from the cutting are run into one or other
of these, and are made to discharge themselves singly over the
embankment 'tip,' or it may be simultaneonsly over the sides.
In the meantime a train of empty wagons is hauled by horses
or engine-power, or is allowed to run back to the cutting ; is
filled in its turn, and is again sent off and emptied at the
embankment. By constantly repeating this process the gullet'
of the cutting is daily carried farther and farther into the hill,
and the head or 'tip' of the embankment is advanced farther
and farther into the valley..
The 'formation’approaches on either side of a cutting, and
256
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
in the greater part of a cutting itself, are, in order to minimise
excavation, nearly always on some gradient, either in one direc-
tion only, or in both directions. If there is an inclination in
both directions there will generally be a small intervening
length of level, situated somewhere about the middle of the
cutting. In this very common state of matters work can con-
veniently proceed from both sides of the hill at the same time,
and the two gullets are prolonged until they meet in the centre.
As the gullet is gradually widened out the temporary rails are
pushed over so as to bring the wagons close to the wall of earth,
and soon there is room for a second line of rails, enabling two
trains of wagons to be loaded up simultaneously. Before long
the gullet-now of the full bottom width of the cutting, but
with vertical, or nearly vertical, sides—will be carried right
through the hill, and the work of forming the side slopes will
be commenced. Lines of planks and trestles will be formed,
along which the crowd of navvies trundle their wheelbarrows,
and discharge the contents into the wagons, or if the amount
of stuff from the cutting is more than sufficient to form the
neighbouring embankment, the surplus material has to be put
to spoil.' In this case, if the cutting is very deep, 'runs' of
planks are sometimes formed up the sloping sides, and the men
and barrows are hauled up the inclined planes by ropes, worked
by horses from the ground-level above, and the surplus material
is deposited on land specially provided for it, clear of the
cutting. If, on the other hand, the quantity of material fur-
nished by the cutting is insufficient to complete the embank-
ment, the balance will either be run from other cuttings
situated farther away along the line, or it will be obtained from
side-cuttings, sometimes called 'borrow-pits,' dug on separate
land alongside the unfinished portion of the embankment.
Cases will often occur, when the distance and cost of transport-
ing material from a cutting to the site of the nearest embank-
ment, or the small size of the banks and cuttings themselves
will, in relation to the value of land, render it more economica)
to procure all the earth for a bank from side-cuttings, and to
place all the material from a cutting to spoil.' Every case
will be decided by the engineer according to considerations of
expense and rapidity of execution.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
257
The width of the earthworks on a line of railway on the
top, or "formation’ level, will depend upon varying circum-
stances, such as the number of lines of way, the gauge of the
railway, and the length of the sleepers. To allow ample space
for side drains or ditches, the width is always greater in cut-
tings than on embankments, the extra width depending on the
size and particular kind of side-drains necessitated by local
conditions of soil and quantity of water to be drained away.
The principal difficulties met with in heavy cuttings are due
to the nature and inclination of the strata cut through, the
behaviour of the material under the influence of exposure to
weather and the presence of springs. Some materials will not
be secure from all danger of slipping at almost any angle of
slope, and the heavy expense of retaining-walls may have to be
resorted to. Other materials require very flat slopes and ex-
pensive drainage-works before stability can be secured. Alter-
nate strata of sand and clay, or shale, are especially dangerous
or troublesome, particularly if heavily inclined and full of water.
Other materials stand firmly at slopes of 11 or 2 to 1. Hard
clean rocky strata, although expensive to cut through in the
first instance, are often the most econominal in the long run
as the slope will stand almost vertical, imposing a smaller
quantity of initial excavation, and little or no subsequent out-
lay.
The bottom or "formation.' level of cuttings is generally
made with a fall towards each end, and side ditches, either
excavated or constructed of masonry, are formed along the foot
of the slopes, by means of which water is allowed to drain away.
Catch-water drains, especially on sloping ground, will also be
necessary along the summit level of cuttings to cut off flood water
from the upper slope. Water, in fact, is the one great enemy
of completed earthworks, and thorough and efficient drainage
is everywhere imperative to prevent them from being slowly
worn away and dissolved. No expense is spared by the judicious
engineer in order to get rid as quickly as possible of all water
from the neighbourhood of his earthworks.
The cost of cuttings increases in proportion to their depth,
hence there is always a certain limit at which it becomes more
economical to burrow, or tunnel underground, than to continue
R
258
the open cutting. This limit, although it will vary somewhat
according to the nature of the material to be excavated, is in
ordinary cases found to lie somewhere between 60 or 70 feet of
depth. In very hilly or mountainous country-unless it so
happens that a very great deal of material is required for high
embankments, which cannot be obtained except from the cuttings
-this economical depth is usually soon reached, and tunnelling
will be resorted to with more or less frequency. Short tunnels
commonly present little difficulty, and can be bored or driven'
through a hill from end to end without intermediate shafts.
Beyond a certain length, however, and in cases where the depth
of the tunnel below the natural surface of the ground is
moderate, it becomes economical to sink one or more shafts, or
wells, along the centre line of the tunnel, from the bottom of
which boring or driving the tunnel can be carried on in two
directions. By this means the work is prosecuted with greater
rapidity from more numerous points of departure.
Simple tunnelling through hard rocky materials is generally
carried on by blasting, either by gunpowder, dynamite, or other
explosive. A small opening or "heading' is first pierced by
the miners working in front, and others following them gradually
enlarge the opening to the full section of the tunnel. In the
softer kinds of material, however, the difficulty and expense of
tunnelling is often greatly increased, especially if considerable
quantities of water are met with. The whole of the sides and
roof of the tunnel excavation as it advances will be shored up,
or supported by temporary timber work, and a permanent
lining of stone or brick masonry of a strength sufficient to with-
stand the pressure of the surrounding material will be necessary,
every part of which will be set in durable cement, to prevent
the percolation of water. Very heavy and expensive pumping
operations may also be necessary.
In the formation of an embankment, the loose vegetable soil
on its seat is first removed in order that a good and solid
• bottom 'may be obtained for the load to be placed upon it,
and all roots of trees, stumps, brushwood, and other matter
which might by decay cause ultimate subsidence, are carefully
cleared away. The earth, from the commencement, is deposited
over the whole width of the intended bank, in order to avoid
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
259
the necessity of any subsequent lateral additions ; always
difficult to connect with the original mass. Wherever such
additions are unavoidable the older work is cut into deep
trenches, or steps, to prevent the newer work from slipping.
The proper elevation and alignment of embankments is
guaranteed by the previous erection of posts or brick pillars
erected at convenient intervals along the centre line, and the
correct level of the top of the finished earthwork is marked on
these posts or pillars ; but in actual construction an additional
height, which will vary according to the nature of the material,
is always allowed for the subsequent settlement or subsidence
of the mass. As soon as the rough embankment is completed to
full height, and has been allowed sufficient time for settlement
under the influence of weather and of its own weight, the side
slopes are neatly trimmed off, or made up to correct section.
It is usual to leave the upper surface somewhat above the true
• formation' level, to allow for any further subsidence that
may take place under the weight and vibration of the traffic.
Wherever possible, the completed slopes of both cuttings and
embankments are covered with good soil and are sown with
grass seed, or turfed.
When deep valleys, rivers, large streams, or minor water-
courses intersect the alignment of an embankment, the con-
struction of great viaducts, bridges, or culverts becomes necessary,
either to avoid the building up of enormous earthworks, or to
provide a free passage for the water. Where embankments
are high the smaller culverts are usually arched over at a low
level, the line of earthworks being continued above them. In
other cases the bridges or culverts are carried up nearly to
formation level, and the openings are then either arched over,
or are spanned by beams or “girders’ of wrought iron or steel,
which carry the rails. In this case a break occurs in the con-
tinuity of the embankment, and the adjoining ends of the earth-
work are protected and supported by masonry wing walls,
projecting from the abutments of the bridge or culvert. Ample
time for the setting of the mortar or cement used in these
masonry structures is always allowed before the full weight of
the earthwork is placed upon or against them.
The carrying of a line of railway over deep gorges or valleys,
LI
UT1
260
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
large rivers, or it may be arms of the sea, is usually effected,
either by continuous and often lofty viaducts of masonry, or by
means of a succession of iron or steel girders, sometimes of great
stretch from one support to another. The girders of bridges
are supported on masonry or iron abutments, and a line of in-
termediate piers, so disposed as to cover the entire waterway of
the river. The size of the individual openings is not a matter
of arbitrary selection, but will in each case be decided by the
engineer on grounds of economy or necessity. The most
economical size of span will primarily depend on the cost of
the piers including their foundations, and the greater the
estimated cost of constructing these, the larger in ordinary
cases will be the size of the girder spans which it will be
economical to adopt.
Tunnels, viaducts, and bridges of enormous magnitude have
in recent years been carried out in various parts of the world in
connection with railways. Excluding a few examples of ex-
ceptional dimensions, some of the most important of these are
to be found on Indian railways, and will be specially referred
to in some detail in subsequent chapters. In the meantime
it will be of interest to note the magnitude of a few of the most
prominent examples, both of tunnels and railway bridges, which
have been constructed by the science and skill of railway
engineers.
The tunnel carried through the main part of the Alpine
7
1
above the level of the sea, a level reached only by a series of
inassive and stupendous works, and is situated from a mile to
two miles below the surface of the mountain.
The Mount Cenis Alpine tunnel is nearly 71 miles long,
and is more than a mile in depth, within the bowels of the
earth. The tunnel carried beneath the Severn, between Bristol
and South Wales, is 41 miles long, including approaches. The
river or arm of the sea lying above the tunnel is more than 21
miles wide. Owing to special difficulties from influx of water,
seven years were occupied in driving the heading of this tunnel.
It is made for a double line, and is lined throughout with
brickwork in cement, from 60 to 70 millions of bricks having:
been used for the purpose.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
261.
The tunnel at Stand Edge, on the London and North-
Western Railway is 15,705 feet, or nearly 3 miles long. The
Khojack tunnel, on the north-west frontier of India, is nearly
21 miles long. The tunnel at Bramhope, near Leeds, is 11,010
feet, or rather over 2 miles long. The above examples comprise
the most important railway tunnels in the world.
The largest existing railway bridge is that over the Firth of
Forth. This extraordinary structure has two enormous open-
ings, each of 1700 feet; two of 675 feet; fourteen of 168 feet,
and six of 50 feet, and has a clear headway for navigation
above high-water of 150 feet. The total length of the bridge
is over 11 miles. The Lansdowne Bridge over the Indus at
Sukkur has one magnificent span of 820 feet, and three of
smaller dimensions. In America the Great International Rail-
way suspension bridge, spans the Niagara River by a single
opening of 800 feet from tower to tower, and the rails are 250
feet above the surface of the river. The Cincinnati Bridge has
a clear opening of 515 feet.
The central pier of the Britannia tubular bridge over the
Menai Straits is 230 feet high, the shore abutments being each
over 160 feet. It has four large openings, those in the centre
being of 460 feet clear span.
The new viaduct over the Firth of Tay is probably the
longest railway viaduct in the world over continuous water. It
is no less than 2 miles in length, consisting of 86 openings of
various kinds, from 50 to 245 feet, of which thirteen are large
spans of 245 and 227 feet each, carried at a height of 141
feet above the lowest foundation, and 77 feet above high-water
in the Firth. The Saltash Bridge over the Tamar, near
Plymouth, consists of nineteen spans, seventeen of which are
small, but the remaining two, span the main river in two
openings of 455 feet each. The height from the foundation to
summit being 260 feet. The Hawkesbury Bridge in New South
Wales has seven spans, each of 416 feet.
Such are the formidable dimensions attained by a few of the
principal structures that have been required to reduce the
natural inequalities of the earth's surface, and create that
uniform "formation ’-level requisite for the purposes of a line of
railway.
262
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Along its course, especially in thickly-populated districts, it
becomes necessary to provide for frequent cross-communication
from one side to the other of that enclosed strip of land occu-
pied by a railway. Public and private roads of all kinds will be
carried across the line by means of service-bridges, passing
either over it or under it, and these works are often very
numerous and costly. In very flat country, where the level of
the rails and the surface of the roads will commonly be more or
less coincident, the construction of sạch bridges involves an
extensive series of embankments, or cuttings, either for the road
or the railway, in order that one may be made to pass over or
under the other. In such cases, unless the road be of an
important character, j' level-crossings' are resorted to. Gates
are provided, which close alternatively across the road, or across
the railway, as required, and an attendant or gate-keeper is
maintained in constant charge of these gates ; a small house
being built alongside for his accommodation. The ordinary
position of the gates is across the line of railway, leaving the
ordinary road free for public traffic, but when any train is due
their position is reversed until the train has passed. Some-
times the gates of a level-crossing are mechanically connected
with signals which, actuated by the movement of the gates
themselves, either remain at danger or allow the train to pro-
ceed, according as the gates are either closed or open for the
passage of the train. In some cases, especially in the neigh-
bourhood of stations, the movements of the gates are controlled
by a lever worked from a signal-box,' and are mechanically
connected, or as it is called, 'locked, with the ordinary station,
or special signals.
Both sides of a line of railway, unless very exceptionally cir-
cumstanced, are commonly provided with some form of fencing,
in order to prevent accidents from the straying of cattle on the
line of rails, and to reduce the danger and opportunities of
trespass offered to the general public. Fences are of all kinds,
such as an ordinary ditch and bank, the latter sometimes
planted. Posts and rails of wood, thick live hedges ; fences of
iron wire, and stone-walls laid dry or otherwise. In India, but
more especially in America, railway lines are, however, some-
times more or less completely unfenced, and in the latter
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
263
country not only in thinly-populated districts, but also in the
neighbourhood of towns and villages. The people are warned
to keep out of the way of the trains by the continuous clanging
of the engine-bell, and stray cattle are promptly removed from
the track by the peremptory action of the cow-catcher,' placed
at the head of the engine.
CHAPTER IV
IT
CONSTRUCTION OF LINE-PERMANENT WAY"
Permanent way–Ballast-Gauge of railways-English 'standard' gaugem Ex-
amples of gauges of different countries-- Wheel flanges-Clearance and
coning of wheels—Design of permanent way–Rigidity and elasticity
Early use of stone blocks-Sleepers and their object--Kinds of sleepers-
Cross and longitudinal-Preservation of wood sleepers--Metal sleepers
-Sectional forms of rails-Double-headed and flat-footed-Bull-headed
irreversible rail--Increase of weight of rails—Railway chairs and keys-
Spikes and trenails—Design of railway chairs~Tread of vehicle wheels
Inclination of rails—Flat-footed rails and fastenings-Length of rails—
Fish-joints-Contraction and expansion-Check rails—Sidings-Cross-over
roads-Switches and crossings-Facing and trailing points-Locking of
switches.
Permanent
way.
As soon as the whole, or any sufficient length of a new line of
railway has been completed to "formation' level, and the earth-
works have been allowed sufficient time to settle and become
firm, the laying of the permanent way?—or the actual road
on which the trains run-commences. This road, or line of
way, consists of continuous pairs of end-connected rails, secured
at a certain distance apart from each other by suitable fasten-
ings to some form of sleepers ' placed at close intervals, and
imbedded in a mass of ballast’ laid on the formation surface
of the railway. “Ballast,' which is usually considered part of
the permanent way, and is, in fact, its foundation, is composed
of a variety of hard unfriable materials, such as broken stone,
clean gravel, sea shingle or pebbles, and slag from blast furnaces.
Hard-burnt brick and sand are also in cases of necessity some-
times used for ballast, but are inferior. The main desiderata
of good ballast are, that it should be entirely free from all
substances which are soluble and liable to disintegrate under
the action of water, that the particles of which it is composed
should be of such size and hardness as not to crush or break
up under the weight and impact of heavy blows, and that at
264
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
265
the same time they should not be light enough to be moved
or lifted by the vibration or wind created by passing trains.
The height from formation level to the top of the rails on
embankments is usually two feet. In cuttings it is sometimes
more, in order to allow a greater depth of ballast below the
sleepers for efficient drainage. The thickness of the ballast
below the bottom of the sleepers is commonly one foot, and
it is especially important that this portion of it should be of
the hardest material. It is also considered better that it should
be broken or screened to a larger general size than that used
for the upper portion, so that it may allow rain-water to rapidly
drain away from it. A medium and uniform size both for the
upper and lower ballast is, however, often employed. The
upper ballast reaches the level of the under side of the rails,
and it is usually thickened towards the centre between them,
so as to lightly cover the top surface of the sleepers, which if
of wood are thereby protected from fire, which is sometimes
dropped from the engine furnaces. In cases where the rails
are supported on chairs, and are fixed by keys—especially of
wood—the top ballast is also packed round the latter, and
serves to protect them from shrinking and loosening under the
heat of the sun. The width of the ballast on the upper sur-
face generally extends about 18 inches beyond the ends of the
Fig. 1.
TOP
VREETJECA

PO
CU
l’ERMANENT WAY ON EMBANKMENT.
TEENUSE
Fig. 2.
S 112365 oprema

so OTSINSPECTOESTELE yerda
PERMANENT WAY IN CUTTING.
sleepers—which may vary in length according to gauge-on
each side, and the sides terminate in slopes of 1 to 1. In
cuttings, to save width, the sides of the ballast are often re-
tained within two vertical walls of dry packed stone. Figs. 1
and 2 represent sections of railway permanent way of English
standard gauge, and will be useful to refer to.
266
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The gauge' of a railway is the exact distance apart at
which the inside edges of the top platform of rails are set by
an iron instrument, commonly employed for the purpose, called
a 'gauge,' and a variety of such gauges have been adopted in
various parts of the world. Some uniform width between the
rails, however, is almost universally adhered to over large
systems of connected lines, so as to avoid the many incon-
veniences resulting from a break in continuity. The standard
gauge of railways in England is 4 feet 81 inches, but a few
lines of narrower gauge occur in the hilly districts of Wales,
or have been employed in other places under special local
conditions. A large portion of one important railway system,
viz., the Great Western,' was originally constructed at the
broad gauge of my feet, but this has now been changed to
the standard width. The English standard gauge of 4 feet
81 inches is used to a greater or less extent almost all over the
world. The most important exceptions are India and Ceylon,
where the principal gauges employed are 5 feet 6 inches and
1 metre (or 3 feet 33 inches). Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and
Chili also employ almost entirely the 5 feet 6 inch gauge.
Ireland, New Zealand, Victoria, and South Australia have
decided in favour of 5 feet 3 inches ; and Russia is practically
the exclusive possessor of a 5-foot gauge. The United States
of America have indulged in a great variety, from 8 feet down
to 3 feet—the English standard gauge being included amongst
them ; Japan, Tasmania, Cape Colonies, Queensland, and to
a great extent Norway, have remained constant to a 3 feet
6 inches gauge. .
Each pair of vehicle wheels are provided with projecting
flanges running inside the rails, so as to keep the vehicles from
leaving the track; but the distance apart of these flanges is not
made so as to exactly or tightly fit the gauge, but is usually
about one inch less, allowing what is called a clearance. On
curves also the gauge itself is, in practice, made somewhat full,
so as to permit a still greater lateral play or side movement of
the wheels. The wheels of railway vehicles are rigidly attached
to their axles, which revolve with them, and moreover all the
axles of one vehicle are usually fixed rigidly parallel to each
other. The outer rail of a curve is obviously longer than the
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
267
inner rail, hence, to avoid an excessive dragging and grinding
action of the wheels against the rails, it is desirable that some
provision should be made to enable the outer wheels on curves
to travel over the greater distance in the same time as the inner
wheels take to travel over the lesser distance. It is attempted
to effect this by slightly coning the treads of the wheels from
the flanges towards the outer edges. To a certain extent, in
consequence of this coning and the tendency of the vehicles
to proceed in a straight line and press against the outer rail,
the exterior wheels on curved portions of the road do run on
a slightly larger diameter than do the inner wheels, and thus
advance a greater distance at each revolution of the axle; but
the object in view is very imperfectly realised in practice, and
the inner edges of the rails on curves are always subject to
is in any degree larger than the other, if rigidly joined by an
axle, will tend to roll in a circular path, hence the coning of
the wheels is of some value in reducing resistance on curves,
and in neutralising the tendency of the vehicles to leave the
track.
necessary to ascertain what are the severest ordinary and extra-
ordinary strains, both vertical and lateral, to which each of
the component parts of the line of way may be subjected, and
to impart to each of these a strength and solidity more than
sufficient to withstand such strains. At the same time, a certain
degree of flexibility and elasticity must be permitted to the
whole permanent way, so that it may yield a little to the
stresses, in order to secure freedom from jar and hardness,
and allow the vehicles to run with ease and pleasantness of
motion.
It will not be necessary to detain the reader with any
minute account of the various component parts of the per-
manent way, which, in addition to the ballast already spoken
of, consist of the sleepers, the rails, with attachments and
fastenings, and the points and crossings. In the early days
of railways it was supposed that the permanent way could
not be made too rigid, and in order to secure this rigidity
heavy blocks of stone were employed in place of the elastic
268
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
wood or iron sleepers now universally used. These blocks
were about two feet square and one foot thick; on each of
them a cast-iron chair or seat for the rail, was attached by
wooden trenails, driven into holes previously prepared in the
stones. They were placed under each rail at a distance apart of
about three feet. On the original London and Birmingham
Railway upwards of 150,000 tons weight of stone blocks were
laid down, all of which had to be removed, owing to the hard-
ness and want of elasticity in the road, and the consequent
severe wear and tear imposed on the vehicles. The object of
a sleeper is to support the rails and distribute the load carried
over a considerable surface of the ballast. Except in countries
where wood is either very expensive or is especially liable to
rapid decay, or other injury, wooden sleepers are now almost
universally employed. For the standard English gauge they
are made 9 feet long and rectangular in section, viz., 10 inches
wide and 5 inches thick, although half round, and other
sections are occasionally used. In Europe, sleepers are com-
monly made from Dantzic or Memel fir, pitch pine, and
occasionally oak. In India, for the 5 foot 6 inch gauge, the
sleepers are 10 feet long and 12 inches by 6 inches in section,
and teak, oak, sal, and other hard woods are more generally
employed, as well as a large proportion of metal sleepers,
either of cast-iron, wrought-iron, or steel. In the case of
metal sleepers, the chairs or seats on which the rails rest
nearly always form a part of the main body of sleeper.
Sleepers are of two principal varieties, viz., either cross,
that is, placed at a certain distance apart, at right angles to
the rails, in which case they also serve to keep the rails in
gauge; or "longitudinal'—that is, placed in a continuous line
under the rails, wher, in order to preserve the gauge, transoms
and bolts, connecting at intervals each line of sleeper, are neces-
sary. Longitudinal sleepers require to be of larger section
than cross sleepers, and necessitate the use, economically
speaking, of the flat-footed form of rail. Owing to the rail-
foot lying parallel with the fibre of the wood, continuous
packing pieces of wood, with the fibre at right angles to the
rail and sleeper, are required. Longitudinal sleepers are also
only economical on lines of very wide gauge. Rails laid on
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
269
them make a very easy and smooth road; but the arrangement
is attended with some inconveniences in maintenance, besides
haviny other disadvantages, and notwithstanding that a lighter
rail can be used to do the same work, is—for the narrower
gauges-expensive; hence longitudinal sleepers have practically
been almost abandoned. Cross' sleepers are placed at right
angles to the axis of the road, at a distance apart varying
according to the weight and strength of the rails. A common
distance is about 3 feet from centre to centre, and 2 feet at the
places where rail-joints occur. If placed much closer than this
it becomes difficult to properly pack the ballast under them.
In order to preserve sleepers made from the softer kinds of wood
from premature decay, they are often subjected to chemical
treatment, the preservative composition employed being forced
into the pores of the wood by enormous pressure. Cast-iron bowl
or, as they are called, “pot’ sleepers, consist of a pair of round
or oval bowls, or “pots' of cast-iron, connected together by a bar
of wrought-iron passing through them, and secured at a proper
distance apart by keys. Jaws forming a seat or chair ’ for
the rail are cast on the top of the rounded bowls, into
which the rails are fixed by wood or metal taper wedges. Most
forms of metal sleepers are much the same in general features,
although varying in detail to suit the nature of the metal
employed.
The sectional forms of rails and the details of fastenings of
permanent way, have exercised the ingenuity of more inventors,
and have been the cause of more controversy among practical
engineers than any other subject that could be named. So
great are the multitudinous varieties which have been intro-
duced, that it would not now appear possible to devise any
has however resulted in the survival of the fittest,' and, prac-
tically speaking, rails as now used are confined to two general
types, viz., the I or double-headed rail, and the solid flat-footed
rail. As regards material, the cast-iron rails used on the early
tramroads were soon exchanged for those of wrought-iron,
which in their turn have since given place to the more durable
steel.
The I, or double-head section of rail was originally made-
270
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and is still often used—with two equal bulbs, above and below,
the intention being when one head was worn out by the traffic
to reverse the rail and utilise the other head. This form of
rail however, having no foot, requires both vertical and hori-
zontal support. To supply this support, seats, or as they are

A. Key
Chair age
:
Trenai
Sleeper.
CHAIRED RAIL.
appropriately called, “chairs,' to hold the rail were introduced,
but it was found that the under-side of the rails were apt to be
worn into hollows or indentures at the points where they
rested on the chairs, and were thus rendered more or less un-
suitable for reversing. The chairs were in consequence
gradually increased in size and area so as to afford a larger
bearing surface to the rail; but owing to this increase of weight
it soon became cheaper to give up the idea of reversing the
rails altogether. The surplus material in the lower bulb of
the rail was therefore reduced, and transferred to the upper or
wearing bulb, which was thus greatly enlarged, resulting in the
headed irreversible rail.
The continuous increase in the power and weight of loco-
motives has gradually led to a corresponding increase in the
size and weight of rails necessary to withstand the increased
loads, and wear and tear to which they are subjected. . On the
original Liverpool and Manchester Railway the rails weighed
only 35 lbs. per yard of length, but the increasing weight of
rails weighing 60 lbs. per yard, and at the present day steel
rails weighing 75 and up to 100 lbs. per yard are frequently used.
· RAILWAYS IN INDIA
271.
. . Chairs' for supporting the I or double-headed form of rails
are usually made of cast-iron, and have gradually increased in
weight from 20 lbs. to 50 lbs. each. The jaws and seat of a
chair are made of a form to fit the outlines of the rail, with a
space left on one side-generally the inside— for the insertion
of a taper wedge of wood or metal called a “key,' which, driven
firmly in between the rail and the jaw of the chair, prevents all
lateral or vertical movement under the action of the traffic.
The chairs are provided with two or four holes, through which
iron spikes and hard-wood trenails are driven to secure them to
the upper surface of the sleepers.
In every mile of single line, allowing 9 sleepers to every rail
of 30 feet in length, there will be 3168 chairs, and the differ-
ence of one ounce in the weight of a single chair will mean
about one ton in every 11 miles of road, or nearly 18 tons in
every 100 miles of double track. It is, therefore, of some con-
sequence that a railway chair should not contain in any detail
of its structure, even a single ounce of metal more than sufficient
for its exact necessary strength. Successive designers of rail-
way chairs have therefore keenly and narrowly scrutinised every
feature of their outline, and wherever a particle of metal more
than sufficient for the exact necessary strength could be spared,
it has been ruthlessly shorn off and suppressed. They had
nothing in their minds but rigid economy and the strictest
utility, but the altogether unintended result has been the pro-
duction of a very graceful and pleasing outline, especially in the
case of single chairs for the lighter forms of rail, where the
principle of strict serviceableness and economy of material has
been permitted to assume its fullest expression : so true it is
that pure art outlines are ever the result of the severest simpli-
city and the absence of all redundancy. There are probably
few objects that serve better to illustrate this important truth
than the common railway chair of our permanent way.
We have already mentioned that the flat portion or tread'
of the wheels of railway vehicles are not horizontal cylinders,
but are slightly coned outwards. In order that such wheel-
treads may bear evenly on the upper surface of the rails it is
obvious that the latter ought not to be horizontal either, but
should be slightly inclined inwards. It is found convenient to
272
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
effect this by tilting the whole rail, which is readily done by
inclining that portion of the chair-seats on which the rails rest,
and in this manner the upper surface of the rail-head is made
to lie true to the inclination of the coned wheels.
The flat-footed form of rail is made with the usual rounded
top bulb, but with a broad base or foot, 5 inches or 53 inches

Fang bolt
bon
Steepesti
FLAT-FOOTED RAII..
wide. It is, of course, not intended to be reversible, and as
these rails do not require lateral support, chairs are not strictly
required. The London, Chatham, and Dover Railway adopted
a flat-footed form of rail, supported on low cast-iron chairs, the
object in this case being to distribute the weight over a larger
area of the sleepers. The arrangement in the case of this line
has been since superseded by the employment of the double-
headed rail and ordinary chairs. Generally speaking, however,
flat-footed rails are seated directly on the sleepers, and to give
them the necessary inward inclination the upper surfaces of the
cross-sleepers are adzed to the extent required. This form of
rail has great lateral stiffness, enabling it to resist the outward
thrust of the wheels, and has, moreover, no deficiency of vertical
strength. The bearing area on a cross-sleeper 10 inches wide
will be as much as 50 to 60 square inches, and the rail-foot lies
across it at right angles to the fibre of the wood. Although
this bearing area is less than that of the larger chairs now used
-principally to prevent the under side of double-headed rails
from being damaged—it is found sufficient in ordinary cases
to prevent any crushing of the harder woods, whilst in the
case of the softer kinds of sleepers, bearing plates' of wrought-
iron are often introduced between the foot of the rail and the
sleeper.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
273
The chief defect of the flat-footed form of rail-used, as it
generally is, without chairsmas compared with the double-
headed chaired rail, is found in the relative insecurity of the
fastenings. Where first employed these rails were spiked or
bolted to the sleepers through holes bored through the foot of
the rail, but this was found inconvenient, not only as too rigidly
determining the distance apart of the sleepers (the holes being
bored at the time of manufacture of the rails), but the rails
themselves were unduly weakened. To avoid the necessity of
passing the spikes or bolts through the foot of the rail, the bolts
are now provided with ironclips ' projecting over the rail foot.
Where the traffic is not heavy, spikes with projecting heads are
alone used, but in other cases “fang bolts' (see Fig.), passing
completely through the sleeper, with a claw or fang on the
under side and a clip above, are employed, either at every
sleeper, or at the extremity of each pair of rails only, the inter-
mediate points being secured by spikes. The severe side-
pressures exerted against the rails by the blows of the wheel
flanges under the swaying motion of rapidly running trains,
have a tendency to thrust the rails over outwards, and either to
partially draw out the spikes, or to put a severe strain on the
fang bolts and clips. Nevertheless, the flat-footed pattern of
permanent way possesses many economical advantages, and is
very largely used.
Rails, of whatever pattern, are made in lengths of 20 to up-
wards of 30 feet, and it is plain that where the ends of two
rails come together it is necessary to firmly join them. When
a sailor wishes to mend a broken spar he often lays a piece of
timber on one or on both sides of the fracture, and lashes the
whole round with rope. This in nautical phraseology is called
"to fish' the joint. The joints of rails are also “fished. Two
i
pieces of iron called 'fish plates' are made to fit the sides of the
rails, and are bolted across the joints by bolts passing through
holes in the web of the rail. Four bolts, i.e. two on each side
of the joint, are usually employed, and the section of iron given
274
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
to the fish-plates is such that when they are securely bolted up
to the sides of the rail the combined strength of the plates, and
also that of the joint itself, is at least equal to that of the
solid rail. Rails, like all other objects, contract and expand
under the influence of changes of temperature, and in order to
prevent distortion of the road resulting from these movements
it is necessary to allow a little space between the abutting ends
of each pair of rails. The fish-bolts passing tightly through
the web of the rails would, however, prevent their elongation
or contraction were it not that the bolt-holes are made slightly
oval in a longitudinal direction, and the necessary movements
over, that the fish-bolts should not be screwed up too tightly,
otherwise the friction between the fish-plates and the sides of
the rails would be so great as to prevent the movements taking
place, and the road would in consequence be forced out of
shape, and distorted into a wavy line, instead of preserving that
perfectly straight and even alignment which is so essential in
the permanent way, and the absence of which is always so un-
comfortably felt by the railway traveller.
close to the inner rail what is called a “check-rail. This check-
rail allows only an easy play to the wheel flanges, and its object
is to check the tendency of the outer wheel to mount the rail
on curves. Double check-rails are also sometimes used over
long lofty bridges, even where the road is straight, or in other
situations where any derailment would be exceptionally dis-
astrous. The check-rail when used with the flat-footed form
of permanent road is often only a stout angle iron, bolted
firmly down to the sleepers, and as an additional precaution it
sometimes projects to a slightly higher level than the top of
the running rail.
On every line of railway, besides the main line or lines form-
ing the traffic road, numerous side lines of way are required at
fixed places or stations, so that trains or detached engines and
vehicles may be passed on and off the main tracks. These
various sidings, as they are called, are connected with the
main lines, and with each other, by diagonal connecting, or
cross-over' roads, laid with long easy reverse curves. At
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
275
either end of the cross-over roads the junction is effected by
means of a pair of pivoted movable rails called 'points' or
switches,' so constructed that, placed in one position, the
flanged wheels of the moving vehicles will continue to move
along the principal track;, but placed in a reverse position, the
wheels will be constrained to enter the cross-over or diverging
road. At the places where one rail has to pass across another,
a gap in the rail to be passed over is introduced by laying down
a grooved table of steel, called a "crossing,' which admits the
passage of the wheel flanges along the grooves, and allows the
tread of the wheels to roll smoothly along the upper surface
without interruption.
Points or switches are of two kinds, respectively called "facing-
points' and “trailing-points, but these terms do not denote
any difference in mechanical construction, but refer merely to
their position with reference to a moving train. When an
engine approaches, and first comes in contact with switches at
their free movable end, the points are called “facing,' but
when the heel or pivot end of a pair of movable rails is first
touched by an engine—moving in this case in a contrary direc-
tion—the points are called “trailing.' Facing-points cause the
vehicles to diverge from a main track or siding into a branch
or cross-over road. Trailing-points cause the vehicles to con-
verge into a main track or sidings. Points and crossings may
thus be regarded as gates of entrance and exit, admitting the
passage of trains or vehicles from one line of way to another,
and as such, are always more or less dangerous portals,
unless the traffic through them is maintained under perfect
control.
Switches are usually kept locked so as to restrict the traffic
to one road only, and are only unlocked for the time necessary
to admit the passage of vehicles into or out of that road, as
may be required. The working as well as the locking and un-
locking of points is sometimes in country districts where the
traffic is small, directly effected at the switches themselves by a
pointsman in charge, but where the traffic is at all heavy the
manipulation of all the switches in a station yard is concentrated
and carried on from one signal station or box, from whence all
the signals are also worked. The various adjustments of the
276
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
switches, and the movement of the signals are, moreover, effected
in unison by means of a special mechanism. This interlocking
of switches and signals will be further alluded to in the next
on a line of railway
CHAPTER V
CONSTRUCTION OF LINE— STATION BUILDINGS AND MACHINERY
Station buildings and machinery-Provision for growth and expansion-
Passenger roadside stations-Height of platforms—Goods accommodation
Large terminal passenger stations-Principalvarieties and relative advantages
- Buffer stops-Large terminal goods stations-Varieties of plan-London
goods stations--Locomotive depôt-Running sheds, pits, and watering—Turn-
tables, triangles, carriage turntables, and traversers-Water cranes, tanks,
and ashpits—Pick-up watering—Central workshops-Outdoor apparatus for
signalling-Early history of railway signalling-Colours-—Time signals
superseded by space signals-Block system-Forms of outdoor signals-
Colour blindness-Fog signals-Situation and details of signals—Corre-
spondence of signals with points or switches—Interlocking of signals and
outline of apparatus—Value of the system-Platform and other signals.
RAILWAY stations, whether passenger or goods, are of largely Station build.
varying size and importance, from the smallest roadside pick-up ings
machinery
station, at which only a few trains may stop, to the often
gigantic terminal stations required in a capital city, into and
out of which flows, night and day, a continuous and never-
ceasing stream of busy traffic. Accommodation and con-
veniences for the receipt and despatch of goods-according to
the commercial importance of the locality—will either be
.combined with, or be altogether distinct from the passenger
arrangements.
The growth and development of traffic on almost every line
of new railway is commonly so steady-even if not always im-
mediately great and rapid—that a judicious engineer will, from
the very commencement, in designing all station accommodation,
make ample provision in his plans for a large and economical
possibility of extension. He will, however, actually provide in
the first instance for the minimum requirements only, and this
provision will be based upon the best judgment he can form
as to the smallest immediate necessities of the case. It is on
277
278
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the engineer's forethought and wisdom in this matter of initial
economy, combined with initial arrangements for growth and
expansion, that much of the future economical working of the
railway will depend.
In the case of every passenger station, even one intended for
the accommodation of a village or very small town, the length
of the platform will be made at least equal to that of the longest
trains which are required to stop at it. This length will depend
on the gauge and importance of the railway, but will in ordinary
cases reach 600 to 800 feet on main lines. Unless land is
exceptionally expensive, or the station has to be built on a high
embankment, or in a deep cutting, or other difficult situation,
the width of the platform will be liberal and spacious, 25 to 30
feet being now frequently allowed. The height of platforms
for passenger traffic has been, in practice, subject to great varia-
tions, chiefly on grounds of economy of materials. Probably,
however, the most convenient height, both for the work of the
station staff in crossing the lines and in handling luggage, as
well as for the ease and comfort of passengers, is about 6 or 8
inches below the floor-level of the carriages.
The booking-office is most conveniently placed on that side
of the line nearest to the town or village ; but if there are up
and down lines a second platform and a waiting shed will be
provided on the opposite side. It is important that booking-
offices and waiting-rooms should, whenever possible, be on the
same level with the platforms and the outside approaches to
the station, and this requirement is always kept in mind, both
in the original grading of the line and in the selection of the
precise spot for the station. Where the arrangement is im-
possible, easy inclined planes will be better than steps or stairs
between the approaches and the platform. The minimum
amount of accommodation provided in station offices, whether
for the public or for the staff, will indefinitely vary according
to the circumstances of the traffic in each particular case, but
the smallest station will always include, in addition to the plat-
form, a public booking or ticket-office, a clerk or station-
master's office adjoining, a general waiting-room, store-room,
urinal, and some portion of covered platform or outside shelter,
either on one or on both sides of the line. The ordinary home
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
279
and distant signals, a clock, supply of water, and arrangements
for lighting will be among the necessary provisions.
If the roadside station is important enough to require
separate goods accommodation, goods sidings and a separate
platform will be provided somewhere near the main offices, so
as to be under the convenient inspection of the station-master
at all times. The goods platform will be made of such a
height as to be level with the floor of the wagons brought up
alongside of it. Shed room will also be constructed in pro-
portion to the requirements of the case, arranged so that perish-
able goods may be loaded or unloaded under cover, and that
carts or vans may be able to approach the loading platform.
It is usual to make the doors of goods sheds sliding instead of
hinged to economise space and promote convenience. The
principal fittings necessary for the goods side of a roadside
station will be a small crane for lifting heavy weights, a weigh-
ing machine, and perhaps a weigh bridge, a loading gauge, a
lock-up store, and small office with clock for the booking-clerk,
together with a supply of water and lighting arrangements.
Intermediate stations for large and important towns or junctions,
whether for passengers, for goods, or both combined, will of
course be greatly enlarged to suit the amount of traffic expected
to be dealt with.
The arrangement and disposition of a large terminal passen-
ger station-usually situated within the limits of a great city
-depend not only on the traffic, but is often greatly deter-
mined by the cost and shape of the site that may be available.
There are, however, three principal varieties of terminal
stations, important examples of which are to be found, and
against, or in favour of each of which, certain advantages, and
other corresponding disadvantages may be urged. The three
varieties are distinguished by the relative position of the main
station offices, with reference to the departure and arrival plat-
forms. These offices may be situated, either along one side of
the station ; they may be placed in a central position, or they
may be situated at the end or extremity of the terminus.
When the main station offices comprising booking, luggage,
telegraph, station-master's, and parcels offices, cloak-room,
waiting-rooms, refreshment-rooms, lavatories, etc.--are placed
Ayy
disposition on a limits of a
deter-
280
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
along the side of a terminal station, a long main departure
platform is very conveniently situated immediately opposite to
them, and passengers reach this platform near its middle. The
arrangement is also convenient where large quantities of
luggage have to be dealt with, as the luggage office and weigh-
ing apparatus is located close to the departing trains. On the
other hand, access to a second, or to other departure platforms
is difficult, and is only to be effected, either by an inconvenient
and distant end-passage, by an over-bridge, an under-passage,
or by a movable crossing platform, which can be put into
position, or removed as required; so that where a large number
of trains are required to be despatched from several departure
platforms, the inconvenience of this want of easy access to all
except the first, is a disadvantage. The plan of placing the
general booking and station offices in a central position is
commodious in many respects, but is less usual. The arrange-
ment admits of two long departure platforms, one on each side
of the buildings, to which easy access is gained near the middle
portion of the trains. It is said, however, that this arrange-
ment disperses the staff, and requires a large number of station
hands to carry on the work. However this may be, there is
little question that where a very heavy and frequent passenger
service has to be dealt with, the third arrangement, or that
where the main station offices are situated at the end or
extremity of the terminus, is on the whole preferable to the
other two.
The principal advantages of this last arrangement are, that
there are no difficulties in the way of using any of the plat-
forms, as occasion may require, either for departure or arrival
of trains ; a very important desideratum. A discharged train
which has just arrived, can thus be used as a fresh departure
train from the same platform, and generally much shunting
and moving of trains and vehicles will be avoided. The
arrangement is also very economical in space; a highly im-
have a line on either side of it, requiring to be but very little
wider for the use of two trains than for one only. In this
form of terminus a wide space is provided between the end of
the lines of rail, and the station offices, to which the public
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
281
may be freely admitted without interference with the service of
the trains. Travellers and their friends can be prevented by
barriers from entering on the train-platforms, except by ticket,
and can be admitted only a short time before the train de-
partures, an arrangement which is hardly possible in the case of
the other two plans. From a railed-off portion of this end
platform, luggage also can be weighed, carried to the trains, and
loaded into the train luggage-vans, with more freedom from press
and intermixture with the passengers ; the whole work of the
station is more concentrated, and can be carried on with fewer
hands; the porters passing from one platform to the other
inside the barriers as trains depart or arrive. Perhaps the only
disadvantage of this plan of terminal station is, that passengers
approach the trains from their ends, instead of about their
middle, and consequently have to walk, and luggage has to be
taken a longer distance than when the general offices are situ-
ated either at the side, or in the central portion of the station
premises.
In all three arrangements, roads for the approach and de-
parture of cabs are provided-on one side-or it may be also
between two of the principal arrival platforms. The entrance
to the main cab road is, wherever possible, made at the end
farthest away from the exit, so that empty vehicles may enter
by a different road from the loaded ones leaving the station.
At the points where the several lines of way suddenly come
to an end at all terminal stations, it is necessary to provide
some means of arresting the motion of vehicles which may
overrun the point at which they should have stopped. This is
done by fixing at the end of each line of rails a strong massive
buffer-stop of timber and iron, provided with spring buffers
fixed at the same height, and similar in character to those on
the vehicles.
The planning out and arrangement of a large terminal
goods station, so as to combine the greatest facility in mar-
shalling the incoming and outgoing trains, and working them
into and out of the various platform sidings, whether for load-
ing and despatch, or for receipt and unloading, together with
the utmost convenience for the rapid entrance and exit, load-
ing and unloading of the ordinary road vans or carts, for the
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21
receipt and delivery of goods, is one that taxes the skill of the
designer more than any other detail of railway accommodation,
and perhaps in no particular does the practice of the great
railway companies differ more than in the ground plan and
general arrangement of their terminal goods stations. The
ultimate object in every case, however, is to carry on with a
maximum of convenience and rapidity the enormous operations
frequently involved.
At some of the larger London goods stations, 1500 or 2000
men may be nightly employed in loading and unloading goods,
over an area of 15 to 20 acres, containing perhaps 20 miles of
sidings, and disposing in a few hours of perhaps 1000 or 1200
wagons, comprising 3000 to 4000 tons of merchandise, exclu-
sive of minerals. The outwards' or despatch work is largely
carried out in the early part of the night, in readiness for the
“inwards' or receipt traffic usually dealt with in the early
hours of the morning, and so great is the perfection in the
arrangements now commonly attained, and the order and
rapidity with which the work is carried on, that often hardly
more than an hour will elapse between the consignment of
goods and their despatch by train to their various destinations.
At all terminal stations, and at varying intervals along a
line of railway--intervals dependent on the conditions of the
traffic locomotive depôts will be established, to provide for the
proper grooming and victualling of the ponderous iron horses.
These depôts will be furnished with running' or shelter-sheds
for housing the engines. Inside the sheds will be continuous
pits between the gauge of the rails, to allow free passage
beneath the locomotives for examination of the machinery, and
a plentiful supply of pure water, supplied at considerable pres-
sure from an elevated tank, for washing out the boilers and
general cleansing purposes. The sheds will also usually contain
some workshop accommodation for executing minor repairs.
Near the running sheds, ashpits' between the rails for receiv-
ing discharged ashes from the engines, hollow water-cranes, by
means of which the engines may be furnished with water, and
stages for conveniently taking in supplies of fuel, will be
provided.
Terminal stations will also invariably contain some provision
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
283
for turning, or reversing the running position of the engines.
In most cases this is done by means of what is called a "turn-
table;' but in country localities, where the expedient may be
admissible or convenient, the engines can be turned on a short
length of railroad laid down in the form of a triangle, of size
sufficient to enable the engines to pass round it. · Points and
crossings are, of course, provided at the apex of the triangle
and at its points of junction with the main road. A "turn-
table’ is a centrally pivoted revolving platform, of a diameter
and strength sufficient to carry an engine with its tender,
having a line of rails on it coincident and level with the adjoin-
ing line of way. The engine being run on to the platform
and stopped, the whole by suitable mechanism is revolved a
half turn, when the position of the engine will be reversed, and
it can then be run off the platform on to the line of way by
which it came. In crowded terminal or other station yards,
turntables for carriages enabling them to be quarter turned,
and pushed on cross lines from one line of rails to another,
instead of passing by cross-over roads, are also sometimes em-
ployed; but it is generally more convenient in such places to
use a carriage traverser,' or low dwarf frame running on cross
lines, on which the carriage or vehicle is first mounted, to effect
this purpose. When these are used, at least one carriage turn-
table will be provided, in order to reverse the running position
of the carriage and waggon stock when desired..
At sundry intermediate stations along the line, water-tanks
and cranes for refilling the engine-tanks with water, and “ ash-
also be necessary. The distance apart of these watering or
ashpit stations will depend upon the varying conditions of the
traffic as affecting the consumption of water, the capacity of
the engine tanks ; or the kind of fuel used. In cases where it
is desirable that trains should run exceptionally long distances
without the necessity of stopping to take in water, “pick-up'
water-troughs are employed on many railways. A long open
trough of very considerable length, and kept filled with water,
is constructed between the gauge of the rails, at convenient
watering-places. Into this trough a dip-pipe' or scoop,
attached to the bottom of the tender of the running train is
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TA
lowered, and at a speed of 50 miles an hour upwards of 1000
gallons of water can be easily scooped up and discharged into
the tender during its passage over the trough.
Central workshops for the repair or reconstruction of the
locomotive engines, and of the carriage and wagon stock of all
kinds, are provided on all important railways. These may be
located at one of the principal termini, but are generally placed
in some central position with reference to the entire system of
railways owned and worked by one company or agency.
Every railway station requires to be provided with an out-
door apparatus for signalling, both by day and by night, so
contrived that by it instructions may be conveyed from the
stations to persons in charge of trains, in order to control the
motions of the latter. It would be impossible within the
compass of a few pages to discuss in an adequate manner the
important matter of railway signalling. We will, however,
endeavour to convey to the reader an outline and general idea
of the main principles in accordance with which the movements
of trains on a line of railway are controlled by the aid of that
system of out-door signals, which has been necessitated by the
rapid development of railway traffic, and which in many par-
ticulars has now reached so high a degree of perfection as to
render the safe working of trains, so far as this matter is con-
cerned, almost independent of human error or carelessness.
On the first lines of railway that were constructed, the need
of fixed signals was unfelt. So few trains followed each other
on the up and down lines nearly always provided, that nothing
at first seemed to be required except a code of hand-signals,
similar to that still used in station-yards for shunting or other
purposes. This code of hand-signals, still almost universally
employed, consists of the use of coloured flags, and the various
attitudes of the arms of a signalman by day, and of coloured
hand-lamps by night. A signal for all right' is given by
holding out a white flag, or by stretching out the arm hori-
zontally, or at night by showing a steady white light. A signal
for caution' is given in daylight by a green flag, or by holding
one arm straight up in the air, and at night by a green light.
A danger or stop '-signal is given by showing a red flag, by
holding up both arms vertically, or by waving a cap or some
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
285
other object violently. At night a red light is shown, or if no
red light is available, by waving violently any other light across
the line.
On the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway, when
first opened, hand-signals only were employed, and it was not
until about the year 1834 that on this line the first fixed
signals were introduced for night use, by the simple expedient
of fastening an ordinary lamp to the top of a post, showing a
red light if it was desired that the train should stop, and a
white light if on the contrary it might proceed. Even in the
year 1841 the only fixed day-signal employed at stations on
this railway was a flag run up and down a mast by means of a
rope and pulley. The use of coloured objects, borrowed from
the hand-signalling, was soon, however, extended to fixed
signals. White, whether exhibited in the shape of a flag, a
disc, an arm, or a light, came to represent safety or “all right.'
Green meant caution,' and red signified danger or stop.'
These colours, whether by day or by night, for a long period
were used simply as time-signals. Some description of fixed
station-signal-scarcely any two railways using the same—such
as a coloured disc, round or square, or a horizontal arm on a
post (exchanged after dark for a coloured light), was displayed
for both up and down lines. The red colour was shown directly
a train had reached or passed a station, and remained exposed
for five minutes after its departure, so as to stop any following
train. The green signal, often carried on a shorter post, was
then exhibited for another five minutes, so as to complete a ten
minutes interval, after which either no signal at all, or the white
all-right' signal was exposed. On some lines the time-intervals
were varied to suit the special circumstances of the traffic,
but before long, and soon after the introduction of the electric
telegraph on railways, the main object aimed at in signalling
completely changed. It was no longer sought to preserve an
interval of time between trains, but to ensure an interval of
space, and it is obvious at first glance that this was a vast
improvement: for in case of a train breaking down, or from
any cause not running to time between two stations, the time-
signal would not prevent the following train from running
into it.
lu
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been retained, but the use of the electric telegraph enables each
line of way on a railway to be divided into certain space-
intervals or sections,' and permits the establishment of a rigid
rule or regulation, that no train shall be allowed by the ordinary
out-door signals, to enter any section until the previous train
has been signalled by telegraph to have left it at the other
end. This, which is called the block 'system, ensures, if the
regulation is adhered to, that no train can ever overtake or
run into another proceeding on the same line of rails.
The form of out-door signal apparatus now employed on all
important railways, is that known as the “semaphore,' which
combines the use of colours by night with the relative position
of a semaphore arm by day. This signal consists of a tall
vertical post, which carries near its top a pivoted movable
arm-or more than one if signals for several roads have to
be given—the arm, projecting from the post in a horizontal
position, indicates danger or stop.' Lowered to an angle of
45 degrees with the post, it indicates proceed cautiously ;' or
shut down entirely within the post, it signifies all right.'
In connection with the block 'system, however, it is clear
that only two signals are really required, viz., one to express the
instruction, “All right, you may go on, for the line is clear in
front as far as the next signal-station ;' and the other to
express, "Stop at once, for the section of line in front is not
clear.' In the neighbourhood of towns it is an advantage to be
able to discard the use of the white light at night, because it is
liable to be confounded with other ordinary white lights, con-
sequently in such situations the green-coloured signal has now
almost entirely taken its place, and has practically come to
mean "all right’instead of caution. On the other hand, in
the open country, the white light is superior to the green light,
inasmuch as it can be clearly seen from a greater distance by
the drivers of fast-running trains, and it is, therefore, generally
retained under these circumstances. Similarly, the inclined or
caution' position of the day-signal arm is now almost every-
where used to express all right, the shut-down position
within the post being discarded, this position having the objec-
tion of being rather the absence of any definite signal than an
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
287
affirmative one. The use of the three signals by night is, how-
ever, still adhered to on some lines, a purple light being substi-
tuted for the white light in the neighbourhood of towns.
As now used, therefore, in connection with the almost
universal “block’system, day-signals consist of a horizontal
semaphore arm to indicate danger or stop,' and the same arm
inclined at an angle of 45 degrees to indicate all right.' At
night a lamp is lighted near the top of the signal-post, and a
spectacle of red and green glass, or one of red only, is inter-
posed in front of the light by the motion of the same rods that
work the signal-arms, showing a red light when the arm is in
the position indicating danger or stop,' and a green or a
white light, according to situation, when the arm is in the "all
right position.
These colours, now used in railway signalling, whether by the
exhibition of coloured flags and other objects by day, or of
lamps by night, were adopted at a time when that defect in
human vision, known as “colour-blindness,' was little known, or
when its accompanying phenomena had been little investigated.
Unhappily, moreover, the use of this colour-system of signal-
ling has become so firmly bound up with railway practice all
over the world, as to preclude the possibility of any radical
change of principle being now thought of.
Modern scientific investigation into the facts of colour-blind-
ness has clearly proved that a considerable and unexpected per-
centage of persons are unable from birth to interpret correctly
one or other of the primary colours, especially 'red' and 'green:'
that this defect in visual perception may be induced by excessive
tobacco-smoking, either combined with or entirely without, the
abuse of alcohol, and moreover that examples exist of persons
whose eyesight is normal with respect to the colours of opaque,
non-luminous objects, but who at the same time are colour-
blind to luminous objects, especially of varying intensity (such,
for instance, as railway signal lamps). In view of these facts, a
duty, the importance of which it is hardly possible to exagge-
rate, is imposed on those persons responsible for the safe-working
of railway trains, to ascertain by the most crucial tests that
ophthalmic science may have rendered available, that the vision
of engine-drivers and others is not only normal on first engage-
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0
ment, but also by periodical examination to ascertain whether it
continues in a healthy condition, seeing that these persons have
under daily, and even hourly risk of human life and property,
to read correctly the colours of railway signals.
The methods of test hitherto employed, whether by requir-
ing the candidate to name the colours on prepared cards, read
the actual outdoor signals, or by requiring him to match to-
gether the various colours of skeins of wool, irrespective of
shade (known as the “Holmgreens wool test '), when these tests
are unaccompanied by the more stringent trial of correctly
matching opaque against the colours of luminous objects of
varying degrees of intensity-in a similar manner to the system
of testing now adopted by the Admiralty in the case of candi-
dates for the marine service-have been shown to be liable to
extreme chances of error, even if they are not actually useless.
In England the subject has attracted great attention in
recent years, and railway companies are beginning to be more
keenly alive to its real importance. In Indian railway practice,
however, really efficient methods of testing the eyesight of
engine-drivers, signalmen, and others for colour-blindness are
either largely unknown, or their application is singularly
lax. It is sometimes urged that too great an importance is
attached to the subject, inasmuch as very few cases of railway
accident can in practice be attributed to colour-blindness, but
in a large number of cases where accidents have arisen from
some conflicting interpretation of signals, it has not hitherto
been possible, without the aid of the more recently devised
scientific methods of test, to prove that such misinterpretation
was, or was not, due to this cause. To such of our readers who
may desire to have a clearer idea of the theory and facts of
colour-blindness, as bearing on railway signalling and the most
improved methods of test now employed, a résumé of this im-
portant question will be found in Appendix J.
During the time of fogs or mist, when neither the arms nor
the lights of fixed signals can be seen, audible signals are re-
sorted to. At a certain distance beyond the fixed signals in
the direction of an approaching train, special signalmen are
employed to fasten on the rails by the aid of small leaden clips,
percussion or fog'signals, which being run over by the engine
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
289
explode with a loud report. One such explosion means
caution, or proceed slowly, two or more in succession mean
danger, or stop.'
Having now explained the form and kind of outdoor signals
usually employed, it is necessary to indicate their ordinary
situations. Every through station is provided with central or
'home' signals, as they are called, and two distant' signals,
situated far away on either side of it. Terminal stations will
home' signal-post is generally placed adjoining the platform,
and either at or close to the main cabin or 'box' provided for
the signalman. In consequence of the great speed at which
trains travel, it is necessary that engine-drivers should know how
the main signals stand some time before they can reach them.
This is arranged for by the provisions of auxiliary or distant
signal-posts on either side of the home signals, at a distance of
a quarter to a half a mile away, the arms of which are worked
by wires and rods connected with levers in the signal box.
Each of these semaphore signal-posts will often be furnished with
arms on both sides of it, or even tiers of arms one above the
other, but in every case the arm or arms on one side of the
post control trains running in one direction, and the arm or
arms on the other side control trains running in the other
direction. The driver of a train approaching any semaphore
signals whatsoever, has only to consider the arm or arms on the
left-hand side of the signal post; those on the right hand in no
way concern him.
In all cases signal arms are counterweighted, so that in case
the wires or rods connecting them with the working levers
should at any time break, the arms will by their own weight
fly to the position of danger,' and thus no further harm than
some delay will ensue. The normal position of all signal arms
is, moreover, horizontal, or at danger, and they are only lowered
to the inclined or all right' position for the brief time
necessary to allow a train to pass clear of it. At complicated
junctions, or stations where there are a great number of lines,
and consequently where there may be a great many signal arms
one above the other on the posts, it is usual to arrange the
order of their superposition, so as to correspond with a
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numerical or other order in the various lines to which they
refer. By the aid of these and numerous other suitable arrange-
ments, which practically provide for all the possible complica-
tions that can arise, railway signals are made to convey per-
mission to the driver of any train to proceed, or to command
him to stop.
It will be obvious, however, to the most uninitiated person
that much more than this is required. Whenever trains have
entrance and exit called points' or switches, in doing which
they may for a time obstruct communication on, or 'foul’one
or several other lines of way, it is clear that the exhibition, and
even the exact obeying of signals, will be no safeguard to the
traffic, unless the working of these switches or 'points ’ is con-
ducted in exact correspondence with the signals. If at any
time these should be in contradiction the one to the other, con-
ditions favourable to a collision or other accident will be im-
mediately established. It is in order to prevent the possibility
of this dangerous contingency that ingenious inventors have
devised an interlocking mechanism for the levers of points and
signals, so arranged that no signal arm can by any human effort
be removed from its normal position of danger, unless all the
points situated on the line of way controlled by that signal are
previously placed in the proper position for the train to pass,
and further, during the whole time that the signal arm is in
the lowered position, permitting a train to proceed, by no
human effort can the points be moved, nor can any other signal
be shown, which will allow another train to proceed on any
line of way obstructing or 'fouling 'the first. The numerous
levers which actuate all the points, as well as those which
actuate all the signals, are concentrated and ranged side by side
in the signal cabin, and are placed in mechanical connection with
an interlocking mechanism, so devised that the results of the
arrangement are very much the same as if a piano or organ was
constructed in such a manner that no combination of notes
could possibly be struck which were not in perfect harmony.
So far as exact accordance between points and signals are con-
cerned, a blind man might with safety be allowed to enter a
signal cabin and pull over any of the levers of an interlocking
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
291
apparatus at random. He would probably produce delay in
the traffic, but he could not produce discord between the points
and the signals.
The main principle of the apparatus is, that so long as all
the outside signals are at danger the point levers are free to
move, thus permitting any shunting that may be necessary to
go on under the protection of the danger signals, but if the
signalman desires to lower any signal arm to the all right?
position he cannot, by the conditions of the mechanism do so,
positions of safety for the train to pass, nor whilst the signal
arm is down can he move the points so set, or actuate any other
signal concerned with any portion of the same line of way.
The man and his liability to forgetfulness or error is in fact
11
be derailed, engine-drivers may fail to see, or may disregard the
signals, or brakes may refuse to act, but the perfect corre-
spondence between the signals and the safety of the roads to
which they refer is practically absolute.
The importance and value of interlocking apparatus will be
illustrated when it is stated that at some London terminal
stations, at the most crowded time of the day, eighteen or
twenty trains may arrive, and eighteen or twenty trains depart
within the hour, necessitating perhaps 120 operations of shift-
ing points and signals, or an average of, say one in every 30
seconds, a work which it would be impossible for any unaided
human being to carry on without mistake, even for a few
minutes.
In addition to the ordinary outdoor signals, of which we have
been speaking, platform arrival and departure signals are often
used where trains are frequent. Numerous other signals are
also employed for conveying instructions from one signal box
to another, or between those concerned in the actual working
of trains, and even between passengers and the train officials.
Most of these are nowadays worked by electricity, and are of
too technical a character to be here treated of.
CHAPTER VI
INTRODUCTION OF RAILWAYS INTO INDIA
Introduction of Railways into India—The India of early English occupation-
Vivifying power of railways-Influence on the destinies of Indian Outline of
physical geography of the Continent-Principal divisions—Chief rivers of
Hindustan—The table land of the Deccan -Western ghatsEastern ghats
-Principal rivers of the Deccan—Vindhyian mountains—Satpura and
Aravalli ranges--Alluvial soil of Hindustan-Characteristics of Indian rivers
-Coast line and paucity of sea ports—Madras, Bombay, Karachi, and
Calcutta the focus of early railways—The first three main trunk lines-
Early projects—The Great Eastern’ Railway from Bombay——The Great
India' or 'Great Indian Peninsula Railway -Early history-First sugges-
tion of the guarantee system—Early promotion of the 'East Indian Railway'
--First despatch recognising desirableness of railways for India-Curious
assumptions-Deputation of an experienced civil engineer from England
Committee appointed-Proposals for main clauses of contract and Govern-
ment control-Report of Committee-Experimental line-Discussion of
proposals—Views of the Governor-General-Prolonged negotiations-Pre-
liminary agreements signed-Principal contract-terms under the guarantee
system.
Introduction ALMOST exactly forty years ago—or, more precisely, on the 16th
of Railways April 1853—the first length of railway in India, viz., the 20
into India.
miles between Bombay and Tannah, was opened for public
traffic. Thus, only about twenty-two years later than the
first introduction of railways into England, was planted on
Indian soil the germ of that wonderful subsequent growth of
trunk and branch lines of railway, the regenerating and awaken-
ing influence of which was there destined to produce more
extended and far-reaching results than in any other portion
of the globe, and to place in the course of a few years the
India of pre-railroad days, and the India of the present, as far
asunder as the poles.
Who cannot recall that familiar picture of India of the early
British occupation, handed down through so many generations
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293
of Englishmen? Its vast roadless plains, stupendous mountains,
and almost impassable rivers. Its gorgeous wealth and abject
poverty. Its subtle philosophy and depths of grossest super-
stition; the singularly unchanged and apparently immovable
habits and customs of its dense swarm of dusky inhabitants ;
the living embodiment of an ancient civilisation extending
backwards to the earliest dawn of history. A land where
the very names of innovation, progress, energy, and the prac-
tical arts of life were unknown, or were abhorred, and which
appeared sunk in a lethargic sleep too profound for any possi-
bility of awakening. To arouse this torpid mass, how feeble
in action, and how infinitely slow in results, would have been
the best efforts of English education, English laws, or even
English practical science, as displayed only in the construction
of roads and irrigation canals, had not the mighty agency of
steam—and more especially of steam locomotion-been called
to its assistance. This wonderful vivifying power, scarcely
applied, at once commenced its beneficent work, and with a
yearly increasing rapidity outstripping imagination, has since
continued to quicken the pulse of a whole continent; to infuse
a healthy circulation into the stagnant body politic of a vast
congeries of peoples; and to urge its rising energies along a
new highway of industry, commerce, and material progress,
from which it can now never recede.
Nor is it possible to suppose that this mighty upstirring of
the various peoples of India will not be accompanied by a
general loosening and final casting off of the trammels of
superstition, or be unattended with a corresponding moral
and religious advancement, in a land from whence, long ages
before the infancy of European civilisation, the world had
already received some of the most profound conceptions of
the human mind; a land which has been the birthplace of
an elevated moral and religious philosophy, enriched with
many a potent germ, and ready in the more fertile soil of
a healthy material progress, and under the influence of an
advancing culture, to expand, and assimilate all the ripest
products of Western thought. Under the guiding direction
of Providence it is from the British nation that the vast
continent of India has received the leaven of a new moral
2
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and material regeneration, which can now never cease to
operate until it has raised the country to a high level of
power and civilisation. The most potent factor in this truly
wonderful resurrection of a whole people, so visibly taking
place before the eyes of the present generation, is unquestion-
ably the railway system of the country; and there is little
reason to doubt that the powerful onward impetus already
imparted by railway communication-even if every other in-
strument of English power were relaxed or removed—would
continue to prevail, and that it will ever remain a lasting
memorial of the influence of Great Britain on the destinies
of India.
It will thus be a matter of no little interest to retrace, even
in outline, the main incidents of the rise and early develop-
ment of Indian railways; but, in order that the reader may
intelligently follow the thread of such a narrative, it is first
necessary to cast a rapid glance at the principal features of the
physical geography of the country. The continent of India is,
however, so large and diversified, that in a mere outline descrip-
tion of its physical geography it will only be possible to point
out a few of those broad and well-marked features which more
specially affect the operations of the railway engineer. India,
considered as lying between the mouths of the Ganges and
Brahmaputra on the east, the line of the Indus on the west,
the Himalayan mountain ranges on the north, and Cape
Comorin on the south, has an extreme length of about 1800
miles, an extreme breadth of 1400, and a coast-line of 3600
miles. Geographically, the country is divided into two well-
marked natural divisions, differing entirely from each other in
physical characteristics, respectively named, “Hindustan’ and
the - Deccan.' Hindustan, comprising the whole northern and
north-western portion of the main continent, from the delta
of the Ganges to the delta of the Indus, is characteristically
a great alluvial plain of only moderate elevation, stretched out
immediately at the feet of the Himalayan Mountains. The
Deccan, is characteristically an elevated and more or less undu-
lating plateau or tableland, occupying the greater portion of
the whole southern extension, below Hindustan, of the Indian
peninsula. Hindustan includes a large portion of Bengal
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
295
proper, the upper Provinces of the north-west, the Punjab,
Scinde, Rajputana, and Guzerat, and extends southwards as far
99
IE
from the head of the Bay—or Gulf—of Cambay in a general
north-easterly direction, with gradually diminishing altitude,
as far as the great southern bend of the Ganges at Rajmahal
in Bengal. On the eastern or Bengal side, the great plain
country of Hindustan comprises the humid and naturally
fertile delta of the Ganges, and its surface is scored with a
multitude of river arms, and water-channels, affording easy
water communication in almost every direction. The western
and north-western side of the great alluvial tract consists for
the most part of dry waterless plains, traversed by a compara-
tively small number of large rivers, some of the most extensive
interfluvial regions being practically desert, and all entirely
dependent on artificial irrigation for fertility. The principal
rivers of Hindustan are the Indus and the Ganges, which,
rising in the heart of the Himalayas, and fed by its eternal
snows, flow—the first in a general direction, north to south,
the second west to east, discharging themselves into the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal respectively at Karachi
and Calcutta. Confluent to the Indus are the remaining
four great rivers of the Punjab, viz., the Jhelum, the Chenab,
the Ravi, and the Sutlej (respectively the ‘Hydaspes, the
“Ascesines,' the ‘Hydrazotes,' and the ‘Hysudrus' of the Greek
invasion). The three principal tributaries of the Ganges are the
Jumna, the Gogra, and the Sone. Along the whole northern
boundary of the low-lying plains of Hindustan, the triple
Himalayan chain of lofty mountains present_and will prob-
ably for a long time continue to present-a practically
impenetrable barrier to railway extension in their direction:
South of the principal Vindhyian range of lesser mountains,
U
the Ganges at Rajmahal, the main portion of the peninsula is
occupied by the high tableland of the “ Deccan. This elevated
plateau does not, however, for the most part extend to the
actual sea-coast. Along the whole western sea-board, from the
Tapti river to Cape Comorin, the high land terminates abruptly
in steep precipitous slopes and bold rocky bluffs, leaving a low-
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
lying maritime plain—seldom more than about 30 miles in width
-between them and the sea. The edge of the high land, from
the Tapti to a gap which breaks through its wall at Palghất,
in the neighbourhood of Coimbatore, is called the “ Western
ghâts,' or 'Syhadree ’ mountains. The general elevation of its
ridge-line does not exceed 3000 feet above the sea, and it is
nowhere less than about 2200, but it reaches 5000 feet at
Mahableshwar, and 6000 feet in Coorg, to the south of which
the Neilgherry range of hills trends inland in the direction of
Madras, on the opposite coast. Below the gap at Palghất, the
range of ghâts extends to the extreme southern point of the
peninsula at Cape Comorin. The average breadth of the
crest of the Western ghats-presenting a more mountainous
character than the general tableland to the eastward-is only
about 10 miles, although numerous spurs are here and there
projected across the plateau for a further distance of 20 or 30
miles. Towards the southern end, however, the mountainous
district reaches 40 miles or more in width. In order to make
more plain to the reader the extraordinary nature of the
obstacle presented by the line of the Western ghâts to the
progress of any railway in the direct inland line from the
coast, it is necessary to point out that these ghâts are not
to be considered as a range of hills or mountains through
which a more or less difficult passage might be found by
following the direction of the main valleys on either side,
with or without tunnels at the summit, but they consist of
what is virtually an almost vertical step, forming a kind of
retaining wall to the Deccan high lands; so that a railway
attacking them from the west has to climb the face of what
is practically a line of sheer precipices, from 2000 to 3000 feet
in height, broken only along its front by deep rifts or ravines.
The narrow and low-lying maritime plain situated below the
ghâts, along the western coast, is occasionally broken by low
hills, and is intersected by the estuaries of numerous mountain
streams, which descend from the rocky channels and gorges of
the high land. From the edge or ridge of the Western ghats
the elevated plateau dips away to the east, terminating a short
distance before reaching the Bay of Bengal in a line of hills
of more gentle contour than those on the west, called the
71
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
297
* Eastern ghâts. The upper tableland is. traversed by a
number of great rivers, which, rising on the spurs of the
ghâts on the western side of the peninsula, flow across the
whole extent of the plateau, break through the line of Eastern
ghâts, and descend into the Bay of Bengal. The chief of these
rivers are the Kistna, the Godavery, and the Mahanadi, each
having many large and important tributaries.
· The Vindhyian mountains forming the northern boundary of
the Deccan table lands are composed of three distinct chains,
viz., the most northern, or “ Aravalli ' range of hills-geographi-
cally situated in Hindustan—the central or main Vindhyian
range, and the southern or Satpura range of lower hills. Be-
tween the Aravalli and Vindhyian line of mountains the river
Chumbal flows northwards to the Jumna: between the Vindhyian
and Satpura ranges the great river Nurbudda flows in a westerly
direction to the Gulf of Cambay and the Arabian Sea, whilst
rising from neighbouring sources the Sone river flows north and
eastwards to the Ganges. The Deccan geographical division of
India comprises all the Central Provinces, the greater part of
the Bombay Presidency, Hydrabad, Mysore, and the whole
of Madras.
Over the vast extent of the great plain country of Northern
India or Hindustan, with small exception, the soil is an alluvial
deposit of fine sand and clay reaching to an unknown depth.
Intermingled with this soil is found immense quantities of
kunka, a concretion of carbonate of lime and clay, either in
the form of hard nodules or in thin beds. This substance,
which can be collected with facility, yields when burned an
excellent hydraulic lime, admirably adapted for building
purposes.
From the points of view of the railway engineer, the most
important characteristics of the rivers of Hindustan are their
great average size, the immense volumes of water periodically
brought down by them during the seasons of flood, the often
enormous extent of their inundations, and the erratic and
unstable character of their channels. The rivers commonly
occupy broad shallow valleys, varying from a mile to 7 or 8
miles in width. These valleys are bounded by low marginal
banks of varying breadth, on which the principal towns and
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
villages are placed. Within the limits of deviation imposed
by these more or less permanent banks the rivers at all times
wander at will, or sometimes during the season of floods the
greater part or the whole of the shallow valley may be filled
with turgid water, spilled from the tortuous main channel,
which alters its course through the valley from season to season
according to the set and wearing action of the current against
the light alluvial soil through which it runs. In the lower
reaches especially, owing to the heavy annual deposit of silt
brought down by the rivers, much of the plain country remote
from the banks is at a lower level, and is subject to periodical
inundation through the water-courses or nullas which inter-
sect the marginal higher ground. The large rivers of the
Punjab, flowing through vast level plains of light alluvial
deposit are of an exceptionally erratic character ; the course
taken by their main channels varying over wide limits, so that
the works necessary to constrain the body of the stream to
preserve a reasonably permanent alignment in the neighbour-
hood of bridges crossing them, and the net width of waterway
to be allowed to such bridges, are among the most difficult
PY
solve. Over the higher and more hilly region of the Deccan
and south country, with geological formations of greatly diver-
sified character, the more defined catchment basins of the rivers,
of their channels, reduces these particular difficulties to more
ordinary proportions.
In all countries having free access to the sea, the large com-
mercial ports are among the principal natural centres from
which trunk lines of railway will radiate, or the termini towards
which they will be directed. This is most markedly illustrated
in India, where, notwithstanding its 3600 miles of coast-line,
convenient commercial sea-ports are singularly few and scarce.
Along the whole extent of the eastern coast, from the head of
the Bay of Bengal to Cape Comorin, no really commodious
harbour exists. Madras, situated on the eastern coast, is an
important railway centre, as the seat of a Presidency Govern-
ment, but has no natural harbour, and can take but little rank
as a commercial seaport. On this side of India the only prac-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
299
ticable port for large ships is Calcutta, situated 100 miles
inland on one of the mouths of the Ganges called the Hooghly,
through which the navigation is intricate and more or less
dangerous. On the western coast the only commercial harbours
of any consideration are Bombay and Karachi, of which Bombay
is by far the most commodious and extensive. Practically,
therefore, the important seaports of India are limited to Cal-
cutta, Bombay, and Karachi, the capabilities of the last being
comparatively small, and of recent development.
It was therefore from Bombay, the true commercial capital,
and from Calcutta, the political capital of India, that the two
first lines of railway, viz., the “Great Indian Peninsula' and the
' East Indian,' emanated. Both these trunk lines were pro-
jected and were commenced at about the same time, although
it was a short and easy length of the former that was first
opened for public traffic.
It will be obvious, on a first inspection of a map of India,
bearing in view the political and commercial importance, and
the relative positions of the three Presidency capitals--Calcutta,
Bombay, and Madras—that three trunk or main lines of rail-
way will be of primary importance, viz., one from Calcutta, fol-
lowing the general course of the valley of the Ganges, towards
Delhi, and onwards to Lahore and the north-western frontier
of the Punjab ; one from Bombay, meeting the first nearly at .
right angles somewhere midway between Calcutta and Delhi ;
and one connecting Madras with Bombay. The two first were,
in point of fact, the earliest lines undertaken, and are those
which governed the fortunes of the immediately succeeding
railways. A rapid sketch of their early history will, therefore,
serve to illustrate the story of the introduction of railways into
India.
So early as the year 1840 or 1841, projects for extending the
benefits of railway communication to India appear to have been
discussed by engineers and private capitalists in England, but
it was not until two or three years later that the Honourable
Court of Directors of the East India Company was approached
with any definite proposals. At this time the Government of
India was passive, if not actually hostile, to the idea of intro-
ducing railways. No doubt the more enlightened minds, both
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
in India and in England, were fully alive to the advantages
certain to accrue to the commerce of the two countries ; but it
was not conceived possible that the vast amount of capital
required could be raised, or that sufficient inducements existed,
or could be held out to public investors, which would prevail
upon them to embark money upon so visionary and uncertain an
enterprise as railways in India. It was assumed that the con-
struction and management of railways could only be undertaken
by private enterprise and capital, and that the novelties and
unknown difficulties of their introduction into so distant and
backward a country, would be sufficient to inspire the general
public with certain distrust in the speculation.
In the year 1843, on the invitation-as generally supposed
—of the then Governor, Sir George Arthur, Mr. G. T. Clerk,
a railway engineer who had been employed on the Great
Western Railway in England, went out to Bombay in order to
study on the spot the facilities for railway construction from
that port to the districts above and beyond the line of Western
ghấts. In the following year a committee for a railway com-
pany was organised in Bombay, having for its object, in the
first instance, the construction of a line of railway from the
port to the foot of the ghâts only, but this inadequate scheme
was soon merged in another association having more extended
aims, to be named the Great Eastern Railway. Mr. Clerk
originally advocated the construction of a line branching off into
two lines at Callian, the one surmounting the line of Western
ghấts to the north-east by the Thull ghât towards Candeish,
the other passing them to the south-east by the Bhore ghât, in
the direction of Poona and Madras, on a general alignment
almost identical with that-after many intermediate vicissi-
tudes-subsequently adopted. This scheme was warmly sup-
ported both by the Governor and the Chamber of Commerce
of Bombay, but it failed to meet the approval of a committee
of military officers appointed to report on it by the Govern-
ment of India, it being believed that the obstacle presented by
that range of steep and lofty precipices, running parallel with
the sea-coast at a distance of about 30 miles inland, called the
Western ghấts, presented a practically insurmountable barrier
to any economical railway construction in the direct easterly
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
301
line from Bombay. The Great Eastern Railway' scheme for
the present, therefore, remained in abeyance.
In the meantime a Mr. Chapman had been busily engaged
in England in preparing and advocating the formation of a
company for a vast scheme of railway enterprise, intended to
embrace the whole of India in its scope. This project, which
took the ambitious title of the “Great India,' or 'Great Indian
Peninsula Railway,' was to extend a trunk line due east from
Bombay, up the ghâts, and right across the peninsula to a
harbour at the mouth of the Godavery river on the opposite
coast, almost half-way between Calcutta and Madras. Lines
of rail were to skirt the coasts, and as soon as the main trunk
line had surmounted the ghâts, branches were to diverge, one
north-east to Allahabad on the Ganges, and one south-east to
Madras, from which lines other branches were to ramify prac-
tically all over India.
Mr. Chapman, on learning what was being done in Bombay,
proposed an amalgamation with the Great Eastern Railway'
promoters, and eventually the latter association was merged
into the Great Indian Peninsula' Company, Mr. Clerk being
appointed engineer in India. The Bombay committee were,
however, naturally adverse to the proposal of a trunk line
across the peninsula to the opposite coast, chiefly on the ground
that it would be of minimum benefit to Bombay, and that one-
half would be a competing line to the other half. In the
meantime other promoters, both on the side of Calcutta and
Madras, taking the field, the Great Indian Peninsula' project,
although still adhering to its ambitious name, gradually, by
the year 1845, came to restrict its scope to a system designed
only to connect with Bombay the principal producing districts
situated at a reasonable distance beyond the ghâts. These
producing districts lay to the north-east and south-east of the
port, and any direct lines to them must necessarily bifurcate
below the ghâts, and mount them by two separate ascents, but
these ghât ascents involved stupendous engineering difficulties,
and the great body of the promoters were prepared to sacrifice
directness in favour of one central ascent, to be situated at the
Malsej ghất, with a bifurcation somewhere above instead of
below the line of ghấts. Later and more detailed investigation,
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
however, led to an abandonment of this idea, and a reversion to
the original design of the “Great Eastern’scheme, viz., two
separate ghât ascents, one to the north-east and one to the
south-east of Bombay, which, as we shall see in the following
chapter, was the course eventually adopted and carried out.
It was from the early 'Great India' or 'Great Indian Penin-
sula' Company—the promoters of the visionary scheme of con-
structing a main trunk line of railway right across the peninsula
from Bombay to Caringah, at the mouth of the Godavery river
—that the first suggestion for a Government guarantee appears
to have emanated. In November of the year 1844, through
their agents in India, these promoters proposed that, in order to
stimulate the ardour of those persons seeking safe investments
at moderate rates of interest, the Government of India should
offer a guarantee of 4 per cent. from the date of opening the
railway, or any portion of it, with a proviso that if the profits
exceeded 10 per cent. the surplus should be devoted to a fund
expressly appropriated to a further extension of the lines under
the company—extensions subject in their turn to a similar
guarantee. The duration of the arrangement was to be limited
to some term of years to be agreed upon. It is needless to say
that these proposals did not meet with acceptance, but among
the numerous railway promoters, who had by this time begnn
to turn their attention to an Indian field of operations, it was
very early seen that there would be little probability of raising
in the public market any capital adequate for the purposes of
railway enterprise in India, unless the Honourable East India
Company were willing to offer some kind of security for the money
advanced. Among the lines mooted at the very earliest date
was one which took the name of the East Indian Railway,'
having for its object the construction of a line starting from
Calcutta and following the Mirzapore road for a distance of 140
miles towards Allahabad-Mr., afterwards Sir Donald, Stephen-
son, being the principal promoter. At the end of the year
1844 the managing director of this proposed Company sug-
gested that, in order to encourage the introduction of railways
into India, the Government should adopt a plan then working
successfully in France, and guarantee a minimum dividend to
the railway shareholders from the date of opening the line for
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
303
traffic. Negotiations were opened on this basis. The com-
pany proposed a guarantee of 4, subsequently lowered to 3, per
cent. on a capital expenditure which was not to exceed one
million sterling, or an annual bonus of £30,000 until the
profits should reach 3 per cent. Soon, however, the important
modification was introduced, that the interest should be guar-
anteed from the commencement of operations, instead of from
the date of opening for traffic. The Honourable Court of
Directors, after due consideration of these, together with the
various proposals made by other nascent companies, addressed
an important despatch to the Governor-General in India, call-
ing attention to the whole question of the introduction of rail-
ways into that country.
This despatch, dated 7th May 1845, is interesting as being
the first official recognition of the desirableness of railways for
India. It contains, moreover, some curious assumptions which
have been signally falsified by the event, and apprehensions of
peculiar difficulties in railway construction which have not in
practice been seriously experienced. It was assumed, on grounds
which probably few at that time could have called in ques-
tion, that, contrary to the experience which had been already
gained in England and Europe, the ó remuneration from railroads
in India must for the present be drawn chiefly from the convey-
ance of merchandise, and not from passengers.' It was appre-
hended that, in addition to the ordinary difficulties common to
railroads in all countries, there were others peculiar to India
which would be almost insuperable, such as the violence of the
periodical rains and inundations, the continued action of violent
winds, and the influences of extreme heat; the ravages of insects
and vermin, and the destructive effects of spontaneous vegeta-
tion on timber, earthworks, and masonry; the unenclosed and
unprotected nature of the tracts of country traversed, and the
difficulty and expense of securing the services of competent
engineers and engine-drivers. In view of these considerations
—of no small weight in the year 1845—the despatch from the
Court of Directors was soon followed by the deputation from
England of an experienced civil engineer, who was selected as
especially conversant with railway questions and requirements.
The gentleman selected was Mr. Simms, C.E., who arrived in
S
'
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
into the whole question of the applicability of railways for
India in all its bearings, and it was directed that two competent
military engineer officers, to be appointed by the Government
of India, should be associated with him, and the committee thus
formed were to investigate and report on the whole matter, and
to suggest some moderate and convenient length of line which
might be undertaken as a sort of experiment. The directors
also made certain general suggestions with regard to the nature
of the control to be exercised by Government over any railways
that might be intrusted to the agency of private capitalists,
or companies, and recommended these suggestions for considera-
tion and comment.
In February 1846, Mr. Simms drew up a set of proposed
stipulations for the main clauses of contract between the
Government and private railway companies. In return for
certain concessions to be made by the former, the principal of
which was the very moderate one of a free grant of land, com-
panies were to be subject to a most complete and minute
government regulation and control, and at the expiration of a
lease of certain definite duration, the railway, in perfect order
and repair, was to be handed over to the Government without
payment. In addition Mr. Simms suggested that, if thought
advisable, a small percentage might be guaranteed on the actual
capital cost of the works from the date of opening for traffic.
In the same month the committee of engineers submitted
their report on the general applicability of railroads to the
conditions and circumstances of India, and on the apprehended
peculiar climatic and other difficulties, which they had been
invited to consider. On the general question, the committee
was of opinion that railways, far from being inapplicable, were,
on the contrary, quite capable of being constructed and main-
tained in India, as perfectly as in any part of Europe, and,
moreover, that their introduction was a great desideratum.
With regard to the apprehended peculiar difficulties enumer-
ated by the Court of Directors, they admit their existence in
some degree, but regard them as easily surmountable. Seriatim,
each item is gravely discussed, and it is quietly enunciated,
possibly with some satire, that suitable arrangements in the
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
305
construction of the works will overcome any difficulty likely to
arise from these causes to the line itself, nor do they consider
them to be of a nature to prevent an immediate prosecution of
railway enterprise.
The committee in a long and—considering the extreme
paucity of data existent at that time—very able report, recom-
mend the introduction of railways into India by the agency of
private companies, and advocate the construction of a line
following a direct route from Calcutta to Mirzapore, and thence
to Delhi, with various lateral branches. If a short experi-
mental line is considered necessary, they advise one between
two important centres, such as Cawnpore and Allahabad, or a
shorter line between Calcutta and Barrackpore. The committee
in their report did not enter into the question of the cost of
construction of railways, or the probable remuneration, but
somewhat later, on being pressed for their opinion on these
points, reported £14,000 to £15,000 per mile, without rolling
stock, as the probable initial outlay—an estimate not very far
from the truth for the earlier broad-gauge lines; but they
declined to give an opinion on the probable returns, being
entirely without data on which to base an estimate.
Mr. Simms' suggestions for contract with railway companies,
and the report of the engineering committee, were then taken
into consideration by the Government of India. Lord Hardinge,
the Governor-General, was at the time absent from Calcutta,
the question was, therefore, discussed by the president (Sir
Herbert Mallock) and members of council. The proposal that
Government should provide land free of cost was unanimously
approved. In view of this concession it was not considered
necessary that any guarantee of interest should be offered, but
all the members were, nevertheless, agreed in the opinion that
the fullest powers of directing the construction, and controlling
the management, of all railways should remain with the Govern-
ment. Mr. Simms' proposal that railway companies should
deliver over at the termination of their lease the whole railway,
free of cost, was objected to on the obvious ground that it was
highly improbable that any projectors would agree to such an
arrangement; it was considered quite sufficient to secure to
Government the option of purchase on settled terms at the end
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of a certain period. Finally, as the conclusion of an elaborate
and forcible minute on the whole question, the president and
council considered that a long length of line from Calcutta to
Delhi should be chosen as the first line to be encouraged, and
that if an experimental length of railway was deemed neces-
sary at all, it should be one between Calcutta and Burdwan,
with a branch to Rajmahal on the Ganges.
In July 1846 the Governor-General recorded his own views in
a brief but statesmanlike minute. Lord Hardinge was disposed
to grant far more substantial encouragement to railway enter-
prise than were the president and members of his council. He
pointed out that a lease of land representing a contribution
roughly estimated at £200 a mile, to a work calculated to cost
£14,000 a mile, was totally inadequate, and he expressed his
conviction that “the speculation of the railway company (i.e.
the proposed “East Indian") will entirely fail, unless it be
largely and liberally encouraged by the East India Company.'
Enumerating the advantages and economy to Government of a
daily mail service between Calcutta and Delhi, and the impor-
tant military aspects of the question, he gave, in conclusion, his
opinion that 'on military considerations alone the grant of one
million sterling, or an annual contribution of five lakhs of
from Calcutta to Delhi, and a pecuniary saving be effected by a
diminution of military establishments.' The Governor-General,
in fact, thoroughly realised that, without some really large and
substantial assistance, it would be impossible for joint-stock
companies to raise the capital necessary to construct the great
railroads of India, although he was rightly opposed to the
2
.
of the works.
The various opinions and reports of the authorities in India
were now referred to England, and from that date commenced
a long and weary triangular duel of negotiation between the
promoters of the companies and the Honourable Court of Direc-
tors in London, and between the latter and the Commissioners
for the affairs of India, or Board of Control. These negotiations
and discussions were protracted over a period of about three
years, a delay which appears to have been almost entirely
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
307
chargeable to the parsimonious views and difficulties raised by
the Board of Control. In the final result of the struggle, during
which, on more than one occasion, the negotiations almost com-
pletely collapsed, the companies practically obtained all the
concessions for which they had so long contended, viz., an
absolute guarantee of 5 per cent. on all sums authorised to be
paid into the treasury of the East India Company, so long as
they held ownership of the railways, and repayment of the
actual capital expended on the lines, plant, and rolling stock, at
any time they pleased, on giving six months' notice of surrender.
A general understanding having been at length arrived at, pre-
liminary legal agreements were signed with the “ East Indian’
and “Great Indian Peninsula 'Railway Companies on the 17th
August 1849. The final terms of the contracts some time sub-
sequently entered into under the much abused guarantee
system,' between the Government of India and the railway
companies, may be thus briefly summarised.
1. “The design and execution of certain railroads in India are
intrusted to joint-stock companies.'
2. “The Indian Government guarantee interest on moneys
duly raised by companies and paid over to Government, control-
ling at the same time their expenditure and operations.'
The interest guaranteed was from 41 to 5 per cent, for ninety-
nine years, on all money paid with authority into the Govern-
ment Treasury. An option was given to the railway companies
to demand repayment, on six months' notice of their intention
to surrender the railway, of the whole capital duly expended
by them. The Government also agreed to leave to the railway
company, free of cost for ninety-nine years, all land required
for the permanent works of the railway, and further to provide
all other land temporarily needed for its construction.' In
return for these important and valuable concessions, the
Government retained power to supervise and control the whole
of the affairs, operations, and expenditure of the companies,
whether in India or in England; they obtained the free carriage
of mails, and the carriage of troops and military stores on
favourable terms, and the power of appointing a Government
director to sit at the boards of railway companies in England,
having a veto on all their proceedings, except certain privileged
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
communication with legal advisers. All receipts from traffic
were to be paid into the Government treasury, and all profits
above the guaranteed interest were to be divided equally
between the Government and the shareholders, until the debt
of the railway company for guaranteed interest was repaid,
after which all profits were to accrue to the shareholders.
Powers to surrender by the Company, and powers of purchase
by the Government, or to take possession in case of failure of
agreement, were also given, and the money transactions between
the contracting parties were to be calculated at the rate of ls.
10d. per rupee.
These terms, highly favourable as they undoubtedly were to
the companies, naturally removed all difficulty in obtaining
almost unlimited funds for the purposes of railway construc-
tion; and in spite of much that can be urged against them
under the results of practical working, they have had the effect
of conferring on India the inestimable indirect benefits of rail-
way communication, and inaugurating her career of material
prosperity from a much earlier date than could have been
effected by any other means.
1 The rate was varied in other contracts.
CHAPTER VII
INTRODUCTION OF RAILWAYS INTO INDIA
Introduction of railways into India (continued)—Commencement of railway con-
struction-Slow progress—Causes of delays-Discussions on fundamental
principles—Novel theories-Report and proposals by Colonel Kennedy,
R.E.-Proposed regulations-Ruling gradients and limitation of cost-
Coast and valley lines—Long discussions—Suspended system of railways--
Lord Dalhousie's exhaustive minute--Sanction accorded to line from Cal-
cutta to Delhi-Western ghat surveys ordered-Era of Indian railways
begun--Studies for the ghât ascents from Bombay-Final approval of the
Bhore and Thul ghåt proposals–Main route followed by the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway– The East Indian Railway-Experimental length of
line--Position of Calcutta—The Hooghly-Determination of the question
of standard gauge-Principal standard dimensions fixed-Government con-
trol-Consulting engineers appointed-Large powers exercised-Vexatious
delays—Parliamentary committee-Beneficial effect of report-Principal
features of the Government control-East Indian Railway-Early proposals
and particulars—The Madras Railway Company-Early history and
initiation.
We have seen that the “ East Indian Railway’emanating from Introduction
Calcutta, and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway' from of Railways
Bombay were projected and organised at about the same time."
Construction work on the section from Bombay to Callian—33
miles in length-was commenced in February 1851 as an 'ex-
perimental' line ; and a portion of this section, 20 miles in
length, from Bombay to Tanna, was opened on the 16th
April 1853, about a year and a half before the opening of the
first 37-mile experimental' section of the East Indian Rail-
way' from Calcutta to Pandua.
Rapidity, in the early construction of railways in a new
country situated as India was forty years ago, was hardly to
be expected. Practically nothing in the way of manufactured
materials or working plant was purchasable in the country;
and the engineers or contractors had to manufacture, prepare
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or collect—often from great distances--everything required,
such as bricks, stone, lime, timber, iron-work, or plant of all
kinds. At the commencement of operations, and for some
time subsequently, no trained subordinate staff existed, and
inspectors imported from England—then a vastly more distant
country than at present—were almost useless until they had
acquired some knowledge of the language, and had learned and
unlearned much new and old experience; and lastly, skilled
labour of almost every description did not exist, until in course
of time it could be trained and educated, and even ordinary
unskilled labour was difficult to secure, until full confidence in
the new employers had been gained.
Much delay was also entailed by the natural hesitation of
the chief Government authorities amidst the conflicting views
of responsible advisers, and the opening up anew of lengthy
discussions on fundamental principles, whether as guiding the
choice of route for the railways, or the actual details of con-
struction; principles, the greater number of which had already
been threshed out in the twenty years' experience of practical
railway engineers in Europe, but which were more or less
unfamiliar to many of the military engineer officers in high
authority in India, who necessarily approached the subject
from an almost purely theoretical standpoint.
That some mistakes should have been made was only what
might have been anticipated; but that errors of judgment
should have been on the whole so few, and that they should
have entailed so little ultimate loss beyond some unnecessary
delays, is a remarkable evidence of the care and skill with
which the many large-scaled problems presented by Indian
railways, were from the commencement met and overcome.
Amongst the most prominent of the many elaborate and
startling theories broached on the eve of Indian railway con-
struction, was one which emanated from Colonel Kennedy,
R.E., for a short time Consulting Engineer to the Government
of India for Railways, and subsequently Consulting Engineer
to the Bombay and Baroda Railway Company. In a report
or memorandum written at the close of the year 1851, ad-
dressed to the Honourable Court of Directors, Colonel Ken-
nedy drew up a kind of code of rules and regulations for the
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311
proposed guidance of railway authorities in India, containing
some essentially novel views and opinions, which, coming from
a man in his prominent position, necessarily demanded atten-
tion and careful consideration. Dealing first with the military
and economical aspects of the question of railways in India,
Colonel Kennedy proceeded, in twelve proposed regulations, to
lay down the broad general principles on which the whole rail-
way system of the country ought, in his opinion, to be guided,
and, in unsparing language, he condemned all that had hitherto
been done by railway engineers.
In opposition to the contemplated direct route of the “ East
Indian Railway' from Calcutta to Mirzapore, passing through
the Shergotty range of hills, and the ascent of the line of
Western ghâts by the proposed “Great Indian Peninsula Rail-
way' from Bombay, he argued in favour of a sort of Median
and Persian Government decree, that no trunk line of railway
in India should have a ruling gradient of more than 1 foot in
every 2000 feet, or 1 in 330 on secondary or branch lines ;
that no line should be undertaken which was estimated to cost
more than £5000 à mile, exclusive of bridging the larger
rivers; and in order to secure the necessary flat gradients,
and on the hasty assumption that the rivers of the country
were everywhere the main arteries of commerce, he proposed
that lines of railway should be constructed skirting the whole
coast line of India, and thence be carried all over the interior
of the country by closely following the lines of the great river
valleys. Thus the line of the 'East Indian Railway should
closely follow the course of the Ganges from Calcutta, viâ the
great bend at Rajmahal; and the line of the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway' from Bombay, instead of recklessly ascend-
ing the Western ghats on a necessarily steep and most expen-
sive alignment, should follow the natural routes to the interior
-on the north, viâ the coast line and the Tapti and Nur-
budda valleys; and on the south to Madras, viâ the coast, the
gap in the ghâts near Coimbatore, and the Kaveri valley to
the eastern coast line.
In the long discussions which followed this celebrated memo-
randum it was ultimately agreed that no such gradients as
those proposed for the trunk lines were economically feasible,
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even by following the course of the river valleys; that it was
better, in most cases, to construct a line with steep gradients
than no railway at all; that the cost of the increased length
of line necessary to secure such flat gradients would be greater
than the cost of working the steeper grades, i.e. that a short
line with steep grades might in the majority of cases be a
cheaper line to work as well as to construct, than a longer one
with easier gradients. It was also seen, that to limit the
estimated cost of railways per mile to any rigidly fixed sum,
and that a sum altogether inadequate, would be not only
impracticable but extremely injudicious. With regard to the
recommended coast and river valley scheme of railways for
all India, it was opposed, that not only would the coast lines
cross the whole drainage of the country at its largest point,
and be the most expensive to construct, but would also com-
mercially and politically be the most useless, and everywhere in
direct competition with sea-borne traffic. It was shown that
in every country it is necessary that railways should be laid
out with reference to the distribution of population, and to
the general resources and necessities of the people, rather than
to the mere physical characteristics of its geography, and with
reference to the greatest political and commercial advantages,
than with a mere view to easy gradients, however desirable
these might be when readily obtainable. Moreover, the idea
that the great river valleys were necessarily the main arteries
of commerce, was in India—except in a few instances-shown
to be peculiarly erroneous, and that an attempt to lay down
any inflexible and rigid system of railways to cover the whole
face of the continent was both premature and unpractical.
Belonging to an entirely different category, and as a mere
curiosity, may also be mentioned the appearance-shortly
after Colonel Kennedy's noted memorandum—of a book written
by a Colonel Grant, of the Bombay Engineers, to prove that
the idea of laying down the permanent way of railways on the
surface of the ground was utterly inapplicable under the con-
ditions and circumstances of India. He recommended, with all
seriousness, that every Indian railway should be suspended
throughout its entire length by a regular series of suspension
chains, at a minimum height of 8 feet above the ground, which
TY
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
313
he considered would be ample to place it above the reach of
animals. Costly models of this unique system of railways were
even prepared and exhibited. Several other theories of equally
ingenious and erratic character had to be combated by the
infant railway system of India, much as the human child has
to undergo its regular course of infantile maladies.
The twelve general rules and principles advocated by Colonel
Kennedy, although in their most essential features not adopted,
had nevertheless, the advantageous result of compelling the
close attention of the Government authorities to many matters
of the highest importance in connection with the first location
and construction of railways on a new and virgin soil, and in
this manner may possibly have hastened the arrival at precise
and definite conclusions respecting them. In the early part of
the year 1853, Lord Dalhousie, then Governor-General of India,
after having received the reports and opinions of all the various
consulting engineers and railway experts in the country, re-
viewed in a masterly minute, at once clear and exhaustive, the
whole question of railway routes for the earlier trunk lines,
and the guiding principles to be adopted on all the main
points of controversy which had been so long under discus-
sion. The recommendations formulated in this peculiarly lucid
statement, which have rendered it a justly celebrated document
in the history of Indian railways, were at once fully concurred
in by the Honourable Court of Directors in London, who were
now thoroughly alive to the vast benefits certain to ensue from
the construction of an extensive and well-planned system of
railway communication in India, carried out in a large and
liberal spirit. They accordingly, without hesitation, gave their
assent to the immediate commencement of a line from Calcutta
by the Ganges valley to Delhi. With regard to the railway
from Bombay, they directed that surveys for the several ghât
pressed their willingness to sanction the prosecution of a line
from Madras to Bombay viâ Cuddapah and Bellary, as well
as certain other proposed lines, should the result of the surveys
prove satisfactory.
From this date, viz., the latter end of the year 1853, the era
of Indian railways may be considered as really begun. The
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
line of the East Indian,' from Calcutta towards the Upper
Provinces, was fairly launched on its long journey. The “Great
Indian Peninsula ’ had opened its first section of iron-road to
Tannah, in the direction of Callian and the ghâts, and the
minds of all those responsible for the interests and well-being
of India had now fully recognised the importance as well as
the practicability of an extended system of railways in that
country, and were actively engaged in the solution of its many
initial problems. The infant line from Bombay had, however,
stopped short at the foot of stupendous difficulties, and had
yet to pass through some period of painful struggle before
the path of its further progress could be cleared.
Mr. Clerk, who, as we have seen, ten years before, when
working in connection with the then-called “Great Eastern
Railway,' had advocated the surmounting of the Western ghats
by two routes, in the main identical with those subsequently
adopted, appears, on detailed investigation, to have been daunted
by the formidable character of the difficulties his proposals
would involve. In the year 1847, we find him arrived at the
conclusion that the Thull and Bhore ghâts were virtually im-
practicable for railway purposes, and advocating in their stead
a single passage at a point situated about mid-way between the
two, by a route known as the Malsej ghat, with a bifurcation
of the line at some point above, instead of below the line of
ghâts. This route was the one at first contemplated by the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company, into which the
“Great Eastern 'had in the meantime merged, and was, more-
over, the one generally agreed to by Government, and was
incorporated in the first agreement entered into with the
company in 1849.
In the year 1850, Mr. James Berkeley, C.E., who was ap-
pointed chief engineer to the company, entered upon a detailed
examination of the Malsej ghat route, and soon came to the
conclusion that the difficulties of carrying a railway by that
line were practically insuperable, and that on commercial
grounds it would be injudicious; he, therefore, turned his
attention to the abandoned routes via the Thull and Bhore
ghâts. These ghâts—the first to the north-east, the second
to the south-east of Bombay—were each already occupied by
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
315
ordinary roads. In the early part of the century, under the
orders of the great Duke of Wellington, a track, passable by
artillery, had been formed up the Bhore ghất, leading towards
Poona, and in the year 1830 this track had been re-made, and
improved into a cart-road, which was still in use as a trade
route to the Deccan. Under the orders of the Bombay Govern-
ment, a few years before the era of railways, an excellent
road for wheeled vehicles had also been carried up the Thull
ghất, and this road was now used for the mails, and formed
the only serviceable trade route to the districts of Candeish.
By the year 1852, Mr. Berkeley had traced and laid out a
series of inclines by both these ghâts, which promised an
eventual alignment for the railway, which, although severe,
would be suitable for locomotives. In view, however, of the
enormous difficulties that would in any case be involved, and
more especially owing to the whole question of economical rail-
way construction having been opened up by Colonel Kennedy's
memorandum, the Government of India hesitated to commit
itself to a definite decision as to the best north-eastern route
to be followed by the Great Indian Peninsula trunk line, until
further exhaustive studies and surveys were made, or until it
valley to Candeish--enabling the ghât ascent to be avoided
altogether—was economically undesirable. With regard to the
south-eastern route towards Poona and Madras, it was acknow-
ledged that some ghât ascent was inevitable, but it was directed
that further search should be made to discover, if possible, an
easier route than that by the Bhore ghất. These instructions
having been received, active steps to prosecute the surveys
ordered were at once taken.
During their prosecution, however, the chief engineer of the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway continued with unremitting
care and industry his study of the Thull and Bhore ghât in-
clines. His survey of the proposed Tapti valley route enabled
him to demonstrate, first, that it would, to the same fixed point
in Candeish, require 131 miles of additional railway, and that
it would cost over a million sterling more to execute than
that viâ the Thull ghất, besides the saving in time, working
expenses, and the additional profits ensured by the shorter
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
alignment, which, moreover, had the advantage of following
the existing and natural trade route. He showed, also, that a
perfectly practicable series of inclines suitable for locomotives
was obtainable both by the Thull and Bhore ghâts, and that
as all the heavy goods traffic from the Deccan districts would
be in the downward direction towards Bombay, the ghât
inclines would be in favour, rather than adverse, to the
working of the line.
It was not, however, until the end of the year 1854 that all
objection to the Bhore ghất route was withdrawn, and until the
following year that the Thull ghất proposals were agreed to,
the approval of the Honourable Court of Directors to the latter
not being recorded until the 31st January 1856, by which time
it was finally decided to proceed with both these prodigious
engineering undertakings. It will thus be seen that a very
considerable period of time was expended in a thorough
examination and investigation of the Syhadree range. What-
ever portion of this long delay may be fairly debited to
the hesitation of the Government, Bombay at least had the
satisfaction of knowing that no exertions had been spared to
prove that the earlier decisions arrived at by the company's
engineers were thoroughly sound and practical.
The ultimate main line routes followed by the Great Indian
separating the island of Bombay from the island of Salsette,
and across the arm of the sea separating the latter from
the mainland of the Concan, the early experimental line,
334 miles in length, which was completed and opened for
traffic in 1854, arrives at Callian. From Callian two lines
diverge--one north-east, surmounts the Thull ghất, and pro-
ceeds to Bhusaval, from whence again two lines diverge, one
extending to Jubbulpore, where it joins a branch of the East
Indian Railway from Allahabad, and one to Nagpur, the capital
of the Central Provinces. The second line diverging from
Callian, mounts to the Deccan high lands by the Bhore ghất,
and proceeds to Poona, Sholapore, and Raichore, where it
joins the Madras Railway. The total length of the Great
Indian Peninsula system is 12881 miles. In the year 1863,
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
552 miles were open for traffic, and by the year 1870 the
system was complete approximately to its present dimensions.
It is now necessary to turn our attention to the fortunes of
the 'East Indian ’ Railway, starting from Calcutta. We have
seen that a preliminary agreement was entered into with this
company on the 17th August 1849, but that it was not until
the latter part of the year 1853_after Lord Dalhousie's cele-
brated minute—that the Honourable Court of Directors gave
their final and unhesitating assent to the construction of the
line the whole way to Delhi. In accordance with the early
idea that it would be desirable, in the first instance, to construct
a short length of railway in Bengal for the purposes of experi-
ment (an idea also extended to each of the other Presidencies),
the length from Calcutta to Burdwan, with a branch to Rajmahal
on the Ganges, had been recommended as a suitable one for the
purpose. On the signing of the agreement in 1849, it was
proposed to construct a single line to Raneegunge, a point
short distance beyond Burdwan, and on the line of direct route
towards Mirzapore and Delhi; the object being the opening up
of this rich mineral district. In July 1850, Lord Dalhousie
sanctioned the construction of the experimental line as far as
Pandua, 37 miles in length, with works for a double line of
rails, and recommended its extension to the Raneegunge coal-
fields. In the same year the detailed surveys were put in hand,
and the first section of land was made over in January 1851,
when construction work on the experimental line actually.
commenced.
The capital city of India is situated on the left bank of the
Hooghly tidal-channel, and any line of railway starting from it
in the direction of Burdwan and Delhi would immediately
have to cross this channel, an obstacle of considerable magni-
tude. Opposite Calcutta the Hooghly has a stream some 1700
feet broad, with a maximum depth of 40 feet below low-water,
a tidal rise of 20 feet, with a very rapid flood velocity, and
unusual difficulties in the formation of convenient railway
approaches. It is probable that if capital had from the begin-
ning been raised for the construction of the whole long length
of 1017 miles to Delhi, the advantages of locating the terminus
un
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III
II
318
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of the line on the Calcutta side of the Hooghly would have
overweighed the large, although in this case relatively small, ex-
pense of erecting a bridge over that channel, but for the purposes
of a short experimental length of line with a capital of a million
pounds only, it was plainly inadmissible; so that after some
discussion of alternative proposals it was decided to commence
the railway at Howrah, a suburb of Calcutta, situated on the
right bank of the Hooghly opposite the city, communication
being maintained by means of a steam ferry.
It became necessary somewhat before this time to finally
decide upon the important question of standard gauge to be
adopted for Indian railways. Mr. Simms, the consulting
engineer to the Government of India, sent out by the Court of
Directors in 1845, is said to have been the author of the 5 feet
6-inch gauge actually adopted, and it is probable that this
particular width was selected merely. as a convenient mean
between the ordinary 4 feet 81-inch and the 7 feet gauges then
in use in England, and as a dimension giving more space for
locomotive machinery and admitting more comfort in passenger
carriages, than it was thought could be conveniently attained on
the ordinary narrow gauge. The full bearings of the question
of width of gauge for railways was at this early period imper-
fectly apprehended, and the decision arrived at was undoubtedly
an unfortunate one, since there can be little question that, had
the now fixed English standard been at first adopted, the rail-
way system of India would have been spared whatever disad-
gauge.
In the year 1856 the principal standard dimensions of road-
way and rolling stock to be henceforth adopted, and strictly
adhered to on Indian railway lines of the 5 feet 6-inch gauge,
was definitely fixed by mutual agreement among the consulting
engineers to each of the Indian railway companies, and was
approved by Government. The extreme importance of a rigid
uniformity in this respect, the want of proper attention to
which had already occasioned, and still continues to occasion,
much inconvenience on English railways, was thus early recog-
nised in India, and the same principle of strict adherence to
well-formulated standard dimensions, was also observed in the
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
319
case of the narrow-gauge lines subsequently introduced. As a
consequence of this timely forethought, there is now probably
no large system of railways in the world superior to that of
India in respect of this important matter. The leading dimen-
sions for railways of the 5 feet 6-inch gauge, fixed in the year
1856, were as follows :-
. . .
Ft. Ins.
Minimum clear width between two tracks, . . 6 0
Minimum distance of platform-wall from rail, . . 2 6
Projection of nosing not to exceed .
. 0 3
Minimum clear height for all openings above rail in
centre of each line, . .
. . 14 6
Breadth from centre to centre of buffers, . . 6 5
Height of centre of buffers above rail-surface, . . 3 .6
Extreme width of body of passenger-carriage, . . 8 6
» » roof
» . . 8 10
steps 2
. 10 0
Maximum length between centres of wheels (all vehicles) 11 0
Minimum diameter of turn-tables, ..
· 15 0
» » of engine-tables, .
. 40 0
· · · .
ooooooooooo
· ·
Detailed lists and diagrams of maximum and minimum
dimensions for all fixed structures, both inside and outside
station limits, and of rolling stock, were also elaborated at a
very early period, and have since been strictly enforced by the
consulting engineers to Government for railways.
It has been shown, that from the earliest inception of rail-
ways for India, both the Honourable Court of Directors and the
Indian authorities were thoroughly alive, not only to the import-
ance but to the absolute necessity of retaining in the hands of
the Government of the country, the fullest powers of control
over all the proceedings and operations of the joint-stock com-
panies proposing to undertake the construction of railways.
Under the contracts entered into with the companies, and in
exchange for the liberal terms offered, the Government, in fact,
secured this control to an almost unlimited extent, whether as
regards the supervision, expenditure, and staff of the companies
during the construction of the lines, or after their opening for
traffic. In England, as we have seen, a Government director
was appointed to sit on the board of guaranteed railway com-
panies, having a veto on all their proceedings, except certain
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
privileged communications with legal advisers. In India, the
large powers of control admitted by the contracts were at first
exercised directly by the Government acting on the advice of a
specially appointed consulting engineer conversant with rail-
way practice, but as the multitudinous business connected with
the early lines increased, and the constant reference of matters
of detail to the supreme government became needlessly cum-
brous, separate consulting engineers were appointed to each
local government, and subsequently to special railway divisions,
intrusted with large discretionary powers, which, however, they
exercised under general rules and regulations laid down for
their guidance. These rules and regulations were supple-
mented as need arose from time to time, and it was laid down
that certain matters of general importance were to be specially
referred to the Government of India for decision.
The officers appointed for the discharge of these important
functions, requiring in their dealings with the officials of the
companies, great tact, judgment, and professsional ability,
were for the most part, or entirely, selected from the corps of
Royal Engineers. The system when at first established seems,
as might be expected, to have worked with some degree of
friction. Relative responsibility was, in fact, very ill defined.
In constructional matters all initiation, both of design and
estimate of works, was in the hands of the engineers of the rail-
way; but these could execute nothing without the express
approval of the Government officers, on whom, without any
powers of origination of their own, was thrown a very large
responsibility. The consulting engineers, themselves the agents
of a higher authority, could obviously act only on reasonably
full and detailed information, not always forthcoming in the
particular shape demanded, and it could hardly be otherwise
but that the procedure at starting should in some cases have
led to vexations and delays, responsibility for which both sides
considered themselves in a position to repudiate. The Govern-
ment consulting officers in the early days of railways, although
often men of great judgment and administrative ability, were
rarely equal to the companys' engineers in practical experience
of constructional details, whilst the latter were probably unduly
impatient of a control and criticism, and of opinions which,
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
321
rightly or wrongly, they supposed to be frequently based on too
purely theoretical grounds.
In the year 1857-58, a parliamentary committee was
appointed to inquire into the causes of some delays which
were alleged to have occurred in the prosecution of railway
enterprise in India, and the whole subject of the special
machinery for the exercise of the large powers of Government
control given by the contracts was incidentally, but most care-
fully, at the same time, gone into. With regard to this parti-
cular detail of the inquiry, the substance of the report of the
committee was, that up to that time the progress of railways
under construction in India bore favourable comparison with
that of English lines, that willing testimony had been given by
many of the railway authorities themselves to the value of the
Government control to the interests of the companies, when
rationally and temperately used, and that 'if due care was
taken to intrust discretionary power only to men who are to be
relied on as competent to distinguish an effective general con-
trol, from too great an interference in details, by a judicious
adherence to the spirit rather than the letter of the contracts,"
the committee was assured that the arrangements might be
simplified, united action for one common object secured, and
railway enterprise in India may before long assume proportions
commensurate with the vast commercial, agricultural, and
mineral resources of that country.'
This report had an immediate beneficial effect, and brought
about not only a more patient acceptance by the companies of
the conditions imposed by the contract terms, but helped to
promote a greater mutual confidence and respect for opinion
on both sides. The companies' officers, as time went on, were
led to comply more strictly with the reasonable requirements of
the consulting engineers in respect of the fuller and more
detailed preparation of designs and estimates prior to submission
for approval, and the latter, soon gaining a wider practical
experience of the detailed construction and working of rail-
ways, were induced to exercise their large powers in a broad
and liberal spirit.
The control exercised in India by the consulting engineers
to Government for railways over the whole expenditure and
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
TS
)
u
operations of the guaranteed companies, has undoubtedly had
the most beneficial results in safeguarding the general interests
of the Indian public, and securing, at the same time, the ultimate
interests of the railway shareholders themselves ; and in conse-
quence of the almost absolute nature of the control exercised
from the commencement by one central governing authority,
the Indian railway system, considered as a whole, has been spared
many of the now almost incurable evils which, especially in
England and America, has resulted from the enormous powers
which have been allowed to fall into the hands of the great
railway corporations.
In relation to the construction of the guaranteed lines of
railway, the principal features of the control exercised by the
Indian Government, either directly or through their consulting
engineers, may be thus briefly summarised : The final decision
as to the direction and course to be taken by the railways, the
position of all the more important stations, and other large
works. The preliminary approval of all designs, estimates, and
indents whatsoever, whether for works or establishments. In
the case of completed lines, the absolute control over all capital
expenditure, and powers of supervision and regulation of every
detail of engineering expenditure or traffic-working of the rail-
way. Special powers are also conferred on the consulting
engineers for Indian railways to examine into and report on all
cases of accident and injury, whether to life or property, within
the railway boundaries. To minutely inspect in the closest
detail, every half year, the working condition of every line of rail-
way in their special circle of authority, and report on all matters
requiring attention, whether as regards the safety of the line or
passengers, the convenience of the public, or the well-being of
the company's staff. To inspect, prior to opening for passenger
traffic, every new line of railway, or additions to older lines, and
to subject at any time to such tests as may be deemed neces-
sary the strength and stability of all bridges, whether perma-
nent or temporary, whether new or old.
It is now necessary to return to the East Indian Railway.
The construction of the experimental line, 120 miles long,
through Burdwan to the Raneegunge coal-fields, encountered
to the full all those ordinary difficulties and delays inseparable
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
323
from the initiation of large and novel engineering operations in
a new country; but in addition, the rapid prosecution of the
works was greatly affected by the refusal of large and competent
contractors to undertake contracts on the terms at that time
held reasonable by the governing authorities. The works were
therefore, for the inost part, let to a number of small and in-
experienced local contractors, under agreements which were
also, perhaps, somewhat hastily entered into. It was not, con-
sequently, until September 1854, or at the end of 3 years and
9 months from the commencement of the works, that the first
section of the experimental line from Howrah to Pandua, 37
miles in length, was opened for public traffic, or until February
1855 that the whole 120 miles to a point near Raneegunge
coal-fields was completed and opened.
During the course of this interval the original contract with
the “ East Indian Railway Company' for the experimental line,
had been superseded by a larger one for the construction of a
railroad the whole way to Delhi. The original proposal of the
company had been to construct a main line from Calcutta by
the direct route to Mirzapore, passing through the Shergotty
hills and on to Delhi, with branches to Rajmahal, Patna, and
Benares, thus avoiding altogether the Ganges valley east of
Mirzapore. Owing principally, however, to Colonel Kennedy's
powerful advocacy of river valley routes and flat gradients at
this time, and partly on local commercial considerations, the
alignment eventually chosen for the main line was that viâ the
Ganges valley, from Burdwan, through Rajmahal and Patna,
a decision which, when later it became a question of doubling
the track on this route, led to the construction, as a preferable
alternative, of a chord line, with double line of rails passing over
a part of the hilly districts, in order to shorten by 64 miles the
total length of the through route to the Upper Provinces, and
to traverse a valuable coal district. It is probable also that, to
still further shorten the through route, the originally projected
alignment through the Shergotty hills will eventually be con-
structed.
The length of the extension from Burdwan to Delhi by the
Ganges valley, or loop line, first decided upon, was 930 miles,
and the contract with the company for its construction was
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.
signed on the 15th February 1854; but some time before this
date preliminary sanction to the acquisition of land, and the
commencement of the works, had been accorded. From the
year 1853, therefore, the construction of the railway along the
extension to Delhi continued in active progress for many years,
interrupted only for a short time by the Sepoy mutiny ; until
the last remaining link of the magnificent trunk line extending
over 1000 miles in length, from the new to the old capital of
India, viz. the fine bridge over the Jumna at Delhi, was com-
pleted in the year 1866.
The East Indian Railway system of lines and branches has
now grown to a total length of 15251 miles. Besides the
chord-line with double line of rails, constructed to avoid pass-
ing the through traffic by the great loop of the Ganges valley
at Rajmahal, and numerous short branches, a long branch of
225 miles, starting from Allahabad, effects a junction with the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway'at Jubbulpore, and thus links
the important Presidency capitals of Bombay and Calcutta in
continuous railway communication.
As early as the year 1845 the “Madras Railway Company'
was formed in London, with the object of constructing a rail-
way almost due west from Madras, to an important commercial
centre at Arcot, but being unable to obtain any pecuniary con-
cession, the company was shortly afterwards dissolved. In the
year 1849 the project was again revived, and application was
made for a concession on terms similar to that granted to the
* East Indian' and “Great Indian Peninsula 'Railways; the pro-
posal was, however, rejected at that time, and the project was
consequently again shelved.
Soon afterwards, however, surveys and projects for various
alternative lines of railway in the Madras Presidency were
made, and in 1852 a preliminary contract, with guarantee, was
entered into with the “Madras Railway Company. The first
portion of line sanctioned as an experiment' was one from
Madras to Menil, a distance of 50 miles, a line which it was
considered would be common to other railways leading towards
Madras from the north-west and west. This length was com-
menced in the year 1853, but before much progress had been
effected, an extension of the line to Beypore, a small port on the
1
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325
opposite western coast, was sanctioned ; the contract with the
Company being signed in December 1855. The first section of
the Madras-Beypore railway, 64 miles in length, was opened on
the 1st July 1856, and from Arconum, a point situated 42
miles from Madras, a trunk railway was afterwards constructed
in a north-westerly direction through Cuddapah to Raichore,
effecting a junction at that place with the Great Indian
Peninsula line coming from Bombay. The complete connection
by railway of the Presidency towns of Bombay and Madras,
although it had been early recognised as of Imperial importance,
was, however, delayed for some years, partly owing to financial
exigencies arising from the Mutiny, and partly to prolonged
discussions and surveys of the various alternative routes pro-
posed for the connecting line.
CHAPTER VIII
EAST INDIAN 'RAILWAY AND HOOGHLY BRIDGE
Progress of Railways-Peculiarities of construction in India-Relative value of
land-Labour facilities Manual labour~Small number of over and under
bridges-Level crossings, and employment of small bridges and culverts for
cross traffic—The large use of iron on Indian railways—India the country of
large girder bridges--Methods of founding piers and abutments—Foundation
well-sinking of native origin-Description of well-sinking--Erection of iron
girder superstructures-Outline description of works on the East Indian
Railway—Flood-openings and bridges on the first section-Monghyr tunnel
-Route followed by line-Bridge over the Sone river-Description of works
-Interruption by mutineers—Tonse bridge-Jumna bridge at Allahabad
-Delhi Jumna bridge-Detailed description of recent bridge over the
Hooghly near Calcutta–Sinking the pier caissons-Accident-Erection of
superstructure-Completion General particulars of East Indian railway.
East Indian We have now traced in outline the history and fortunes of the
Railway and three earliest trunk lines of railway projected and constructed
Hooghly
Bridge.
in India. Inaugurated by the opening of the first 20 miles of
the Great Indian Peninsula line in the year 1853, the railway
system of the country has since steadily expanded, until 40
public traffic has reached little short of 17,000 miles, constructed
at a capital expenditure amounting to some 227 millions
sterling.
The practical construction of railways in India varies little in
general methods from those practised in other countries. The
leading principles of ordinary railway construction have been
already sketched in previous chapters, it will not, therefore, be
now necessary to do more than indicate such minor points of
difference in constructive details as may be more or less peculiar
to the circumstances of India. First then, owing to the
generally level character of the country-especially - in the
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327
.
TA .
.
!
1
northern plains of Hindustan—the permanent way of railways
is carried for the most part on embankment of moderate height,
cuttings being of generally rare occurrence. In the construction
of earthworks,' which form so large an item in the “formation'
of a railway, it is seldom economical or necessary in India to
transport soil from one part of the line to another, such as
leading or carrying by mechanical means material from cuttings
for the building up of embankments. The relative value of
land is so small, and labour facilities so great, that, as a rule,
the cheapest manner of throwing up embankments is to
employ manual labour in obtaining the necessary material from
side-cuttings excavated along the sides of the railway, and in
the few cases where cuttings occur to place most of the ex-
cavated material to spoil. The side-cuttings are shallow
detached pits dug parallel with the course of the line, outside
the boundary of the permanent land occupied by it. In the
more hilly portions of the country through which a railway may
be carried, and where more numerous cuttings will necessarily
occur, the method of forming the earthworks will still be de-
pendent on economy as governed by the values of land and
labour. For the most part, therefore, in India the formation
earthworks of a line of railway are carried out by direct manual
methods without, as a rule, the intervention of such aids as 'tip'
wagons and other mechanical appliances, all the earth or
material being brought or removed by large bodies of men,
women, and children, in small baskets carried on their heads.
This manner of working, however primitive in appearance, is
in practice found to be speedy and efficient, as well as eco-
nomical, wherever a large quantity of labour can be engaged, as
is commonly the case.
The generally level character of the country-combined with
the comparative rarity of ordinary cross-country roads, and
the relatively small number of trains run, prevents also in
India the necessity for those numerous over and under bridges
intersecting a line of railway so common on European lines.
Such bridges except in the immediate neighbourhood of large
towns—are accordingly of rare occurrence, and cross-country roads
or tracks are for the most part passed over the lines of rail by
means of crossings on the level, gates and a hut or lodge for the
IS
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
gatekeeper being provided at all vehicle crossings. The rail-
ways, as we have seen, are largely carried on embankment, and
the numerous drainage under bridges crossing the smaller water-
courses, being usually dry for a considerable portion of the year,
can be and are, largely utilised as cross-passages for foot-
passengers, cattle, and even for the ordinary vehicular traffic of
the country districts.
The use of iron in the construction of railways is probably
more largely resorted to in India than in many countries.
Sleepers’ of cast-iron, wrought-iron, or steel are greatly used
as a substitute for wood, owing to climatic conditions rendering
the softer kinds of wood sleepers liable to rapid decay, and to
. the difficulty of procuring seasoned hard-wood sleepers in suf-
ficient quantity. Although the advantage and economy of
masonry structures is fully recognised, iron and steel is also used
to a very large extent for the superstructure of railway bridges,
not only in those cases where the unavoidable size of opening
renders its use imperative, but to a considerable degree in cases
where in other countries stone or brick archwork would be pre-
ferred. In many parts of India either stone cannot be econo-
mically procured, or good brick-earth is difficult to obtain, or
it may otherwise be that the conditions of sub-soil for founda-
tion purposes are not suitable for arched structures. Iron or
steel bridges of large average size are imposed by the magnitude
and conditions of the numerous great rivers of the country, and
India is consequently, in a pre-eminent degree, the land of heavy
iron bridgework for railway purposes. The foundations of
many of these large iron structures present some peculiarities
which may be here noted.
The most usual method of founding the abutments and piers
of large bridges in the sandy beds-extending often to un-
known depths of the great rivers of the Indian plains is by
sinking cylinders, or wells, of brickwork, either singly or in
groups, on which the pier superstructures are built; or by
sinking the whole pier of an elliptical or other form by means
of well-openings or chambers provided in the mass of the
masonry. This system is one which is an improved and highly-
developed adaptation of old native methods practised in India
for centuries in the past. Nearly all the ancient bridges of
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
329
Upper India, and even in the more remote regions beyond its
boundary, were founded on brick cylinders sunk into the sandy
beds of the rivers. English engineers, recognising its suitability,
have reduced the practice of foundation well-sinking to a highly-
developed art, and have introduced numerous mechanical con-
trivances and expedients for rapidly sinking the cylinders to
great depths, but the principle is one entirely derived from
native sources. In these wells the brickwork is commenced on
timber, or more usually on wrought-iron, curbs of great
strength, suspended by vertical tie-rods, passing through iron
rings inserted at intervals in the masonry. In the case of cir-
cular wells the internal diameter is generally about half the
external diameter, so that the thickness of the brickwork will
be a quarter of the whole width. The sand or other material
inet with in sinking is gradually withdrawn through the central
hollow of the well by means of suitable mechanical dredgers of
various kinds, assisted on occasion by divers working under
the water; and after the sinking has been carried to a certain
depth—usually about one to two diameters—the wells are
loaded with a heavy weight, such as iron rails or bricks stacked
upon them, in order to overcome the side friction of the
cylinders. These foundation-wells are frequently forced down
to great depths, such as 80 to 100 feet, and reaching even 140
feet. When the sinking to the desired depth is complete, the
interior space (or spaces) is sealed at the bottom with a certain
thickness of cement concrete deposited in the water ; the latter
is then removed, and the remaining hollow portion is plugged
with ordinary concrete or brickwork. Undue scour at the site
of the piers is checked by the deposition of large masses of
rough stone of great size and weight thrown round them. As
the rivers, especially in Upper India, contain little water in the
dry season, it is at this period that most of the well-sinking is
carried on, and the protective stone is deposited; the latter
work being often continued for several seasons, or for such time
as may be necessary to replace the rough stone which gradually
sinks below the bed during the seasons of flood. During the
dry months of the year bridge foundation-wells can largely be
pitched directly in position on the exposed surface of the river-
bed, but where the operation has to be executed in water of
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PUBLIC WORKS. OF INDIA
more or less considerable depth, the foundation blocks are
commenced in iron caissons, of varying height to suit the depth
of the water, and numerous variations may occur in the special
means employed for forcing the wells through the sand or soil
of the bed below.
The particular methods adopted for erecting the iron girder
superstructures of large bridges have little or no distinctive
features in India; these methods, there as elsewhere, are depen-
dent on numerous special or local conditions. Where the
height of the work and circumstances of the river admit, the
most usual arrangement is to construct between the piers a
timber staging of sufficient strength to carry temporarily the
weight of the ironwork until it is erected in place piece by
piece. In cases where the erection of staging in the river-bed
is inadmissible, various other expedients have to be adopted,
some of which will be detailed in the examples of particular
bridges which follow.
With the exception of a remarkable bridge erected in recent
years over the Hooghly channel of the Ganges, the East Indian
Railway from Calcutta to Delhi contains no example of
engineering construction of the first order of magnitude, but
probably few lines can exhibit a greater aggregate number of
difficult undertakings, such as in any other country but India
would be considered works of a large and important character.
The first division of the railway from Howrah to Burdwan, and
northwards to Rajmahal and the Ganges valley, traverses a low
portion of deltaic land, subject to extreme inundation from the
water-system of the country, where the drainage problems to be
encountered and solved by the engineers of the railway were of
exceptional and extraordinary magnitude. Over this wide
expanse of level country, subject to an excessive tropical rain-
fall, inundations from the flood-spill of the enormous channel
of the Ganges and other great rivers, are often spread as a
vast sheet over miles of country, converting the whole district
into the semblance of an inland sea, from which only the
inhabited villages along the higher marginal levels emerge.
The formation of long lines of railway embankment, checking
the free movement of this expanse of waters, necessitated the
provision of an extraordinary number of flood-openings, built
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
331
in a peculiarly treacherous soil—having a total area of water-
way sufficient to allow the free passage, concentrated at certain
definite lower levels, of huge volumes of flood-water, which
formerly wandered unrestricted over many miles of country.
In addition to these numerous flood-openings, entirely confined
to the disposal of the inundations from the main rivers, the
course of the East Indian Railway along the low-lying portions
of the Ganges valley necessitated the crossing at their widest
points of an unusually large number of important channels and
broad deep rivers, requiring bridges or viaducts of heavy
dimensions : such were the viaducts over the rivers Adjai and
Mor, the first spanned by 32 brick arches, each of 50 feet, and
the second by 24 arches of the same size ; the Dwarka and
Brahmini bridges of 7 and 9 girder spans of 60 feet; the latter
having 7 masonry arches of 24 feet in prolongation, and the
Pugla bridge of 25 spans of 28 feet, and 4 of 60 feet girders,
together with a succession of others of scarcely inferior opening.
The total length and area of waterway in viaducts, bridges,
culverts, and flood-openings along this portion of the East
Indian Railway is probably greater than on any equal length
of line in existence. The foundations of these structures, and
generally of all similar constructions on this side of India, were
formed by sinking blocks of masonry perforated with holes or
wells, through which the soft alluvial soil and sand below the
blocks was withdrawn by means of dredging instruments, the
sinking being continued until a bed of clay was met with ; or
failing this, until a depth was reached considered sufficient to
place the foundation beyond the reach of scour.
After passing the bend of the Ganges at Rajmahal the rail-
way is carried on the higher marginal land between the river
and the inundated districts situated on a lower level than the
river-bed, crossing all the numerous intersecting channels, and
requiring much heavy earthworks and bridge and flood-arch
construction ; the larger bridges here consisting of from 3 to
7 openings of 60 feet girders. Near Monghyr occurs the only
example of a tunnel on the East Indian Railway. This tunnel,
through the last spurs of the Kymore hills, is of short length ;
being only 900 feet long, pierced through 600 feet of clay slate,
about 500 feet of which required brick-lining, and 300 feet of
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
quartz rock of exceptional hardness. A short distance beyond
Monghyr the line encounters severe obstacles. Here a large
portion of the accumulated flood-spill of the Ganges passes
through a gap in the marginal bank of the river, and during
the season of floods the whole country is often under water to
a depth of 8 or 10 feet. Through the opening two rivers of
considerable magnitude also pass, viz., the Keeul and the
Hulohar. In order to carry the line onwards, no less than 630
flood arches, each 15 feet span, were required. The Keeul
river was spanned by 9 girder openings of 150 feet, and the
Hulohar by 4 spans of similar size, the piers and abutments
being founded on brick-wells of 10 feet and 20 feet diameter,
sunk from 25 to 45 feet into the river-bed. Altogether-
including flood-openings—to pass this gap no less than 11,400
lineal feet, or over two miles, of waterway was provided. The
original Bengal section of the East Indian Railway, from
Burdwan viâ Rajmahal to the border of the Bengal province
at the Kurumassa river, is 4161 miles long. The construction
of this difficult length involved not far short of 1000 millions
of cubic feet, or 37 million cubic yards, of earthworks, and
nearly 40 millions of cubic feet, or a million and a half of cubic
yards, of brickwork, of which latter 87 millions of cubic feet
were situated in one short length of 21 miles.
The above examples, out of a large number that might have
been quoted, will serve as an illustration of the extraordinary
character and nature of the drainage difficulties encountered by
the East Indian Railway along the lower portion of the Ganges
valley. It was hardly to be expected that, nearly forty years
ago, railway engineers, fresh from England, and working under
an entirely novel set of conditions, should at once have fully
grasped the exceptional nature of the problems presented, in
providing for the efficient drainage of a line of railway in such
a district as Bengal. The experience of the first few years cor-
rected numerous initial mistakes, and supplemented insufficient
precautions. In many cases bridges as at first designed
proved far too small, and had to be extensively enlarged, a
quantity of additional flood-openings had to be provided, and
foundations injured or undermined by the force and volume of
the pent-up floods had to be strengthened and secured. The
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
333
I
treacherous nature of the subsoil of the Ganges valley as a
foundation for arched structures was moreover at first imperfectly
realised, and much reconstruction and replacement of brick
arches by iron girders, was from time to time rendered
necessary.
Leaving the Province of Bengal, the line of the East Indian
Railway proceeds to Moghul Serai, a junction station for
Benares, and to Allahabad, where it crosses the Jumna river by
a magnificent bridge, and throws off a long branch to the
Jubbulpore terminus of the line from Bombay. From Allaha-
bad the main road is carried in nearly a straight line to Cawn-
pore (finally leaving the neighbourhood of the Ganges at that
place) and across the Ganges Jumna Doab to a point within
thirteen miles of Agra, to which town a branch line now extends.
Hence by the left bank of the Jumna the line is carried to
Delhi, where it crosses to the right bank of the river and enters
the city. Excluding the recently erected bridge over the
Hooghly channel near Calcutta, the four principal bridges on
the original main line of the East Indian Railway are those
over the Sone river, the Tonse, the Jumna at Allahabad, and
the same river again at Delhi. The first and last two of these
bridges are remarkably fine structures, and are only dwarfed by
a few more modern examples of bridgework situated on other
lines.
The bridge over the Sone river merits somewhat detailed
notice, as the first example of those large iron railway bridges
now so numerous in India. It was begun in the year 1856,
and was finished at the close of the year 1862, its progress
having been seriously interrupted by the Sepoy Mutiny of
1857. The total length of this fine structure is 4731 feet or
{ths of a mile, and it consists of 28 decked spans of 150 feet, or
162 feet from centre to centre of piers, which are each 12 feet
thick, carried on three brick wells of 18 feet diameter, sunk to
a depth of 32 feet below low-water into a stiff bed of yellow
clay. The following account of this interesting bridge is much
abridged from a work on the railways of India, compiled from
the Records of the India Office, and published in the year 1868
by Captain Davidson, R.E.a work to which this volume is
greatly indebted for much information on the earlier railway
334
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
lines in India. The Sone river, rising in the elevated districts
of Central India, traverses the plains of South Behar, and dis-
charges itself into the Ganges, near Patna, after draining an
area of nearly 23,000 square miles. Its extreme discharge in
floods is said to be about 1 million of cubic feet per second.
The chief peculiarity of the river is the great width of its
channel in the lower reaches. For the greater part of 100
miles it is over 2 miles wide, and reaches as much as 3 miles.
This wide expanse of bed, through which during eight or nine
months of the year only a narrow stream meanders, consists
entirely of fine sand, appearing to the traveller like the surface
of a great sandy desert. During the season of floods, the
depth of water carried averages barely 20 feet, and it seldom
exceeds 30 feet in the deepest parts. The whole width of the
immense channel is, moreover, rarely completely covered.
After careful examination of this formidable obstacle to the
railway, a narrow point not far removed from the natural
direction of the line was selected. Here the river was only
posed of clay, a bed of clay was also found by borings to
underlie the sand across the whole width of the bed. It was
at first proposed to construct a bridge of brick arches ; but
after some discussion, it was finally decided to adopt brick
foundation-wells, with piers of similar material, used to support
a superstructure of wrought-iron girders, each of 150 feet span,
carrying the rails on the top, and having an ordinary roadway
below. The foundation of the first pier sunk in the year 1856
was composed of a group of twelve brick wells, each 10 feet in
diameter, laid close together in two rows of five, with addi-
tional wells at either end for the cutwaters. Initial work on
the bridge was well in hand, when in July 1857 the native
regiments at Dinapore mutinied, and marching towards the
west, overran the works. “The resident engineers, their wives
and children, together with inspectors and overseers and their
families, escaped in the iron boats belonging to the railway
company to Dinapore, and the mutineers left nothing un-
touched that was destructable; then continuing their march
along the line they came to Arrah, where Mr. Boyle, the resi-
dent engineer, had fortified a house. To it the European
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
335
residents, 16 in number, with 45 Sikhs, retreated, and bravely
defended themselves for a week against immense odds. The
mutineers after crossing the Sone had been joined by a chief
called “Koor Singh,” and numbering about 2500, had invested
the house occupied by the residents of the civil station of
Arrah, against which they fired a field-gun which was in their
possession. The little garrison, however, bravely held the
place until relieved by a force under Major Eyre, Bengal Artil-
lery, who, marching from Buxar, defeated the rebels in an
action near the town of Arrah.
It has been estimated that the value of property destroyed
£42,000; and that the total loss from the mutiny, on all
heads of account suffered by the East Indian Railway Com-
pany, over the whole line, amounted to an equivalent of three
millions sterling.
Work at the bridge site was of course suspended, and could
not be resumed until November 1858, when operations had
practically to be commenced de novo. The design for the pier
foundations was now modified, and in place of the cluster of
small 10-feet wells originally intended, the piers were founded
on three wells, each 18 feet in diameter, built on very strong
wrought-iron curbs, having vertical iron rods attached to them
connected with horizontal rings of iron built at intervals into
the brickwork. The foundation-wells were sunk into the river-
bed to an average depth of 32 feet below low-water, entering
into a bed of stiff clay, and by the year 1860 construction work
on all the piers was in full progress. As soon as the piers were
completed, the girders were rapidly erected by the aid of a
timber staging; and the bridge was virtually finished by the
end of the year 1861, its final completion being unfortunately
delayed by the loss of certain portions of the iron work in
transit, so that it was not ready for traffic until the end of
1862. The section of main line as far as Moghul Serai, was
soon afterwards officially opened by Lord Elgin, Viceroy and
Governor-General, viz. in February 1863. The initial cost of
constructing the Sone Bridge, which was completed for a
double line of rails—including protective works—is given as
33 lakhs of rupees or £330,000 at par.
336
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ced with 12 feet in ed. The
The bridge over the Tonse river, situated in the Mirzapore
district, about 21 miles east of Allahabad, was completed in the
year 1864, and enabled the line to be opened as far as that city
on the 1st April of the same year. The bridge has seven spans
of latticed iron girders of 150 feet clear opening, and the piers
and abutments are constructed of brickwork, the cutwaters,
being faced with dressed stone, they are carried on groups of
brick wells, each 12 feet in diameter, sunk into clay at about
15 feet below the river-bed. The girders are deck-spans,
similar to those of the Sone, carrying an ordinary roadway
below. The advantage of utilising the larger railway bridges
for the double purpose of carrying an ordinary cart or foot-
road, as well as the railway, has been everywhere fully recog-
nised in India, and a small toll levied on the traffic, probably
in the majority of cases, amply repays the slight extra cost of
the provision.
At Allahabad, the East Indian Railway crosses the Jumna
river just before its junction with the Ganges, by a handsome
bridge of larger openings, and of much greater height than
that over the Sone, but of somewhat shorter total length.
The site for the bridge was fixed so early as the year 1855 ;
but owing to various causes, the design was not finally decided
upon until after the Mutiny, and actual work on it was not
commenced until the summer of 1859. The first design was
for a bridge of 15 openings, each 200 feet long; but on a
further investigation of the maximum flood discharge of the
river, one span was suppressed. The bridge, therefore, as con-
structed, consists of 14 deck spans—carrying a cart-road below
-of 200 feet each, and three small openings of 30 feet. The
piers, which are 60 feet high above low-water, are founded on
groups of twelve brick wells, each 13 feet in diameter, sunk to
an average depth below low-water of 42 feet. The average
height, therefore, of the pier masonry, from the well curbs to
the under side of the girders, is 102 feet. The total length of
the bridge, from end to end, is 3235 feet. The girders, which
are of wrought iron, and constructed for a single line only, are
of the open lattice tubular form. During the sinking of the
wells, the up-stream end of No. 11 pier was undermined by a
flood and overthrown; the overthrown portion was, however,

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RACTAY BRIDGE ACROSS THE JUMPA ALCARAGAU, 1199
TIME 199
337
337
JUMNA BRIDGE, ALLAHABAD
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by the aid of a cofferdam, reconnected with the body of the
pier, and the whole was protected against scour by a large
mass of rough stone. The total quantity of masonry and
brickwork in piers and abutments is given as 21 millions of
cubic feet (or 92,600 cubic yards); whilst at a short distance,
on the northern approach, occurs a viaduct of 24 arches of
30 feet each. The initial cost of this, the finest of the many
railway bridges over the Jumna river, was 441 lakhs of rupees,
or £445,000, and it was opened for public traffic in August
1865, permitting from that date uninterrupted communication
between Calcutta and Agra.
The important cities of Agra and Delhi are both situated
on the right bank of the Jumna, whilst the course of the rail-
way beyond Allahabad is on the left bank. Agra is ap-
proached by a branch from a junction at Tundla; and the
main line proceeds northwards to Ghazibad, from which place
it turns sharply to the west, and again crosses the Jumna
before entering the ancient city of Delhi by a bridge which is
the last of the large structures on the East Indian Railway.
The Delhi Jumna Bridge consists of twelve deck spans—with
cart-roadway below—of 2111 feet each. The piers, which are
23.1, feet high above low-water in the river, are carried on ten
brick wells, each 12 feet in diameter, disposed in two rows of
four each, with single up and down-stream wells for the cut-
waters. Both abutments and two of the piers on the Delhi
side of the river are, however, founded on rock, which occurs
at a few feet below the surface. In the case of the other piers,
the wells are carried for an average depth of 39 feet into the
river-bed into stiff clay. The total length of the bridge, which
has been constructed for a single line, is 2640 feet; and it was.
constructed at a cost of £166,000. The structure was opened
for traffic at the end of 1866, finally completing through com-
munication between Calcutta and Delhi.
It has been mentioned that on the first commencement of
the East Indian Railway in the year 1851, it was determined
-in order to postpone the construction of a railway bridge
over the Hooghly, which could not be otherwise than exceed-
ingly expensive—to establish the terminus or starting-point of
the line at Howrah, a suburb situated opposite Calcutta on

RAILWAYS IN INDIA
339
AKILWAY BRIDOC.DEL. 973
JUMNA BRIDGE, DELHI
340
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the right bank of the Hooghly tidal channel ; communication
between the city and Howrah being in the meantime main-
tained by means of a steam-ferry.
In the year 1875—to meet the growing necessities of the
Calcutta traffic-an ingeniously constructed pontoon bridge, to
carry an ordinary carriage-way, supported at an unusual eleva-
the Hooghly, and this means of communication has since con-
tinued in use, to the great convenience of the town. The
urgent need, however, of a bridge over the Hooghly capable
of sustaining a railway, remained unsatisfied until so recently
as the year 1887.
The remarkable railway bridge commenced in the year 1883-4,
and opened in the year 1887, has been constructed over the
Hooghly tidal channel at a point of the river situated 28 miles
above the pontoon bridge, which connects Calcutta with the
Howrah terminus, and by its means a junction is now effected
between the East Indian main line and the Eastern Bengal
Railway, leading into the heart of Calcutta. The bridge crosses
the river at the town of “Hooghly,' a place which, a couple of
hundred years ago, was the principal port and factory of the
British Company of Merchants in Bengal, and from which the
whole channel has taken its name. As a consequence of the
year in which the bridge was opened, viz., the 50th year of the
reign of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, Empress of India, the
structure itself has been appropriately named the "Jubilee
Bridge.'
The particulars embodied in the following outline-descrip-
tion of this fine engineering work, are chiefly derived from a
paper on its erection read before the Institution of Civil
Engineers on the 24th January 1888, by Sir Bradford Leslie,
K.C.I.E., M.I.C.E. At the site of the “Jubilee' Bridge the
Hooghly channel is 1200 feet wide at low water, the selection
of the precise point of crossing having, among other considera-
tions, been largely influenced by the relative narrowness of the
river immediately opposite the town of Hooghly. On the
town- or right side of the river, the bed is 66 feet deep below
mean sea-level, and the bank is defined and well above the
highest floods. On the left side the water is comparatively

RAILWAYS IN INDIA
341
JUBILEE BRIDGE OVER THE HOOGHLY NEAR CALCUTTA
342
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
shallow, and there is a low bank, with a wide stretch of low-
lying ground beyond, inundated during high floods. The
height of the tide varies from a short distance below mean sea-
level to 20 feet above, with a maximum velocity of 41 miles an
hour when the flood-tide enters with a strong bore, and nearly
6 miles an hour on the ebb-tide in freshets. There is a very
large navigation, consisting of unwieldy country sailing-boats,
little under control, and steamers and flats of 500 to 600 tons
burden belonging to the Inland Navigation Companies, to-
gether with the passenger steamers plying between Calcutta
and Kulna.
The bridge is constructed for a double line of railway, both
lines being carried between the main girders. It consists
essentially of two large openings, each of 524 feet clear span,
with a central smaller opening of 1061 feet, between two piers
supporting a pair of central cantilever girders; the total length
of the bridge proper being 12131 feet. The approach to the
main structure on the Hooghly side of the river is by a masonry
viaduct 3278 feet in total length, consisting of 112 brick arches
of spans varying from 10 to 48 feet. On the Naihati, or left
side of the river, the approach is also by a masonry viaduct, in
this case 441 feet long, consisting of 29 arched openings of
10 feet. From end to end of the viaducts, therefore, and
across the river, the total length of structure is 4932 feet, or
not far short of a mile. The height of the main bridge from
the bottom of the foundations of the central piers to the under
side of the girders is 1531 feet, the foundations being 984 feet
below the lowest water.
The superstructure of the bridge consists of three sections of
steel girders, each of the open triangular type, having straight
bottom members on which the railway is carried, and curved in
bow-form above. The total weight of steel in the bridge super-
structure, including the standards on the piers, is given as 3876
tons, and the three sections into which the superstructure is
divided are respectively 420 feet, 3601 feet, and again 420
feet in length. The central-girder section of 360:1 feet is carried
on two piers placed only 1201 feet apart from centre to centre,
the girders of this section have consequently an overhang or
projection of 120 feet on either side of the supporting piers.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
343
Resting on the overhanging or projecting ends of the central
cantilever girders, the two land-girders, each 420 feet long,
stretch to the bank abutments. The object of this somewhat
unusual arrangement, giving two very wide land-spans, and a
smaller one in the centre (lying between the two piers support-
ing the central cantilevers) was partly in order to locate the
piers in comparatively shallow water. If a bridge of three equal
openings, say of 400 feet, had been adopted, the pier on the
Hooghly side of the river would have fallen in 40 feet of water
at low tides, and the cost of foundation construction would
have been greatly enhanced. There were, moreover, other
advantages in the design. The position chosen for the two
piers leaves the widest openings on each land-side of them for
navigation, that on the shallower side, where the current is
more moderate, for the native craft, and that on the deep side
K
-420.
.360m
420
Naihati
? Hooghlig.

Sun
10.
540
Bangun
MOVIT
S
.-
RTKASTIETOTTEET UUTUUDET MITTA
VO
T
UREN
SKETCH DIAGRAM OF HOOGHLY BRIDGE,
of the channel for the use of steam vessels and flats. The
founding of the two piers and the erection of the superstruc-
ture steel-work of the girders by the particular methods em-
ployed, which were virtually imposed by the conditions of the
river, as well as by considerations of labour and rapid execution,
was also at the same time facilitated by the design. The general
form of the bridge will be best understood from the sketch-
diagram above, from which also it will be seen that the struc-
ture is far from being graceful in outline.
The two piers are each 66 feet long, up and down stream,
and 25 feet wide, with semicircular ends and flat sides, and the
average depth of the water at the place where they are pitched
is about 27 to 30 feet at low spring-tides in the dry season.
The main body of each pier is enclosed by a wrought-iron
caisson, 108 feet high by 66 feet long, and 25 feet in width,
weighing 453 tons. Each caisson was divided into three exca-
344
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
vating chambers (open from top to bottom), by two buoyancy
chambers extending its full width, and 15 feet wide. The
lower portions of the caissons, which were provided with
tapered curbs or cutting edges, were floated into position and
sunk through the water and soft silt of the river bed by the aid
of a pair of floating pontoons moored between them, the pon-
toons being furnished with suitable stagings and powerful tackle,
commanding the site of both piers simultaneously. As the
sinking progressed, additional sections were built on the top of
the caissons, until at length the bed of stiff clay selected for
the foundation was reached, and into this clay the lower edge
was forced, some 10 or 12 feet, to a depth of 981 feet below
the lowest water in the river. The whole interior of the
caissons was filled in solid with concrete and brick-work,
brought up to the necessary level to carry the steel standards
on which the cantilever girders rest.
The many difficult operations connected with the sinking of
these pier-caissons were successfully carried out, but not entirely
without mishap. On the 16th April 1884, the lower portion
of one of them, drawing 32 feet of water, and weighing with
tion, when it was caught by a strong bore in the river. The
chain lashings by which the top had been secured to the pon-
toons, and the chain tackle of the up- and down-stream moor-
ings, were broken by the violent strains to which they were
current, and floated nearly half a mile up the river, where it
grounded. By the aid of extraordinary exertions it was, how-
ever, secured, lightened of 40 tons or so of cement brick-work,
and at length refloated by the evening of the following day,
being fortunately found to have sustained no serious injury, so
that before very long it was again ready for deposition on its
permanent site.
The foundations of the two abutments of the bridge pre-
sented no unusual difficulties, and were sunk on two iron curbs
65 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, divided into three
excavating chambers. On the Hooghly side the curb was sunk
about 40 feet, and on the Naihati side about 84 feet below the
river bank. The steel standards placed on the piers for carry-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
345
high, built up of plate and angle bars riveted together, and
secured to the brick-work of the piers by holding-down bolts
and anchor-castings. The standards each contain 205 tons of
steel.
The central portion of the cantilever girders, or that portion
lying between the piers, was erected by means of a platform
supported by raking struts from the pier-sides, and the over-
hanging portions were then built out, piece by piece, by the aid
of overhead tackle until completed. The girders for the land-
spans were each erected on lines of rails carried on the sur-
face of the two approach-viaducts, which were designed and
strengthened in the necessary manner to bear them. A com-
plete span, composed of two connected girders weighing 1000
tons, was then mounted on rollers, and the whole mass was run
forward by the aid of steam tackle, until the outer end of the
girders projected over the water for some distance beyond the
face-line of the abutment; the portion so projected having
been previously temporarily strengthened. At this stage of the
operation the two floating pontoons which had been employed
for sinking the pier caissons, and which were now fitted with a
suitable staging, were brought into position beneath, and the
projecting ends of the girders were wedged-up and supported
on the pontoon staging. The whole was then once more moved
forward; the pontoon carrying the outer ends of the girders
being now warped across the current, until these ends were
brought into position, and deposited on the projecting extremi-
ties of the cantilever girders.
These operations, of extraordinary magnitude and difficulty,
requiring the most exact calculation, and adaptation of means
to ends, were carried out with the utmost precision. The
girders on the Hooghly side of the river were launched on the
8th November 1886, and those on the Naihati side on the 20th
of the following month, the operation in each case occupying
operations, of esta mulation, and adaptation. The
Bridge was commenced in the year 1884, it was practically
completed by the end of 1886, and was formally opened for
public traffic on the 25th March 1887. The total cost of the
bridge, including the two long approach viaducts, is given as
346
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
£21,178, or, stated in rupees, after deducting the cost of
plant and supervision, the total expenditure incurred on the
whole work is officially shown as Rs. 30,95,388.
The length of the main line of the East Indian Railway,
including the chord line of 1867 miles, is 1205 miles. In addi-
1
most of which are short, except that from Allahabad to Jubbul-
pore, which is 224 miles in length. The total length of main-
line and branches amounts, therefore, to 15251 miles. Of this,
the distance from Howrah to Moghal Serai (the junction for
Benares) is laid double, which, together with some other short
lengths, brings up the total length of double-line to 474 miles.
The earthworks and bridges are generally everywhere con-
structed for a double line, except the bridge superstructures.
The permanent way is laid with rails varying from 74 lbs.
to 82 lbs. per yard. Originally the line was laid almost entirely
with wooden sleepers, but cast-iron plate sleepers have since
been largely introduced, and are now mostly used for renewals.
About 1200 miles have also been relaid with steel rails in
place of iron. On the Jubbulpore branch wooden sleepers of
creasoted pine and sal are the most numerous. The East
Indian Railway was acquired by the State from the late
Guaranteed Company on the 1st January 1880. The working
and management is still, however, carried on by a company
under contract with Government.
10
CHAPTER IX
GREAT INDIAN PENINSULA' AND 'MADRAS' RAILWAYS
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway-Sketch of principal engineering works-
Bombay to Callian—The Western ghûtsDetailed description of the Thul
ghát incline-Gradients and curves-Earthworks-Viaducts and reversing
station—Tunnels-Route followed by main line and branches-Tapti river
viaduct-Nerbudda bridge—The Bhore ghât incline-Detailed description
-Difficulties of undertaking-Gradients and curves—Works on the Bhore
ghât-Stations on the incline-Reversing station-General particulars
of viaducts and tunnels-Peculiar difficulties-Surprising magnitude of the
works-Route of railway from Lanowlee, and principal works—Main
particulars of Great Indian Peninsula Railway–The Madras Railway-
Routes and outline of principal bridges-General particulars-Concluding
observations.
The early history and general course followed by the lines Great Indian
belonging to the “Great Indian Peninsula Railway' have been Peninsula
Railway.
already outlined. It remains, therefore, to sketch some of the
principal engineering works on this important trunk system of
railways, extending from Bombay to Jubbulpore, with a long
branch to Nagpur on the north-east, and to Raichore, where it
joins the “Madras Railway,' on the south-east. The terminus
of the Great Indian Peninsula system is situated in a central
and convenient position on the island of Bombay, where during
recent years has been built, certainly the largest and handsomest
terminal station to be met with in India, and, moreover, one
which will enter into comparision with any of the large railway
stations of the world. .
A short distance from the terminus, viz., at Byculla and
Parel, are situated the extensive goods depôt and locomotive
work-shops of the railway. At Sion, the extreme north-
eastern point of Bombay island, a short branch was originally
347

348
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
BOMBAY TERMINAL STATION
RAILWAYS IN. INDIA
349
constructed to the old town of Mahim, situated at the western
extremity of the island, once the principal seat of the commerce
of Bombay, though now of relatively small importance. The
railway crosses the wide Sion marsh to the island of Salsette
by a long embankment, and near Tannah, at 22 miles from the
terminus, it crosses the arm of the sea which divides Salsette
from the mainland of the Concan and of India by two arched
masonry viaducts, 333 and 579 feet long respectively, in the
latter of which is an iron girder opening for passing the navi-
gation. Traversing a portion of the Concan, the line reaches
the junction station of Callian at 33. miles from Bombay. This
point marks the end of the original “experimental' line, opened
on the 1st May 1854 (the first 20 miles to Tannah having
the two trunk lines to Jubbulpore and Raichore bifurcate, each
climbing by separate passes, situated respectively to the north-
east and south-east, the rugged line of the Western ghâts, in
order to gain the upper table land of the Deccan.
It has already been pointed out that the line of the Western
ghâts, as approached from Bombay, is not to be regarded as a
chain of mountains or hills, but as a precipitous line of cliffs,
some 2000 to 3000 feet high, forming the vertical wall of the
Deccan high land ; this line of precipices being only broken by
deep ravines, or rifts along its face, with occasionally projecting
spurs running down to the Concan. The first section of the
railway from Callian to the north-east, and in the direction of
the Thul ghât, is one of 26 miles, extending from Callian to
Kasora. On this length the line gradually climbs by steep
gradients of principally 1 in 100, and by sharp curves down to
a radius of 30 chains, the south side of a long irregular spur
which descends westwards from the main ghât precipices, and
separates the ravines or valleys of the Basta on the south
are of a heavy character. The earthwork formation contains
over half a million of cubic yards of cutting through hard trap
and basaltic rocks, and over 1} million cubic yards of embank-
ment. Rifts, or ravines, are crossed by four important viaducts
of which the two longest are 372 and 429 feet long, and no less
than 127 and 122 feet high. There are also forty-four bridges
350
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
up to 30 feet span, and 117 minor culverts. The level of
Kasora, placed 1040 feet above the sea, is 849 feet higher than
Callian, and as the level of the summit of the Thul ghất in-
cline is 2012 feet above sea level the height now gained by the
railway leaves 972 feet still to be surmounted before the upper
tableland is reached.
The actual Thul ghat incline is considered to commence at
the Rotunda nulla, or stream, at Kasora, and extends from
thence to Egutpura, on the summit of the pass. The pre-
liminary surveys and studies for this remarkable example of
railway engineering occupied 4 years, and its actual construction
incline, which has been constructed for a double line through-
out, is 94 miles, having a rise of 972 feet in this short distance,
or an average ascent of 102:21 feet per mile, or about 1 foot
rise in every 53 feet of length. The actual gradients, however,
vary, the steepest being an incline of 1 in 37 for a length of
4 miles 30 chains—that is, for about one-half of the whole
ascent. Other gradients are 1 in 45 for 838 feet, and 1 in 50
to 1 in 148, and in the total length there is only 3036 feet
of level line.
Of the 94 miles comprising the ghất section from Kasora to
Egutpura, close upon 6 miles are curved, the remaining 31
miles being straight. The radius of the curves varies from the
sharpest, which is 17 chains (1122 feet) up to 100 chains. The
sharpest curve has a length of 2178 feet, another of 20 chains
radius has a length of 3000 feet. The total length of curves of
20 to 50 chains radius is over 41 miles, those from 50 to 100
aggregating 3168 feet only.
The quantity of earthworks, consisting for the most part of
hard rocky materials, on this short length of line, is no less
than 67 millions of cubic feet, or 2,486,000 cubic yards, the
y
about equal. At the commencement of the Thul ghất incline
the Rotunda nulla and ravine is crossed by a viaduct 90 feet
high, and 198 feet long. Passing through a rock tunnel of
about 400 feet, the railway reaches the Manda Sheyt ravines,
which are crossed by two lofty viaducts, the first 84 feet high,
and 429 feet long, the second 87 feet in height and 198 feet
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
351
long, adjoining which are two tunnels 240 and 1625 feet long
respectively. At 32 miles from Kasora the line reaches a short
level length, or station, situated for the most part on high
embankment, where the direction of the railway is suddenly
altered, the engines being here turned and transferred by means
of a turn-table and sidings, from one end of the trains to the
other. Hitherto the line has ascended the south, or river Basta
side of the great projecting spur. After leaving the reversing
station, however, it passes through a gap in the ridge and gains
the northern, or Wyturnee valley side. Passing through three
tunnels, the longest of which is 705 feet in length, and over a
viaduct 90 feet in height and 198 feet long, the railway
encounters in the sixth mile some of the most formidable diffi-
culties on the ghất. Over the Ehegaum ravine is thrown a
magnificent viaduct, 750 feet long, and of the great height of
182 feet, whilst the sides of the hill are pierced by four tunnels,
the two longest of which are 1461 and 1247 feet respectively.
The railway now creeps painfully up the steep side of the cliffs,
and, before reaching the summit-level at Egutpura, traverses
three other tunnels of 783, 420, and 174 feet, and passes over
another viaduct 450 feet long and 60 feet in height.
The tunnels on the ghât incline are for the most part pierced
through greenstone or basalt rock of the hardest description.
With the exception of the Ehegaum ravine viaduct, the super-
structure of which consists of three spans of triangulated iron
girders placed 182 feet above the stream below, and having
semicircular arches of 40 feet at either end—all the viaducts
and smaller bridges are arched structures, built chiefly of basalt
masonry. Altogether on the 9.1 miles of the Thul ghât ascent
there are thirteen tunnels, having an aggregate length of 7956
feet, six lofty viaducts, having a total length of 2223 feet, and
ranging from 82 to 182 feet high, fifteen bridges of spans vary-
ing from 7 to 30 feet, and between sixty and seventy culverts.
Leaving Egutpura, on the summit of the ghất, the line,
encountering only ordinary obstacles, crosses the fertile valley
of the Upper Godavery, and passing by an easy gap the Indy-
hadree range of hills at Munmar, enters the rich districts of
Candeish ; traversing which, the railway reaches the junction
and locomotive station of Bhasavul, 276 miles from Bombay.
352
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The works along this section, although numerous, are of second-
ary character. At Bhasavul, a long branch of 245 miles extends
to Nagpur, the capital city of the Central Provinces, traversing
and connecting with Bombay one of the best cotton-producing
districts in India. The country is generally favourable, and no
individual works require detailed mention. The principal
viaducts are those over the rivers Mund and Wardha, the
former consisting of fifteen openings of 60 feet, with piers 70
feet high, and the latter of twelve openings of 60 feet each.
Soon after leaving the junction station of Bhasavul, the
main line sharply curves to the northwards, and crosses the
important Tapti river. by a handsome viaduct, carried at a
height of 60 feet above low water. This viaduct, which is
2556 feet long and constructed for a double line, consists of
twenty-eight openings of 60 feet, and five larger spans of 138
feet each. The piers are formed of a pair of iron cylinders
filled with concrete, resting on the solid rock, which forms
the bed of the river, and nowhere located at a greater depth
than 16 feet below the lowest water. The cost of the structure
is given as £163,000. The present Tapti viaduct is a recon-
struction, the original one erected with masonry piers having
failed, partly from faulty construction, and partly from the
sudden and violent floods-rising sometimes to a height of
nearly 70 feet above the lowest bed—to which the river is liable.
The section of line from Bhasavul to Jubbulpore, 339 miles
in length, passes, a short distance beyond the Tapti, through a
gap in the Satpura range of hills, with gradients nowhere
steeper than 1 in 100, and enters the valley of the Nerbudda,
continuing along the left bank of that river for about 200 miles.
The country is for the most part flat, and favourable for railway
construction, but the line necessarily encounters a large amount
of cross drainage falling into the main river, requiring a series
of heavy and expensive bridges and viaducts, although none of
these are of exceptional individual size. Before reaching
Jubbulpore, 615 miles from Bombay, and effecting a junction
with the East Indian branch line from Allahabad, the railway
throws off a short branch of 12 miles to the coal fields of Moh-
pani, and crosses the upper part of the Nerbudda river itself by
a viaduct and bridge 1052 feet long, consisting of six arched
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
353
openings of 40 feet, and five girder spans of 137 feet, placed 81
feet above the lowest water. The foundations of this structure
presented no difficulty, beds of solid rock being found almost on
the surface. The piers and abutments of the Nerbudda bridge
are built for a double line, the girder superstructure for a single
line only. The total cost of the work is given approximately
as £67,000.
Returning now to Callian, below the Western ghats, the
point from which the two main trunk lines of the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway bifurcate—one going north-east to Jubbul-
pore, the other south-east to Poona and Raichore—the first
section of the south-east extension passes by a fairly easy line
of 30 miles to the foot of the Bhore ghât incline. This short
length is, however, exposed to extraordinary floods from the
rapid and violent torrents which descend from the line of
għâts and hills on either side, and is consequently provided
with an unusual number of the smaller class of bridges and
culverts. The works necessary for carrying the line of rail-
way up the Bhore ghât are of extraordinary magnitude and
difficulty. Before the route could be pronounced economically
passable for a railway, many years had to be expended in pre-
liminary studies and surveys, until at length a series of inclines
was laid out, on one portion of which it would still be necessary
for trains to be dragged up by means of a stationary engine ;
but as time went on, closer and more detailed examination
gradually enabled the engineers to modify bit by bit, and
improve little by little the possible alignment, until at last
a route was planned out which, although involving a succession
of stupendous and costly works, was nevertheless pronounced
to be passable by locomotives along its whole extent, and the
work of actual construction on this bold and difficult under-
taking was commenced in January of the year 1856.
The Bhore ghầt 1 incline commences near the village of
Padushurree or Kurjut, about 30 miles from Callian, and
1 The data for this description of the Bhore ghåt incline, as well as that of the
previous description of the incline on the Thul ghat, is principally derived from
a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, by J. J. Berkeley, Esq.,
M.I.C.E., on the line and works of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, in the
year 1859-60.
Z
354
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ascends from thence to the highest summit level of the ghất,
situated at Lanowlee, 2027 feet above the sea. The total
length of the incline is 15 miles 68 chains, and the total
rise in this distance, from the level ground at the foot of
the ghất to the summit level, is 1831 feet, the average rise
over the whole distance being 1 in 46 feet of length. The
actual gradients on the ascent, however, vary according to the
necessities of the ground, and in consequence of the obligation
on so great a length of rise of introducing short breathing places
of level line. The whole incline is, in fact, divided into four
sections, separated from each other by short lengths of level
and contrary rise, to enable the speed of the descending trains
to be checked, and the trains themselves to be brought to a
stand. The steepest gradients on the ascent are 1 in 37, ex-
tending in one length for 1 mile 38 chains, and 1 in 40 for
8 miles 4 chains, the remaining grades being 1 in 42 and 1
in 75, with a short length of 1 in 330 at Khandalla station.
The total extent of level line amounts to 1 mile and 15 chains
only.
Out of the whole 15 miles 68 chains of incline forming the
total ascent of the Bhore ghât, no less than 10 miles 34 chains
are curved. The sharpest curve is one of 15 chains, or 990 feet
radius, on a gradient of 1 in 75, having a length of 1452 feet,
Another, 660 feet long, has a radius of 20 chains, and the re-
maining curves, of various lengths, are from 30 to 80 chains
radius ; the total length of the straight portion being 5 miles
34 chains. A double line of rails of the 5 foot 6 inches gauge
is carried throughout the entire ascent of the ghât, making one
of the widest and most splendid mountain roads in the world.
It is not easy by means of mere quantitative figures to convey an
adequate idea of the magnitude of engineering achievements;
so large a portion of the real difficulties encountered depend-
ing far more on the special features and conditions of the
obstacles that have been overcome, than on the mere quantity
1
of broad gauge constructed up the Bhore ghât consists of a
continuous series of heavy cuttings and embankments, reaching
76 feet in depth or height on the central line, broken up by a
rapid succession of tunnels pierced through projecting head-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
355
lands, and by bold lofty viaducts of masonry over the deep
rocky ravines and gorges with which the face of the precipitous
cliffs is constantly intersected. The cuttings and tunnels are,
for the most part, blasted through basaltic rocks of the hardest
description, and embankments are largely built up of rocky
materials. The line is frequently carried clinging to the steep
hill-sides, with the inner portion of its formation surface
notched or benched into the rock, whilst the outer portion
is carried on artificial bank, having an enormous outward
slope, or the outer half may be supported by long lengths
of masonry retaining-wall built up from great depths below,
or be carried on a series of arch-vaulting planted against
the slope. In many such situations, as well as elsewhere, the
line is exposed to the frequent danger of landslips from the
steep slopes situated above its course. The soil, filled with
massive boulders of rock, becoming loosened by the heavy
tropical rains, huge masses are liable to be dislodged and
projected downwards with terrific violence, and, unless pre-
vented, may dash into and create havoc on the surface of
the railway. In some of these places the amount of labour
and expense involved in reducing or protecting the upper
VY
head passages for discharging the collected water over the
course of the railway into the valley below, in order to obviate
the risks of landslips, is enormous.
The total quantity, of mostly hard rock-cutting-reaching
a maximum depth on the central line of 76 feet-on the Bhore
ghất formation of the railway is upwards of 54 millions of cubic
feet, or 2 millions of cubic yards. The quantity of material in
the embankments aggregates 674 millions of cubic feet, or 21
million cubic yards, and owing to the excessive steepness of the
sidelong ground along which the banks are carried, whilst the
height on the central line may be 50 to 75 feet, the toe of the
outer slope is, in some cases, situated in the valley 150 to 300
feet below the formation level.
There are four stations on the incline, the first, named
Thakurwada, is placed at a distance of 5 miles from the
bottom, and is provided with catch, or safety sidings, into
avhich any descending or runaway train, or detached vehicles,
356
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
can be turned and stopped wlien necessary; the second is a
reversing station, situated at Battery Hill, in the 12th mile ;
the third is at Khandalla, in the 14th mile; and the fourth
at Lanowlee, on the summit level of the ghât. At the revers-
ing station—by means of a turntable and sidings—the engines
are turned and brought round to the other extremity of the
trains, which then proceed in a reverse direction to that
from which they entered. The principal object of this arrange-
ment was to prolong the length of base, and to reach the
highest possible level before attacking the difficult features of
the main ghất precipice lying between the reversing station
and Lanowlee.
At the commencement of the ascent from near Padushurree
the railway is carried, nearly in a semicircle, round the western
and southern sides of a long irregular spur projecting from
the ghất range. Continuing to cling to some portion of this
spur, and gradually mounting by a stiff gradient of 1 in 40,
the line at the 10tlı mile reaches a narrow neck of hill con-
necting it with the main ghât cliffs. At the end of this neck
the reversing station is placed, 1349 feet of the total height
being now surmounted, leaving 482 feet to be still climbed in
the last 41 miles before reaching the crest of the ghât at
Lanowlee. Returning to the bottom end of the incline, the
railway, after passing some exceptionally heavy embankments
in the 2d and 3d miles, traverses a group of six tunnels,
the longest of which is 429 feet, and is then carried over the
remaining distance to Thakurwada station in the 6th mile by a
series of formidable works. Here, in a length of 2 miles, occur
eight considerable tunnels and five lofty viaducts. The largest
of these tunnels, through hard trap rock, is 1305 feet, the
remainder being from 147 to 873 feet. The viaducts are of
masonry, liaving four to eight arches of 50 feet span, the piers
reaching 77, 98, 129, and 143 feet in height above ground.
Beyond Thakurwada the railway, following a south-east line, is
carried for some distance along a natural bench or step on the
hill-side, without meeting any serious obstacle. Reaching the
8th mile, it is passed over two ravines by two viaducts of six
40-feet, and four 30-feet arches, having piers 48 and 88 feet
high, and continuing along the same bench, in the succeeding
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
357
2 miles it traverses nine tunnels, the longest of which is 846
feet, situated in the 10th mile. The line, still on grades of
1 in 40 and 1 in 50, passes along the neck of hill joining the
long spur up which it has hitherto climbed with the main
ghât, and reaches--after passing over another viaduct of one
60-, and ten 40-feet arches—the reversing station of Battery
Hill. Leaving the reversing station by the sharpest curve on
the incline, viz., that of 15 chains radius, on a grade of 1 in 175,
the line pierces the projecting bluff of a solid basalt hill by a
tunnel 1023 feet long, and now enters the great gorge or ravine
down which flows the main stream of the ghât. Winding up
the side of this ravine, and clinging pertinaciously to its
southern flank, the railway climbs by a stiff gradient of 1 in
37, the 1 mile 38 chains leading to the short comparative bit
of level at Khandalla station, passing on its way through
another rock tunnel 126 feet long, thence by lesser gradients
of 1 in 40 and 1 in 50 it mounts the remaining 2 miles to the
summit of the Bhore, at Lanowlee.
· The works on the Bhore ghất incline comprise twenty-five
tunnels of a total length of 3986 yards, or over 21 miles, the
two longest being one of 435 yards—or 1305 feet-and one of
341 yards-or 1023 feet-in length, carried without a shaft
through a mountain of basalt. Generally, from the rugged
character of the cliffs, it was rarely possible to sink summit
shafts, and the tunnels had to be driven from the two ends.
Being always on steep gradients, and often on sharp curves,
the most careful and accurate setting out was necessary in
order to secure a true junction of the lieadings. There are
altogether on the ghât eight lofty viaducts of arched inasonry,
having a total length of 2961 feet, or over half a mile. The
two largest are 504 feet long, having a maximum height of no
less than 160 and 163 feet above foundations. Of smaller
bridges there are twenty-two of spans from 7 to 30 feet, and
eighty-one culverts of various size. The construction of this
barely 16 miles of mountain railroad occupied seven and a
quarter years, and it cost £1,100,000. The average number
of labourers and workmen of all kinds employed during two
seasons was 25,000, and in the year 1861 upwards of 42,000
men are stated to have been engaged on the works.
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
. Among the many peculiar difficulties encountered, both on
the Bhore and on the Thul ghât inclines, were the unhealthy
nature of the hot and rainy seasons (the latter with a rainfall
of 200 inches), and the fatal epidemics which so often scattered
and dispersed the armies of men engaged ; the rugged and
precipitous character of the ground, impeding the haulage and
transport of material, and harassing all engaged!on the opera-
tions; the sudden and dangerous landslips from the hill-sides,
and the extreme hardness and solidity of the trap rocks so
largely dealt with; the scarcity of water at certain periods
of the year, and the difficulty at all times of providing the
ordinary necessaries and comforts of the workmen. There are
probably but few travellers now daily passing up and down the
magnificent Thul and Bhore ghat inclines, quietly seated in
comfortable railway carriages, who can at all adequately realise
the extraordinary nature of the obstacles which have been so
successfully overcome, and the great skill and daring of all
those engaged—especially during the first years—in shaping
and carving out of the rocky mountain sides those wide luxu-
rious roads on which they now so easily and securely travel.
To form a true conception of their surprising magnitude, it is
necessary to pass along them either on foot or by open trolly,
closely observing all the numberless ingenious expedients
resorted to for making the rough ways smooth, and con-
verting the stupendous natural inequalities of the precipitous
hills into a series of uniform inclined surfaces, as well as closely
regarding from below and from above the details of the tower-
ing embankments and masonry viaducts by which the low parts
have been filled up, and the constantly recurring wide and
spacious tunnels, or deep rock-cuttings, by which the project-
ing mountainous ridges and bluffs have been brought low;
until the whole rugged and inhospitable region has been
smoothed down, and rendered easy and secure for the daily
transit at all seasons of railway trains crowded with men and
merchandise.
From Lanowlee—where the railway has at length gained
the summit level of the Western ghâts the course followed by
the south-east extension of the Great Indian Peninsula line is
viâ Poona and Sholapore to Raichore, where it joins the
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
359
Madras railway at 409 miles from Bombay. For the first
portion of the distance it traverses a somewhat rough country,
with a ruling gradient of 1 in 131, but for the most part the
works are of an ordinary character. Crossing the rivers
Bheema and Seena by two bridges—the first of twenty-eight
masonry arches of 40-feet span, with piers 60 feet high, and
the second of twelve similar arches, with piers 54 feet in
height—the line, a short distance before reaching Raichore,
crosses the Kistna, a stream of considerable magnitude, by a
girder bridge 3855 feet long, consisting of thirty-six clear spans
of 100 feet each, with piers formed of iron cylinders filled with
concrete, 49 feet high above the lowest water. The piers and
abutments of the Kistna bridge have been constructed for a
double line; the superstructure carrying a single line only, and
the completed cost of the structure is given as £127,300.
The total length of the Great Indian Peninsula system of
main lines and branches is 12881 miles. The north-east main
line as far as Khandwa, 352 miles from Bombay, is laid double,
as well as the 60 miles from Bhasavul to Sheogaum on the
Nagpur branch. On the south-east trunk line the rails are
double for a distance of 46 miles from Callian, making in all
459 miles of double track. On the rest of the railway the
earthworks are for the most part made for a single, and the
masonry of bridges and viaducts for a double, line of way.
The rails originally laid were of iron, weighing 68 and 84 lbs.
per yard, these are now being gradually replaced by steel rails
of 69, 82, and 86 lbs. The sleepers, which were originally of
wood, are also being largely replaced by iron bowls. As far as
Sholapore the line was opened in sections at various times,
being completed to that town in June 1860. The extension
beyond Sholapore, to meet the Madras railway at Raichore, was
delayed; not being commenced until the year 1865, and the
permanent bridge over the Kistna river, near the end of the
section, was opened for traffic in October 1873. The Great
Indian Peninsula Railway Company, in addition to their own
lines, work, under contract with the Government, the Dhond
and Munmar State Railway, the Berar branches, and the
Wardha Valley State Railway, which opens up a valuable coal
field at Warora, in the Central Provinces.
360.
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Madras
Railway.
The original portion of the ‘Madras Railway system of lines
was, as we have seen, that to the south-west, from the city of
Madras, through Arconum and Menil, to the opposite sea-
coast near Beypoor (now extended to Calicut). From this
trunk line an important branch, 871 miles long, extends to
Bangalore, and one of 26 miles to Dotacamund. The first sod
of this railway was turned on the 9th June 1853, the intention
being to construct an experimental' line from Madras to
Menil, a distance of 50 miles, but before this length was
completed it was decided to extend the railway to the
western coast, and the final contract was accordingly signed
in 1855. The distance from Madras to Beypoor is 406 miles.
The line, leaving the terminal station at Madras situated almost
on the sea-beach, passes Arconum, the junction station for the
Bombay line, at 42 miles, and traverses the width of the peninsula
without encountering any serious engineering obstacles. The
range of Western ghats on the opposite coast is passed by the
gap at Palghat, at a point only 800 feet above the level of the
sea, and affording a fairly easy descent to the sea-coast.
Following now the section of the Madras railway connect-
ing with Bombay: Shortly after leaving Raichore, and the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway terminating at that place,
the line encounters the large Tungabudhra river, which it
crosses by a girder bridge 4060 feet long, consisting of fifty-
eight spans of 64 feet each. Running almost due south, it
traverses a moderately easy country, and reaches the junction
station of Guntakal—now an important centre and meeting-
point of an extensive system of narrow-gauge lines in the
Madras Presidency. Here the Madras railway trunk line
bends to the south-east, and after passing over about 25 miles
of rough and hilly country approaches two important rivers,
viz., the Penner and the Chitravati, which it crosses by two
fine bridges lately reconstructed, one 1830 feet long, opened in
1889, of thirteen girder spans of 131 feet each, with founda-
tions 54 feet below the lowest water ; the other, 2670 feet long
-opened in 1890—of nineteen girder spans of the same size,
with foundations 78 feet below low water. The respective cost:
of these bridges is approximately £112,000 and £136,000.
Several other streams of some magnitude are also shortly after-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
361
-
wards encountered, including the Papaghni river, over which
a large girder bridge of fifteen spans of 131 feet is now in
course of construction, in replacement of an earlier structure.
A few miles beyond Cuddapah the railway reaches and crosses
the river Cheyer by a long bridge of 3500 feet, costing £124,500,
and consisting of fifty spans of 64 feet, with a maximum depth
of foundations of 100 feet. From the Cheyer river to the
junction with the Madras Beypoor (Calicut) railway at Ar-
conum, 42 miles from Madras, the line traverses a hilly country,
cut up with ravines, and necessitating much heavy embankment
and rocky cutting, but containing no works of more than
average importance. The total length of the Madras Railway
system of lines as now open is 8392 miles, of which the length
from Raichore to Arconum is 3071 miles, the remainder
belonging to the south-west system.
The weight of the rails on the Madras Railway vary from
65 to 84 lbs., laid on iron bowl sleepers. Originally the south-
western section was laid with wooden sleepers, and an experi-
ment was made of using stone blocks 2'.x2' xl' in their place;
these were, however, soon discarded, and in 1861 the jungle-
wood sleepers first used were replaced by cast-iron bowls, which
are now almost entirely employed.
The early history, general alignment, and principal con-
structional features of the three parent lines of the Indian
railway system, viz. the “East Indian Railway,' the “Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, and the “Madras Railway'-aggre-
gating 3653 miles have now been succinctly traced. It would
be neither agreeable to the reader, nor suitable to the limited
compass of this volume, to attempt to follow in similar outline
the development and course of the remaining 14,000 miles of
the existing railways in India. It will, in the succeeding
chapters, be sufficient for the main purpose in view to illus-
trate, with greater or less particularity---according to relative
importance-only those great works of the first magnitude and
interest which are to be met with scattered over the country,
on the various lines of railway, reserving for a concluding
chapter a résumé of such of the general aspects and statistics
of Indian railways, considered as a whole, as may be of general
interest.
.
.
CHAPTER X
REMARKS, GORAI BRIDGE, DUFFERIN BRIDGE
Preliminary observations on some of the peculiarities and circumstances of
Indian rivers-Position of bridges Design affected by character of the
river-Arched masonry bridges—Conditions rarely suitable-Iron struc.
tures—Bridge piers and abutments-Determination of minimum waterway-
Security of bridge abutments-Training works—Selected examples of large
or interesting railway bridges in India-The bridge over the Gorai river,
Eastern Bengal Railway-Particulars and details of construction-Sinking
the cylinders—Floating the girders into position - The Oude and Rohilkund
Railway-Outline of system-Particulars of bridges over the Ganges-The
Dufferin Bridge at Benares—Descriptive details of design-Erection of the
bridge—Preliminary work-Sinking the main pier caissons-Great depth
of foundations—Accident at No. 4 pier-Remedial measures--The minor
piers-Erection of superstructure, and completion of the work.
THE selected examples of large railway structures in India,
illustrated in this and the following chapters, are almost
entirely confined to iron or steel bridges of some magnitude;
carried over the great rivers of the country. It will serve,
therefore, to the greater interest of the reader, as well as to his
better appreciation of the more difficult problems occasionally
to be solved in connection with large bridge construction in
India, to preface this chapter with a few preliminary observa-
tions on some of the special peculiarities and circumstances of
Indian rivers, as affecting the general features of the design
and location of large railway bridges. In making these observa-
tions, however, no attempt is made to treat in a comprehensive
manner so exceedingly important and difficult a subject ;
the observations are confined to the indication of a few broad
general features of bridge location and design, suited to the
general reader.
In selecting the exact spot for bridging a large river, the
362
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
363.
:
engineer is usually restricted to very moderate limits of
deviation from the direct route proposed to be taken by the
railway. Within such limits he will seek for some portion of
the valley where the main channel of the river is not only
concentrated, but where, from all reliable indications, it appears
to be fixed in a permanent manner. Failing the discovery of
such a position, some more or less considerable outlay will be
necessary for regulating the channel and preserving the perma-
nency of the bed, by means of artificial training works. The
whole design of the contemplated bridge will in great measure
be governed by the character of the river bottom at the point
selected for the erection of the structure. In ordinary cases
where permanent rock, or other sufficiently hard strata, occurs
on the surface, or is placed within easy reach below water, and
where suitable building materials are obtainable at ordinary
expense, a bridge with masonry piers connected by stone or
brick archwork will probably be the most economical in first
cost; and, if so, will certainly be the most convenient, the most.
pleasing, and altogether the most desirable construction.
A well-designed and well-built arched masonry bridge, once
made on a secure foundation, entails little or no subsequent
expense, and the line of railway laid over it is free from
the many inconveniences arising from the contraction and
expansion of large iron or steel superstructures. The heavy
expense of frequently painting the iron girder work to avoid
corrosion ; the liability to slow deterioration under the constant
inherent motion of its parts, and the vibration of passing
trains, together with the rattling noise experienced under the
traffic, are great drawbacks in the case of all iron or steel
structures. In the plains of India, however, the conditions
necessary for security and economy in the erection of arched
masonry bridges of large size are rarely met with, for in all
cases where the expense of pier foundations reaches beyond a
certain proportion, economy in first cost has to be sought by
increasing the width of opening, so as to limit the number of
the piers, and thus the size of span soon extends beyond the
practical limits of arch-work. Bridge piers and abutments, in
the great majority of cases, are constructed of stone or brick
masonry, but the use of iron for piers, as well as for the
1
364
: PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
S
superstructure of bridges, is sometimes imposed by local condi-
tions, amongst others, by any special liability of the district
to earthquake.
The determination of the minimum waterway to be allowed
in the case of bridges over the larger class of rivers, especially
in the great alluvial plains of upper India, is attended with
many peculiar difficulties. As a rule, little or no means exist
of ascertaining the true area of the basin drained by these
rivers, especially if liable to receive spill water from other river
basins. Moreover, the areas are usually so enormous, and
subject to so many fluctuating conditions of rainfall, and
physical constitution, and the problem is complicated by so
many highly variable conditions, each affecting in some degree,
and some largely, the maximum flood discharge, as to place its
theoretical calculation at the best on a very empirical and
uncertain basis. In these circumstances the engineer, naturally
solicitous above all for the permanent stability of his work, is
apt to err on the safe side, and provide for a greater area of
waterway than necessary, rather than incur the risk of unduly
contracting the limits of the highest recorded flow in the
river during high floods.
It is rare in the plains of India to find a river flowing within
well-defined banks. A tolerably permanent high bank may
often be found on one side, behind which one abutment of a
bridge may be securely placed. The proper position for the
further abutment then becomes the difficult problem. In such
cases the main channel will invariably be found nearest the
high and more or less permanent bank, and the main openings
of the bridge will of course be there provided ; a less expensive
structure being designed as a continuation of the main openings
for such distance over the opposite low ground as may be
deemed necessary for security. In all cases where the piers
and abutments of a bridge can be rendered perfectly secure
against scour, and capable of withstanding the concentrated
force of the severest floods, at a less cost than increasing the
lineal waterway of the whole structure, the length of the
bridge will be safely contracted, and the river will be largely
permitted to adjust its own sectional area to the discharge,
which it will do by scouring away its bed to the extent
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
365
necessary ; but in frequent practice the increased cost of pro-
tection and of training works thereby entailed, will exceed the
saving due to shortening the bridge. Every bridge site in the
great plains of India possesses, in fact, so many special and
peculiar features of its own, that the determination of the water-
way to be allowed is only very partially reducible to general
principles, or to considerations applicable in all cases. The
two important objects which the practical engineer will always
have in view, and which will mainly govern his designs, will
be the perfect security of the bridge abutments, and the estab-
lishment, by suitable training works where necessary, of a per-
manent and well-defined channel, for some distance above and
well through the site of the bridge, evenly embracing its water-
way, and constraining the passage of the water through the
whole width of the work, with a fairly uniform velocity of
current.
It is now necessary to select for the purpose of illustration a
few additional examples of large, or otherwise interesting
bridge constructions occurring on Indian railways, out of the
very numerous sum-total of such works, the latter comprising
very many of scarcely inferior proportions to those which the
space at command permits detailed mention.
between the years 1867 and 1870, a bridge was constructed
over the Gorai River, which, although not a work of especially
remarkable size, is an interesting example of construction
carried out, under peculiar conditions, by the application and
employment of special methods. The data for the following
description of this bridge is collected from a very full paper
on its construction, read before the Institution of Civil Engineers
by its designer and builder, Sir Bradford Leslie, K.C.I.E.,
M.I.C.E.1 The Gorai River is the largest and most important
of the many arms or branches into which the Ganges is broken
up on reaching its delta at the head of the Bay of Bengal.
At the site chosen for the railway-crossing, the river in the dry
season is about 1000 feet wide, with a depth of 40 feet of
water, but during the rainy season the width reaches 1600
1 Vide vol. xxxiv. Min. Proc. Institute of Civil Engincers.
366
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
feet, with a flood rise of 28 feet, and a velocity of current of
nearly 5 miles an hour, at which time the bed is scoured out
some 24 feet, so that the body of water then reaches over
90 feet in depth. The alluvial deposit forming the bed of the
river consists of a light sandy clay and loam, followed by a
stratum of stiffer clay overlying a coarse grey sand.
The railway bridge thrown across the Gorai consists of seven
main girder-spans of 185 feet each. On the west side, beyond
the seven main spans, a raised portion of the river bed-covered,
however, .by 30 feet of water in floods—is crossed by a cast-iron
the total length of bridge and viaduct construction is 1744
feet. Each pier of the main bridge is composed of two iron
cylinders, placed 37 feet 6 inches apart from centre to centre;
this width being sufficient to allow for a double line of rails if
required. The cylinders are sunk to a maximum depth of 98
feet below low water (those forming the land extremities being
sunk to the same depth as those in mid-stream), and the total
depth to which the foundations were sunk was determined
with reference to the amount of scour anticipated. The lower
portion of each cylinder, for a height of 30 feet 6 inches, is
built up of wrought-iron rings, each 4 feet 6 inches high,
bolted together by internal flanges, and is 14 feet diameter at
the bottom—where the lower edge is strengthened to form a
strong cutting edge—and 13 feet 4 inches at the top. Abové
the wrought-iron portion, a cast-iron conical piece narrows the
diameter to 10 feet, and the upper length of the cylinder is
formed of cast-iron of this diameter; the cast-iron portion
being put together in rings of four segments, each 9 feet high.
The separate segments are bolted together by means of in-
ternal projecting flanges, leaving the piers smooth on the
external face. When completed, the pier cylinders were filled
in with concrete and brickwork, and were joined together at
the top by two wrought-iron connecting girders, which serve
to carry the main girders of the superstructure, at a height of
50 feet above low water. The superstructure girders are solid
beams, 12 feet high, and 3 feet wide on the top and bottom
members, placed 13 feet 6 inches apart in the clear, so as to
carry a single line only. The interesting features of the Gorai
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
367
bridge are to be found in the methods employed in its erection,
both in sinking the pier cylinders, and in the emplacement of
the girder superstructure.
The treacherous nature of the river-bed, and the depth and
strength of the current, made it undesirable to attempt the
work of sinking the cylinders by the aid of temporary fixed
stagings. A pair of floating pontoons, each 140 feet long by
30 feet wide, joined together by a platform 17 feet in width,
containing the necessary openings for the two cylinders, were
therefore provided. The pontoons were furnished with power-
ful overhead travelling cranes, engine power, and all the
necessary gear for manipulating the heavy weights that would
have to be dealt with, and were securely anchored into posi-
tion at the site of each pier. Three lower rings of cylinder, in
all 12 feet 6 inches in height, and weighing 30 tons, were
erected on timbers placed across the opening in the pontoon
platform, and a temporary water-tight bottom of pine staves
was inserted at some distance above the lower edge. An inner
lining of brickwork, supported on the projecting ring flanges
was also commenced. The depth of water in the river was too
great to allow a sufficient length of cylinder to be slung and
lowered so as to reach the river-bed in one operation, hence
the necessity of the temporary bottom to render the tube
buoyant and self-supporting. Three lower rings were suspended
and lowered into the water, and the tackle to be used for con-
trolling and adjusting the position of the cylinder in going
down, was fitted. Successive rings were then bolted on, and
the internal lining of brickwork was continued, adding weight
until the cylinder was sunk into, and was steadily buoyed up
by the water, so that it could now be freed from the suspend-
ing chains. By adding fresh rings, and building additional
brick lining, the process was continued until the bottom of the
river was reached, when the interior of the cylinder was filled
with water. The temporary water-tight bottom was now
battered out, and the cylinder was allowed to sink into the
soft soil of the river-bed until supported by it. The operations
for pitching the pier cylinders were carried out with only one
mishap, caused by a cyclone which occurred in 1869, and in
consequence of which the lower portions of two cylinders were
368
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
L
overthrown and submerged; one of these was, however, re-
covered, but the other was permanently lost, and had to be
replaced.
The sinking of the cylinders through the alluvial soil of the
river-bed to the requisite depth, was effected by excavating the
earth from the inside of the cylinder by a rotating boring tool
9 feet in diameter, consisting of a disc fitted with blades and
cutters. The boring-tool was slowly revolved by a compressed-
air engine placed above, through an intermediate vertical
shaft, formed of a pipe 13 inches in diameter, placed inside
another line of piping 26 inches outside diameter; the annular
space between the two pipes being divided into a series of air-
jackets, making a hollow working shaft of great strength, and
practically self-supporting in water. The object of this in-
genious hollow shaft was for the purpose of removing the earth
by a strong current of water constantly flowing up the central
pipe. To establish this current, a 12-inch syphon pipe was
provided, the inner leg of which was immersed in the hollow
boring shaft, and the outer leg into the water in the river.
The air was exhausted from the syphon pipe, and being re-
placed by water, a blow from the bottom of the cylinder, up
the shaft, and out by the syphon, was at once set in motion ;
in quantity proportionate to that discharged into the cylinder
by a pair of 13-inch centrifugal pumps. The soil of the river
bed, loosened and churned by the boring head, was discharged
together with the water, and by this means the cylinder was
gradually made to sink. The necessary additions to the length
of the pipe-shaft and the readjustment of the syphon, were
made from time to time, until the designed depth of sinking
was reached. The land cylinders, which were pitched in the
dry season, were sunk, by a modification of the same method,
through about 120 feet of the alluvial soil of the river-bed,
the necessary water being supplied by pumping.
The cylinders forming the piers being sunk, and finished off
at the requisite height of 50 feet above low water, the first
main girders of the superstructure were erected and riveted
up complete, in two parallel rows on the embankment of the
east approach to the bridge, and were rolled forward into
position by means of two powerful overhead lorries, from
.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
369
which, by the aid of overhead lifting gear, the girders could
be suspended. The lorries were furnished with flanged wheels
to run on rails, by means of which they could be moved to
and fro, whilst the weight was off them, but when the weight
was lifted and suspended, the two trollies carrying it were
moved forward on series of 31 inch iron-bar rollers, each 10
feet long, placed between the iron-shod sills of the lorries and
the rails. The first span of the bridge being dry, the girders
were hauled into place over a temporary staging between the
piers. This span was completed, and the railway was laid at
its proper level on the flooring girders; the temporary line on
the approach embankment being at the same time raised to
the necessary height. The six remaining girder-spans were
then erected, and had to be launched over the water ; this was
done by floating the forward end of the girders on a pontoon
furnished with carrying shears of the necessary height, the
after 'end being carried by the lorries.
The pontoon carrying the forward part of the load was
warped across the stream by the aid of suitable tackle, devised
for the purpose, and provision was also made for adjusting and
maintaining it in proper alignment during the operation. In
carrying out this system of launching, provision had to be
made for a possible considerable variation in the water-level.
To meet this contingency, the height of the supporting shears
carried by the pontoon was made adjustable, and it was further
arranged that when the forward end of the girders was floated
over the pier on which it was to be landed, the amount of
lowering required should not exceed 12 inches, and this degree
of lowering was effected by admitting water into the pontoon
and sinking it to the required extent. Numerous precautions
were also necessary to secure a sufficient lateral strength and
stabilty of the moving girders in case of high winds, which
would act against an exposed surface of 2400 square feet, and
to properly distribute the weight of about 65 tons borne by
the pontoon. These various delicate operations connected
with the launching and placing of the main girders were
rapidly and successfully carried out without the smallest
mishap.
The first pier cylinder was put into the water in November
S
a
370
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1867; and the whole bridge was completed, at a cost, includ-
ing protection works, of £148,375, by the end of the year
1870. The average time occupied in launching the girders
across the water-spans was about one hour, and the whole
superstructure of the seven main spans was erected and placed
in position in seven weeks and three days.
The late Oude and Rohilkund Guaranteed Railway Company,
whose various undertakings were taken over by the Govern-
ment under the contract terms in 1889, constructed a system of
broad-gauge lines situated almost entirely north of the Ganges
river, and opened up the rich tracts of country in Oudh and
Rohilkund, lying between Benares on the east, and Saharanpur
on the north-west. The company, which commenced opera-
tions in a somewhat humble manner, as the “Indian Branch
Railway Company,' in the year 1864 entered upon the con-
struction of a short branch line from the left bank of the
Ganges opposite Cawnpore to Lucknow, a distance of 45
miles, and subsequently, under its old or new title, gradually
extended lines of rail from Lucknow eastwards to Fyzabad
and Benares, and north-westwards through Bareilly and Mora-
dabad to Saharanpur, ultimately developing, with branches, a
system 6921, miles long. From the isolated position of these
lines, cut off entirely from the East Indian and other railways
south of the Ganges, the company was soon constrained to
connect itself with the general railway system of India, by
throwing bridges over the sacred river of the Hindus, and
this in no less than four places. No other railway company
has as yet anywhere bridged this river, unless the East Indian
Railway Bridge over the Hooghly channel, near Calcutta-
already referred tom is considered to be a Ganges bridge.
The two earliest bridges carried over the Ganges by the
Oudh and Rohilkund Railway Company, were those situated
at Cawnpore and Rajghat, both on branches, the first connect-
ing Lucknow with Cawnpore; and the second connecting the
upper districts of Rohilkund with Aligarh on the East Indian
Railway. The first of these bridges, viz., that at Cawnpore, is
2830 feet long, and consists of 25 deck girder-spans (with cart-
road below) of 100 feet each, and 2 of 40 feet. The girders
are carried at 32 feet above the lowest water; and the piers
S
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
371
are founded on single 18-feet wells, sunk to a maximum depth
of 65 feet below the same point, into the sandy river-bed.
The Rajghat Bridge, which is 3040 feet long, has 33 deck-
spans of 80 feet, placed 247 feet above low-water, and single
121 feet foundation wells sunk 55 feet. These bridges cost
£174,700 and £79,820 respectively—the latter being one of
the cheapest structures of its size yet made. The third bridge
over the Ganges is on the main-line extension of the railway
from Moradabad to Saharanpur, at Balawali. This fine and
relatively recent work-opened early in the year 1887–is
2904 feet long, and has 11 clear spans of iron girders, carrying
the roadway between them, of 248 feet each, or 264 feet centre
to centre of piers, placed 40 feet above the level of lowest
water. The piers are carried on double circular wells 20 feet
in diameter, sunk to a depth of 100 feet below low water in
pure sand. The finished cost of this bridge was £277,271.1
The latest, largest, and most important of the railway
bridges erected by the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway Com-
pany over the sacred Ganges, is that situated immediately
below the town of Benares, called the 'Dufferin' Bridge, in
honour of the Earl of Dufferin, during whose Vice-Royalty it
was constructed, and by whom it was officially opened in
September of the year 1887. This splendid work is un-
doubtedly in some respects the most perfect specimen of rail-
way bridge engineering in India, and a short description of it
of the Dufferin Bridge is chiefly drawn from official records,
and from a very full descriptive paper on its construction read
before the Institution of Civil Engineers on the 4th March
1890.2
For many years after the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway Com-
pany had completed its line north of the Ganges to Benares,
and to a point on the left bank of the river, situated opposite
the terminus of a short branch of the East Indian Railway,
from their main line at Mogul Serai, a cart service was main-
? For true cost of these and other railway bridges stated in Indian rupees, see
Appendix K.
? Vide vol. ci. Mlin, Proc. Institute of Civil Engincers.
372
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
12A
tained across the intervening river by means of a temporary
bridge of boats. In the year 1879 it was determined to con-
nect the two systems of lines on either bank by a permanent
bridge over the formidable channel of the Ganges lying be-
tween them. The construction of the bridge was approved by
the Secretary of State for India in July of that year, and
active steps were at once taken to prepare alternative plans
and estimates for a combined railway and road bridge, on the
site which had been already selected by the chief engineer of
the company.
The engineers had to decide upon the most suitable and
least expensive manner of throwing a railway bridge over a
river with a bed consisting virtually of pure sand extending to
an unknown depth, carrying a dry season body of water about
1800 feet wide and 37 feet in maximum depth, and liable to a
rise of 50 feet during the highest floods, at which times the
water, overtopping the low right bank of the river by some
7 or 8 feet, inundates the country for 5 or 6 miles inland.
On the left-hand side the river-bank is high, and is not liable
to be overtopped. During the greater part of the dry season
the velocity of the current is moderate ; but during high
floods it reaches 15 miles an hour, and the sandy bed of the
river is then sometimes scoured to a depth of over 30 feet,
giving a possible depth of water in full flood of no less than
120 feet in all. In order to allow ample headway for the free
passage of the river navigation, it was decided that the under-
side of any structure that might be designed should not be
placed at a lower level than 75 feet above the lowest water in
the river-or 25 feet above the top of the maximum floods.
The principal points which the engineers had first to determine
were : the total length of bridge waterway, and the size of the
individual spans; the description of pier, the depth of founda-
tions necessary-considered in reference to the extreme limits
of scour—and the general design and character of the super-
structure, so as conveniently to utilise the bridge both for the
railway and for ordinary wheeled traffic, and further—the
general data for the contemplated work being settled—it was
necessary to decide upon the most practical, as well as the
most economical and expeditious methods of construction,
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
373
whether as regards the sinking and founding of the piers, or for
the erection of the superstructure.
These initial questions were, after full investigation and dis-
cussion of various alternative proposals, finally settled as fol-
lows :—The total open water-way of the bridge was fixed at
3507 feet, made up of seven large spans of 356 feet each,
carried over the deep channel of the river, situated towards its
left and permanent high bank, and nine extension spans of
114 feet each, to pass over the raised portion of the river-bed
lying beyond the right dry-season bank. It was decided that
the piers should be founded on single elliptical blocks of brick-
work, pierced with three excavating chambers, and enclosed in
an iron shell or caisson sunk into the river-bed. Moreover, in
consideration of the limits of scour in high floods—so far as
yet observed—it was deemed necessary that the foundation
caissons and blocks should be sunk in the pure sand to a mini-
mum depth of 120 feet below low-water level that is to say,
to 83 feet below the ordinary dry-season bed in its deepest
part—but that this depth of foundation should be increased,
if careful soundings taken during extreme floods, should indi-
cate in the course of operations, that the bed was likely to
scour to a greater depth than 33 feet below the deepest dry-
season bed-or 70 feet below low-water-level.
With regard to the superstructure, it was determined to
employ girders constructed entirely of steel, this being at the
time the largest proposed application of steel for structural
purposes. The larger girders were designed of the compound
triangulated type, 3553 feet in length, and 35 feet 42 inches in
depth ; the smaller girders 113 feet 8 inches in length, by
11 feet 54 inches in depth, and it was agreed that the roadway
both for rail and for cart traffic should be carried on the same
level, between the large girders, and over the top of the smaller
extension spans. The height of the bridge and the depth of
the main girders being so great, and the right bank of the
river being so low, it was not considered economically prac-
ticable to arrange a separate road for ordinary wheeled traffic,
it became necessary, therefore, to provide a metalled road
22 feet in width-supported on strong buckled plates, on the
same level as the rails, to be used for such traffic in the intervals
374
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
between the passage of trains, and to place footways for
pedestrians 5 feet wide, carried on cantilevers outside the main
Several schemes were proposed for getting the huge main
spans of girderwork into position--such as floating them into
place by the aid of pontoons, or raising them from near the
water level by hydraulic lifts simultaneously with the building
up of the piers themselves, and some others. All these plans
were, however, discarded, as in one manner or another open to
practical objection under the circumstances of the river, and
the girders were ultimately built up in place—in spite of the
deep water in the channel—on very cleverly arranged stagings
of full height, erected on the river-bed between the piers.
Practical work on the construction of the bridge commenced
on the 19th January 1881, being started simultaneously at the
two abutments--placed 3507 feet 3 inches apart—and operations
for the most part of each working season were subsequently
carried on by night as well as by day, by the aid of powerful
electric lights. As a preliminary, it was necessary that the dis-
tance between the two abutments of the bridge should be very
exactly measured. This measurement was effected in the
following manner : first, two lines parallel with the centre line
of the work were ranged, each 85 feet on either side of it, so
that these lines being always clear of obstruction during the
progress of the work, the intermediate measurements could be
made and transferred from them. To ascertain the exact total
length, the portion on the dry bed was levelled, and the
measurement was made by steel tapes : that across the deep
water channel—a distance of about 1800 feet at low water—was
first fixed by a trigonometrical triangulation, and then by a
fine steel wire stretched across the channel, over pulleys exactly
20 feet high above water level. The wire was strained by
weights until it exactly touched the water surface in the centre,
and fixed points on either bank were then plumbed up to the
wire and marked on it by solder marks. The wire was now
carried on shore, and being fixed and strained in precisely the
same manner over a truly levelled piece of ground, the exact
distance could then be directly measured. This measurement
1
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
375
mined. Subsequently, when the work carried on from either
end of the bridge was joined near the middle of the river, an
error of a little over 1 an inch was detected.
On the Benares, or left-hand side of the river, the approach
line of railway crosses the Rajghat plateau, where in former
years there had been a strongly fortified post, to command the
river, crossing from the Grand Trunk road. "Tradition assigns
to this naturally very strong position a great antiquity, and
points to it as being the site of the stronghold of the ancient
rulers of the once mighty kingdom of Benares, which is said to
have extended from the borders of “ Chin” (Thibet) to Malwa,
and from the sea to within ten days' journey of Lahore.' The
British fortified post on the plateau was abandoned in the year
1865.
The piers of the Dufferin Bridge, carrying the large 356 feet
girder spans, were founded on single elliptical wells 65 feet
long, and 28 feet wide. The iron foundation-caissons varied
in height to suit the depth of water through which they had
to be sunk, the largest was 50 feet high, others being 42 feet
and 26 feet respectively; they were constructed of iron plates
inch and inch thick, with inner and outer shells 5 feet
apart, connected together by horizontal and cross bracings.
From the base of the outer shell, the inner shell inclined at an
angle of 45 degrees, up to a height of 6 feet, thus forming a
strong cutting edge which was further strengthened by a cast-
steel shoe. The interior wedge-shaped space thus formed at
the bottom, between the two shells, was at first filled in with
cement concrete, but it was afterwards found preferable to use
pure sand only. The caissons were divided into three internal
excavating chambers, by double cross walls also furnished with
tapered cutting edges, situated about 6 feet above the base of
the caisson. On the top of the caissons, midway between the
inner and outer shells, an iron crating of angle bars, well tied
together, was framed, which served to strongly bind together
the brickwork of the foundation blocks and the upper brick-
work of the pier. The system adopted in sinking through the
water was briefly as follows. The first 10 feet of the caisson
having been built on a temporary platform, between a pair of
iron floating pontoons coupled together at a distance of 32 feet
376
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
]
S
apart, and strongly moored into position, were lowered by chain
slings into the water by the aid of powerful tackle. Additional
sections were added to the top of the caisson, and it was gradu-
ally lowered; the weight being augmented by the concrete and
brick linings, until the lower cutting edge reached, and was
adjusted in its true position on the river-bed. The suspending
chains were then released, the interior brickwork was brought
up to a height of about twelve feet above water-level, and the
pier was now ready for sinking. The sinking through the river
bed was effected by mechanical diggers 8 feet in diameter,
working in the three excavating chambers. Each digger
weighed 31 tons when empty, and contained 130 cubic feet of
material when full, then weighing about 6 tons more. They
were worked by steam travellers carried on an overhead staging
57 feet in height erected on the pontoons, each capable of
lifting 20 tons. The material lifted by the diggers was
deposited into shoots at the side of the pontoons, and dis-
charged into the river. By this means rather under one foot,
or at the rate of 1.43 feet per day whilst the diggers were in
action, of sinking was effected; the elliptical pier blocks being
sunk at that average rate per working day.
The foundations of the seven piers for the main spans were
carried down to varying depths below the water-level. The
first three on the left bank of the river were secured into a bed
of firm yellow clay at a moderate depth, but piers Nos. 4 and
5—the first of which has the deepest foundation in the world
-were forced down through sand to the great depth of 141
and 140 feet below low water, or about 104 feet below the
deepest dry-season bed; these piers being thus no less than 215
feet in height from the bottom of their foundation to the
underside of the girders. During the operation of sinking the
piers, many interesting and curious objects : ancient relics, as
well as animal remains, were met with, which were carefully
collected and preserved, the position and actual depth at which
each article was found having been precisely recorded.
The work at No. 4 pier was seriously hampered by an
accident (the only serious one which occurred during the pro-
gress of the works) which might have entailed an enforced
modification of the bridge superstructure. The lower cutting
1
S1
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
377
edge of the iron caisson,—which in this case was 26 feet in
height—had reached a thin bed of clay situated about 50
feet below the river-bed, or 703 feet below low water, and
the masonry had been built up to a height of 91 feet, so as to
add as much weight as possible. The diggers had excavated
holes into the clay, about 9 feet below the lower edge of the
caisson, when a considerable portion of the side of the hollow
excavation suddenly fell in, displacing a large volume of water,
which was consequently forced upwards through the excavating
chambers, and overflowed the top of the brickwork. The
sudden and violent pressure of the water burst the sides of the
pier masonry, which, being new, and the mortar not having pro-
perly set, was fractured in two lines from the top down to within
a few feet of the top of the caisson. As the rainy season was
then close at hand, nothing could be immediately done, and it
was at first feared that an almost irremediable disaster had
occurred. As soon, however, as the floods had subsided, it was
found that the fractured portion of the brickwork, 62 feet
in height, 46 feet in width, and extending 21 feet below the
river-bed, had fallen away, and thus the difficult operation of
its removal by explosives or other means, was obviated. To
remedy this serious injury to the pier, the engineer in charge
of the work, with ready resource, devised a double wrought-iron
shield of exact size and shape to enclose the gap. This shield
was rapidly constructed at the site of the works, and was
sunk through the bed of the river, down to the base of the
fracture, by means of dredgers working within it; and when
the broken surfaces of the brickwork had been trimmed and
cleaned, and the shield was correctly fitted into place, the
interior space was filled in with cement concrete, and the top
of the patch was strongly bonded with iron rails into the old
work. By this ingenious and thoroughly successful expedient
the pier was rendered virtually as strong as ever, and the
whole was afterwards sunk 704 feet deeper than it was at the
time of the accident.
When each pier had been sunk to its proper depth, the
three excavating chambers were filled in solid with concrete,
and plugged at the top with brickwork. The foundation
masonry was built up to a few feet above low water, and was
378
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
finished off with a rough stone plinth, on which, on a slightly
smaller sectional plan, the upper pier work was built up in
solid brickwork to the necessary height of 727 feet above low
water level, each pier being finished off with a handsome ter-
minal cornice.
The nine smaller piers for the extension spans were founded
on two 127-feet wells, with iron curbs, pitched 25 feet apart from
centre to centre, sunk from 67 to 157 feet below ground-level
by means of dredgers. At 5 feet above low-water level the
two wells were connected by a corbelled arch, and the solid
piers were then erected on the top. These piers are 35 feet
long, and 10 feet wide, with parallel sides and semicircular
ends. The total quantity of brickwork in the Dufferin Bridge
is 1,876,289 cubic feet, or 69,492 cubic yards, and the cost of
the main piers was Rs. 7,57,988, or an average of Rs. 1,08,284
per pier, sunk to an average depth of 102 feet below low water.
The main girders of the bridge were erected in place on a
staging and platform formed by utilising the 114-feet-span
girders afterwards used in the extension spans. Three pairs of
these girders were supported in each larger span on two inter-
mediate temporary piers, formed by clusters of twelve 6-inch
solid iron screw piles, pitched 10 feet apart, well braced
together, and connected at the top by steel-plate girders ; the
extension girders intended to carry the weight of the main
spans in course of erection being temporarily strutted and
strengthened to the necessary extent. Some difficulty occurred
in erecting the temporary piers in the deep-water spans, where
the screw piles had to be fixed in 65 feet of water. Artificial
mounds or islands of sand, supported by walls of sand-bags,
were here formed to give lateral support to the lower portion
of the piling, and the temporary structures were stiffened by
steel-wire guys or ropes, secured to anchors up and down
stream. The main girders were erected, piece by piece, by the
aid of travelling gantrys or overhead cranes, carried by the
staging; they were set to a camber, or rise in the centre, of 9
inches, which was reduced to 6 inches on the supports being
removed, and to 41 inches under the full load of the roadway.
The riveting together of the steel-work of the huge girders
was almost entirely done by hydraulic riveters, and as the main

RAILWAYS IN INDIA
379
DUFFERIN' BRIDGE OVER THE GANGES AT BENARES, IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION.
380
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
-
DY
:
spans were successively completed and the temporary staging
was no longer required, the 114-feet girders were removed by
the pontoons, and carried to shore, where they were then com-
pleted, and lifted bodily into their final place by derricks. The
weight of a pair of main girders is 491 tons, and that of a main
span complete is 746 tons, or 5222 tons of steel-work in the
seven larger spans of the bridge. The extension spans weigh
127 tons each, or 1143 tons in the nine spans, making 6365
tons in the whole bridge. The cost of the steel superstructure
of the bridge complete, with road metalling and permanent
way, is given as Rs. 25,18,695, and the total cost of the whole
work as Rs. 48,91,151, exclusive of the railway and road
approaches.
On both abutments of the Dufferin Bridge block-houses
have been built, to contain troops for the military defence of
the structure. Construction work on the bridge was commenced
in January of the year 1881. On the 24th September 1887
the completed girder-work was tested with excellent results, by
a train, consisting of two engines, each weighing 88 tons,
placed in the centre, and loaded ballast wagons weighing 15
tons each, on each side, sufficient to cover one entire span of
the bridge. The total weight of the testing train was 296
tons. The bridge was formally opened for traffic on the 16th
December of the same year, by His Excellency the Viceroy,
the Earl of Dufferin.
The accompanying illustration, from a photograph taken
during construction, will give an idea of this remarkably fine
example of railway-bridge engineering.
CHAPTER XI
NORTH-WESTERN SYSTEM, ATTOCK AND LANSDOWNE BRIDGES
The North-western Railway system-Outline of some of the important bridges
-Detailed description of bridge over the Indus at Attock--Flood-rise of
the river-Liability of the district to earthquakes—The bridge site-The
design of the bridge-Getting in the foundations-Erection of the pier
columns—The temporary stagings for girders-Erection of the main girders-
Completion and testing of the bridge—The Lansdowne bridge over the Indus
at Sukkur-Site and design of the bridge—The cantilevers--Foundation of
abutments—The vertical pillars—The main inclined struts, and horizontal
ties-First erection of the steel-work in England-Detailed description of
the erection of the bridge at Sukkur_Temperature-Difficult setting out-
Building the struts and horizontal ties—Completion of the cantilever frame-
work—Bridging the central gap-Suspended staging employed-Completion
of the work.
THE “North-western Railway' of India is a magnificent
system of 5 foot 6 inch gauge lines, situated for the most part
in the Punjab, Scinde, and the frontier districts, aggregating,
with numerous branches, a total length of nearly 2400 miles.
The system stretches from Delhi to Lahore and Peshawur ;
from Lahore to Karachi, Quetta, and to the borders of
Afghanistan. A considerable portion of the present North-
western Railway was constructed and worked for many years
by the late Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi Railway (Guaranteed)
Company, which commenced operations as early as the year
1858, but the greater portion of the system has been constructed
at various times by direct Government agency—in great measure
as frontier military railways. In the course of their construc-
tion the railways have been carried over the whole of the great
Punjab rivers—most of them, viz., the Indus, the Sutlej, the
Chenab, and the Jhilum, having been bridged in two places.
The size and main particulars of the chief of these structures
will be found detailed in Appendix K.
2
381
382
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Excluding the two bridges over the Indus, some of the more
remarkable of these works are the ‘Empress' bridge over the
Sutlej at Adamwahan, consisting of sixteen spans of 250 feet
each, 4210 feet in total length, with foundations carried 103
feet below low water, costing over 71 lakhs of rupees. The
Sher Shah' bridge over the Chenab, consisting of 17 spans, of
200 feet each, 3650 feet in total length, with foundation-wells
carried 75 feet below low water, costing over 28 lakhs. The
' Alexandra' bridge over the same river, consisting of 64 spans,
of 1331 feet each, 9088 feet, or over 1 miles long, with founda-
tions 75 feet below low water, costing over 56 lakhs. The
Victoria' bridge over the Jhilum at Chak Nizam-opened in
1887-consisting of 17 spans of steel girders, of 150 feet each,
2720 feet long, with foundations 82 feet below low water, cost-
ing nearly 191 lakhs. The ‘Kaiser-i-Hind' bridge over the
Sutlej, near Ferozepore-opened also in 1887–consisting of
27 spans, of 144.1 feet each, of new pattern steel girders, carried
on brick piers 267 feet by 141 feet, built on wells 23 feet in
diameter. The bridge is 4293 feet long, with foundations 78
feet below low water, and cost over 41 lakhs of rupees. Each
of these works, from the various character of the great rivers
crossed, presents features of the highest engineering and general
interest, but the space at command will only permit the above
cursory notice.
It is necessary, however, to furnish a more detailed sketch of
two very remarkable structures, either of which—as indeed will
many of those omitted—compares favourably with similar
erections in any part of the world. The works to which we
refer are, the railway bridges over the Indus at Attock, and
over a lower reach of the same river at Sukkur, the last of
these bridges, as regards magnitude of clear rigid span, was for
some time the largest in the world, and has since only in one
instance been surpassed. The railway bridge at Attock carries
a section of the North-western Railway running from Lahore to
Peshawur (near the north-west frontier), and also the Grand
Trunk Road, over the Indus river. This section of line was
originally constructed for purely military purposes ; it was
completed as far as the Indus at the end of the year 1880, and
beyond that river to Peshawur early in 1882, but the magni-
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
383
ficent bridge over the river, together with the heavy cuttings
and tunnels on the approaches, were not opened until the 24th
May 1883.
Above the site of the bridge at Attock the Indus drains an
area estimated as equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland,
viz., 120,000 square miles. Rising in the elevated regions of an
unexplored portion of the Himalayan range of mountains, out-
side British territory, the exact length of the river is unknown,
but is taken to be upwards of 900 miles. Leaving the moun-
tain ranges about 30 miles above Attock, the river traverses a
plain country in a broad shallow bed, reaching 2 miles in
width; but before arriving at Attock, and for some distance
south of that place, its channel is contracted by ranges of rocky
hills, through which it winds in deep gorges for a distance
of about 90 miles, with a cold-season water surface ranging
from 300 to about 1200 feet wide. The volume of water is
usually at its lowest during the winter months, from November
to March, and at this time in its most contracted parts the
river carries a maximum depth of water of about 30 feet.
As the hot season advances, the melting of the Himalayan
snows causes the water to rise an additional 20 feet or so by
the end of May. The highest floods commonly occur during
the monsoon months, when the rise of water at Attock reaches
as much as 70-feet above low-water level. The river is also
subject to exceptional floods of almost unlimited volume and
rise, caused by landslips or heavy accumulations of ice, blocking
the course of its mountain tributaries. Immense quantities of
water impounded by the barriers thus formed are occasionally
suddenly released, creating violent and unexpected floods in
the main river. A flood known to have been due to temporary
impounding of the water occurred in February 1858, when the
water rose 70 feet at Attock, and it is probable that the great
flood of 1841, said to have risen over 100 feet above low water
at the same place, had a similar origin.
The Attock railway bridge presents an example of a design
specially modified and adapted to meet peculiar and unusual
local conditions. It was necessary to take into consideration
the possible re-occurrence of abnormal floods, such as those
noted above, and it was accordingly determined to place the
1
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bottom of the girders well above the level of the great flood of
1841, or at a height of 111 feet above low water in the river
at the point of crossing. The district of Attock is, moreover,
frequent occurrence, with a direction of seismic wave generally
east and west. To meet this source of danger it was considered
advisable to employ a more yielding and elastic material than
stone or brick for the piers of the bridge, and to substitute an
open wrought-iron frame-work. The wisdom of this decision
was fully confirmed even during the construction of the work,
for, on the 31st March 1883, a sharper earthquake shock than
usual occurred, when it was found that the girders of the first
span had moved forwards and backwards on the pier over one
inch, and the movement was probably much greater on the
higher piers in the centre of the river where it could not be
measured. The expansion rollers placed under the ends of the
girders permitted this degree of movement without causing
any appreciable strain, but had not these been in perfect working
order a considerable stress would have been thrown on the
piers. In the design of the bridge, provision had also to be
made for carrying the Grand Trunk Road as well as the rail-
way. The two roads are carried at different levels, the rails
above, and the cart, or military road below, between the
main girders.
The site selected for the Attock bridge was at a point in
the narrow gorge situated about two miles below the old Sikh
Fort, which for many centuries guarded the crossing on this
part of the Indus. At the bridge crossing the width of the
cold-weather water surface is barely 600 feet, and the river is
divided into two nearly equal channels by a central rocky
shoal. Owing to the contracted section of the passage, and
the consequent great velocity of the current, as well as from
the prevalence of high winds which sweep through the gorge,
the rocky surface of the valley within the limits of the highest
floods is everwhere swept perfectly clean and bare. The
and swiftest stream, and here the surface of the rock below
water is also clean, but the right channel, having a more
moderate current, has a sandy bed overlying the rock.

ASSISTAN
THE ATTOCK BRIDGE.

MICH
OF
RAILWAYS IN INDIA.
385
The design finally adopted for the bridge was as follows :-
The openings are five in number, the first two spans are
257 feet each in the clear, the third and fourth spans, which
cross the permanent water channel of the river, are each 308
feet in clear width, and the fifth or last span, on the west side,
is similar to the first and second. There are thus three spans
of 257 feet and two of 308 feet, and the total length of the
bridge is 1655 feet over all. The girders are carried at a
height of 111 feet above the lowest water, the rails being
placed at nearly 141 feet above the same level. The four
piers are each formed of 8 wrought-iron columns or standards
connected by horizontal and diagonal cross-bracings at intervals
of 23 feet of vertical height. The four central columns form
a rectangle, 19 feet by 14 feet at the top, and are only
slightly inclined downwards, whilst the two up and two down
stream columns, joining the main standards in the upper tier,
are widely spread out so as to act as struts to prevent over-
turning, bearing, however, their due proportion of the load.
Each column or standard is 21 feet square in section, and is
built up of wide angle bars at the corners, joined together by
3-inch iron plates. On two sides the plates are not continuous,
but spaces are left at regular intervals, the object being to
admit entrance into the interior of the columns for the pur-
pose of riveting, and for subsequent repainting of the iron-
work. On the summit level the four main columns are secured
together by a cross framing of girders forming a platform on
which the main girders of the bridge are carried.
The main girders, which are 264 feet deep, 3 feet 3 inches
wide on the booms, and are spaced 18 feet apart from centre
to centre, are constructed of steel, being calculated to bear a
working strain of 61 tons on the square inch. The general
aspect of the completed bridge, with surroundings, is pic-
turesquely conveyed by the accompanying engraving, repro-
duced by permission from Engineering of November 14th,
1884. The following outline account of the methods of con-
struction employed in the erection of the Attock Bridge is
abbreviated from a descriptive article on that work, published
in vol. xxxviii. of Engineering, Numbers dated November
28th, and December 12th and 26th, 1884.
2 B
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
By the adoption of 308-feet spans for the two main openings
of the bridge over the permanent water-channel all difficulty
with regard to the foundations of the iron piers, except in the
case of one, viz. No. 3, situated on the rocky shoal in the
centre of the cold-weather stream, was avoided. The surface
of the rock below water at the site of the central pier, exposed
to the full force of a strong current, was bare, except as regards
the fine micaceous sand lodged in the crevasses or hollows. It
was not practicable, therefore, to enclose the area of the founda-
tion by means of a timber cofferdam. The foundation was
consequently secured in a different manner. The outline of
the space to be enclosed was irregular in plan, being determined
by the form of the rocky shoal, and extended up stream con-
siderably beyond the actual requirements of the pier. It was
determined to enclose this space by sinking, and building up to
water level an enclosing dam or wall, formed of bags of Port-
land cement concrete. To effect this in the deep water and
strong current, and in the temporary absence of proper diving
apparatus, barges were moored just outside the line of the
proposed wall, and as much as possible of the fine sand, which
in places filled the crevasses of the rock, was removed by a
spoon dredge, the remainder being cleared by hand by native
divers, who, however, could only work imperfectly, and for
short intervals at a time, owing to the intense cold of the
water in the snow-fed river. When the rock was thus cleared,
small bags loosely filled with Portland cement concrete were
lowered on to the rock, and rammed into the cavities, until
gradually a thick enclosing wall of bags was built up to water
level. Above this level a wall of rubble stone, set in hydraulic
mortar, was built up to a further height of 5 feet.
The enclosed area was also divided into ten rectangular
compartments by cross walls built up in the same manner, and
in November 1881 pumping plant was got to work, and some
of the compartments were pumped out. It was then found
that the surface of the rock was not so sound as had been
supposed, and that, owing to numerous fissures, the influx of
water would be too great to allow of the cells, or chambers,
for the shoes of the pier columns being sunk into it to the
necessary depth. Proper diving apparatus having now been
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
387
obtained, it was determined to discontinue the pumping, and
the compartments into which the dam had been divided were
soon cleared of all sand and loose matter by the divers. The
compartments were then filled in solid with cement concrete,
which was left for the time necessary to harden.
Square cells were then cut down through the concrete to
the surface of the rock, and were continued into the latter
until perfectly sound and solid rock was met with. In cases
where passages communicating with the outside river were cut
into, the process had to be repeated ; cement concrete being
filled in, allowed to harden, and then cut through. The cells
were 7 feet square, or just a little larger than the shoes of the
columns. When all the 8 cells had been carried into the rock
to the required depth, which in the case of the central pier
was about 21 feet, the pier columns were cut to the necessary
length, and the massive iron shoes were riveted on. Each
bottom length was then lowered into its proper cell, and tem-
porarily adjusted in place. The next length of the columns
were fastened on, and the shoes were now brought into exact
horizontal and vertical position. Fine Portland cement con-
crete was carefully rammed under the shoes, as well as inside
and around them, and the cells were completely filled up with
the same material up to the level of the top of the dam. In
order to protect the standards of the central pier from the
shocks of floating rafts, or other objects carried down the
river, a concrete fender or cutwater, was subsequently con-
structed on the rock, on the up-stream side of them.
The method adopted in building up the pier columns was as
follows:-A 50-foot derrick or jib was placed near the centre
of the pier, capable of being inclined towards any particular
column to be operated on. The 23-feet lengths of column
between the horizontal and cross bracings having been pre-
viously riveted up, were hoisted into place, and the section
was braced together and completely riveted. The derrick was
now raised on a platform supported on the uppermost tier of
bracing, and the next length was hoisted and completed, and
so on, until the pier was finished to the full height. The first
column shoe was set on the 6th February 1882, and the four piers
were all erected and complete by the end of May of the same year.
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The main girders of the bridge were built in place on plat-
forms supported by staging erected between the piers. In the
case of the three smaller spans of 237 feet, no difficulty was
experienced, as the bed of the river in those spans was dry for
the greater part of the year. The platforms were here carried
on temporary piers spaced about 42 feet apart, formed of double
columns built up of wrought-iron cylinders 3 feet in diameter,
and in 9-feet lengths, with angle iron flanges; this material
having been collected in considerable quantity for the purpose
of constructing temporary bridges during the Afghan campaign,
and in part by the use of angle iron standards, with cross
struts and bracing, which happened to be available. For the
two main spans of 308 feet, across the water channel of the
river, a different system had to be adopted. In these spans,
viz. Nos. 3 and 4, no intermediate supports were admissible,
principally owing to the depth and strength of the current,
and to the necessity for keeping open a clear wide channel for
the heavy timber rafts and large boats laden with produce
from the upper reaches of the river. The staging, therefore,
in the main spans consisted of a series of long struts springing
from a point near the base of each pier, and spreading out like
a fan' to support a horizontal beam of double whole timbers,
on which the girder-erecting platform was laid. The pair of
main long struts or booms on either side were spaced 19 feet
apart, centre to centre, so as to come under the girders, and
were braced together. All the intermediate struts forming
the fan were similarly braced, and rigidly connected with each
other by horizontal half-timbers, or ledgers,' at equal vertical
distances of 12 feet; the ledgers were also secured to the main
columns of the piers by heavy wrought-iron straps. The two
outermost struts from opposite sides were connected above by
a whole beam, 63 feet long, of sal wood, trussed with three
vertical struts 10 feet deep, and by rods of 2-inch round iron,
the whole forming when complete a gigantic strut and strain-
ing-beam truss, 300 feet long, and over 100 feet high.
These massive stagings proved exceedingly satisfactory, the
maximum deflection or sinking under the enormous load of
over 600 tons imposed upon them-in addition to their own
weight-being only 1 inch. They proved, however, to be by
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
389
far the most difficult, as well as the most tedious, part of the
whole bridge operations. The stagings were commenced in
October 1882, and the second one was not completed until the
beginning of February 1883; the work of erection having been
much delayed by storms and high winds, which are very pre-
valent at Attock, during which it was unsafe to allow men to
work in such a high and exposed situation, and where their
limbs would quickly become numbed by the cold.
The erection of the girder work was effected by the use of
gantry cranes moving on rails laid on beams outside the girders.
In the case of the first of the 308-feet spans, from the laying
in place of the bearings, until the top booms were closed in,
eleven days were occupied, and in the case of the second span
took about a week longer in each case, and on the 5th May
1883 the first locomotive passed over the bridge.
The structure a few days afterwards was officially tested with
a test train, consisting of three locomotives weighing 64 tons
each, and eight loaded wagons of a gross weight of 18 tons
each, the engines being placed in the centre of the train.
The Government of India rules for testing railway bridges are,
that the load shall be allowed to stand on each span from ten
to fifteen minutes; the testing train is then moved first slowly
across the span, and lastly the train is driven across at the
highest speed. In each case the deflections are carefully
observed, as well as the lateral oscillation under the high-speed
test. The result of the trials in each case at the Attock Bridge
was very satisfactory, and the bridge was at once opened for
public traffic. The total cost of the Attock Bridge is officially
given as Rs. 32,20,516, but it is not stated whether this
excludes the block-house defences which have been constructed
for the military fortification and protection of the bridge.
The section of the North-Western Railway, extending from
Lahore, viâ Mooltan to Karachi, crosses the Indus at a point
close to the town of Sukkur. For many years a break here
occurred on the railway, and the passage was effected by a ferry.
Subsequently landing-stages, with steamers and flats, were pro-
vided, by means of which the railway vehicles were trans-
ported across the river; but soon after the year 1880 active
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
steps were taken for the elaboration and provision of a per-
manent high-level bridge, to render secure this important link
in the chain of communication between upper India and the
coast. At Sukkur the Indus passes through an isolated ridge
of nummulitic limestone of small elevation, and the river is
unequally divided into two channels by the island of Bukkur.
The left or Rohri channel carries the main body of water,
which is here 70 feet deep at low water. The rise of the river.
in times of highest floods is 17 feet, and the velocity of the
current is about nine miles an hour.
It was found practicable to bridge the right or Sukkur
channel by three girder spans of 278, 238, and 941 feet respec-
tively, the erection of which presented no difficulty, but the
main or Rohri channel—owing to the great cost, and undesir-
ableness on many grounds of employing a central pier—could
only be crossed by a single span of exceptionally large dimen-
sions. Hard limestone rock, sloping steeply down to the water,
is found on the left bank and on Bukkur island. At the upper
part of the island the channel could have been crossed by a
single span of 650 feet, but the approach embankment would
have cut through the middle of the town of Rohri, and its
increased cost, together with the heavy compensation that
would have to be paid for land and property, annulled the
advantage of this alignment. It was therefore determined to
cross the channel somewhat lower down, at a site where the
width of the single span could not be reduced below 820 feet,
or 790 feet in clear width from face to face of the masonry
abutments on either side. The structural features of the
design adopted for spanning this exceptionally large opening
have been much criticised, chiefly on account of the special
difficulties of erection of the ironwork which were entailed.
The "Lansdowne Bridge '—so named after the then
Viceroy and Governor-General of India—consists of single
cantilevers, one on each side of the channel, each having a
projection or overhang of 310 feet. The central gap, 200 feet
long, between the projecting ends of these cantilevers, is
spanned by independent girders. The general features of the
design and aspect of the huge main opening of the bridge-
the superstructure of which is throughout constructed of steel
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
391
--will be best understood from the illustration (vide Frontis-
piece). Each cantilever virtually consists of a gigantic shear
legs, or guyed crane, used to support the bridge platform at a
height of 52 feet above low water, or 35 feet above maximum
floods. The foundation-work consisted only in clearing away
the material down to the rock on either bank, which was
benched to receive the abutment masonry. In the absence of
suitable stone this was constructed of Portland cement concrete.
The anchorings for the back stays or guys, which are cellular
structures 32 feet by 12 feet by 6 feet-weighing 35 tons—are
situated about 250 feet to the rear of the abutments, and about
50 feet below rail level, and they are bedded firmly into or
behind the solid rock in cement concrete. On the abutments
the main bed-plates for the support of the cantilevers are also
cellular, 20 feet long by 10 feet by 8 feet-weighing 55 tons.
They are secured to the abutments by fourteen holding-down
bolts, 9 feet long and 3 inches in diameter, and further, to pro-
vide against any backward thrust, they are connected with the
solid rock behind them by a filling of Portland cement concrete.
The pillars and struts of the main framework of the cantilevers
are longitudinally spindle-shaped, square in section, and are
built up of curved corner-plates stiffened by angle bars at the
edges, and tied together by horizontal and diagonal braces
forming an open framework. The first vertical pillars, carried
on the abutments somewhat in the form of the letter A, are
placed with feet 100 feet apart, the legs are 170 feet high, and
weigh 183 tons. The main inclined struts similarly disposed,
forming the “jib' of the crane, are 230 feet long, and weigh no
less than 240 tons. These members are joined together at
the top by a horizontal tie-girder 123 feet long, and weighing
86 tons; the three members constituting the enormous primary
triangle of the cantilever framing. The entire steel work of
each cantilever was made in England, and was first put together
in the maker's yard, with the aid of a timber scaffold (such as
could not, however, be used at the site of the bridge), before
shipment, and the huge erection for a long time formed a most
conspicuous object on the banks of the lower Thames. Apart
from its great size, the chief interest of the Lansdowne Bridge
over the Indus lies in the difficulties encountered in its erection,
392
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
difficulties which were successfully overcome by many ingenious
expedients. It would not be possible, without the aid of
numerous diagrams, and the introduction of too many techni-
calities to be readily understood by the unprofessional reader,
to enter into any full and detailed explanation of the erection
of this remarkable work. The following brief account—the
data for which has been principally derived from a paper
descriptive of its erection read before the Institution of Civil
Engineers on the 2d January 1890—will convey a general
idea of the methods employed.
The first members to be erected were the large vertical
pillars on the abutments. These in actual construction were
built up with a slight backward rake-or inclination of 6 inches
to allow for the requisite elevation-or camber' at the end or
nose of the cantilever, and it was, therefore, necessary first to
erect a timber scaffold to support them during construction.
The scaffold was built to the profile of the holding-back guys,
and served also to erect them. The pillars were built up from
the bed-plates, and the guys from the anchorings, until they
met at the top, and the junction had to be made so as to give .
the backward rake of 6 inches to the pillars at a temperature
of 100°, which was fixed upon as the normal temperature, for
at Sukkur the temperature in the sun runs up to 180°, and
often exceeds 90° during the night. The next member of the
cantilever framework to be erected was the huge primary strut.
These immense booms, 230 feet long, and weighing together
240 tons, supported on a small base and riveted to the bed-
plate, had to be built out with a rake or inclination in two
directions, and their construction consequently involved a very
difficult piece of setting out to preserve them in proper align-
ment and direction. A temporary staging was erected on the
first lengths of the roadway girders, which it had been possible
to place in position by supporting their outward ends on a
temporary pier built in the river just outside the abutment.
On this staging was placed a double derrick crane, with a
sufficient sweep to command a considerable section of the
length of the main strut. A piece of the strut-generally
about 30 feet long and weighing 5 tons-was lifted out into
its place, and held by 11 inch wire rope ; its proper position
11
c0111
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
393
was adjusted with great and careful accuracy, the various con-
nections were made, and the work was then riveted up. After
the strut had been thus built out beyond the reach of the
derrick, another one, 75 feet long, was erected at a higher
level, on one of the cross or distance' girders, and the build-
ing out continued ; the work being held back by strong back
ties secured to the vertical pillars, and by a special main tie
from the summit of the latter.
On the completion of the enormous struts to full length
horizontal tie was in error to the extent of only inch on one
side of the river, and 12 inch on the other. The next opera-
tion was the erection of the permanent horizontal tie itself,
connecting the head of the vertical pillars with that of the
struts. The weight and length of the horizontal tie was too
great to admit of its being lifted in one piece; it was, therefore,
decided to erect it on a temporary suspension bridge, or sus-
pended staging, carried between the heads of the two main
members. The suspension cables, however, being attached to
the strut at the outer end, the operation presented this diffi-
culty—that the horizontal pull of the ropes when loaded was
more than sufficient to counterbalance the weight of the strut
by about 20 tons. This difficulty was met by loading the nose
increasing horizontal pull of the temporary bridge as the load
came on it, the main tie being first slackened. On the sus-
pension cables, braced trestles were arranged, so as to support
the steel work of the horizontal tie during its construction,
and until the head of the main verticals and the huge inclined
struts were permanently joined together, thus completing the
first triangle of the cantilever framework.
As soon as this triangle was successfully framed on each
side of the channel, two firm permanent points of support were
available from which to hang a system of overhead suspenders,
or carrying cables, from one to the other, extending for a dis-
tance of 547 feet across the channel, and by the aid of these
.suspender cables, and an ingenious arrangement of tackle and
gear, worked from the horizontal ties by portable engines
placed below, the remaining less heavy portion of the canti-
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lever steel work was built out over the river, the work being
A1
suitable carrying trestles), whenever the current permitted
them to work.
On the completion of the two cantilevers projected from
either abutment, it was found that their ends or noses were
exactly level, and in correct line-—or rather in the middle
position of the diurnal variation caused by the alternations of
temperature, for, as the bridge lies north and south, the effect
of the sun acting on alternate sides of the steel work caused
the nose to oscillate nearly an inch either way. The width of
the central gap was also correct at mean temperature. The
only work now remaining was the erection of the central and
independent girder span, 200 feet in length, joining the noses
of the cantilevers, and completing the connection across the
river. The gap is spanned by a pair of ordinary girders rest-
ing on rollers placed at the ends of the cantilevers. In design-
ing the structure it was supposed that these girders could be
floated into position, but this was not, for various reasons,
found practicable. It was then proposed that they should be
built on the cantilevers and launched across the opening, but
it was finally decided to use a staging built out from the canti-
lever noses, so as to enable the girders to be erected in place.
The temporary stage employed—as it was not possible to pro-
vide any central support from the river-bed—was a deck bow-
string bridge 196 feet 8 inches in clear span, and weighing
56 tons complete without the floor-planking. The line of
links forming the bottom chord was drawn across the gap by
the overhead tackle, and on the link pins the stumps of the
verticals and diagonals were strung. Next a length of the top
chord, with the verticals and diagonals hanging loose, was sent
out by the overhead tackle and placed in position, each vertical
being dropped over the stump belonging to it, the joints being
made by the use of cottered or slotted pins with keys. This
operation was repeated until the temporary bow girder was
completed, each bay being successively secured by the cross-
bracing. On the completion of the top chord the holding-
back chains were slackened off, and the previously suspended
structure became a stiff girder ; the pair of girders were then
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
395
horizontally braced to each other. This temporary work was
completed, with some difficulty, in seven days. The permanent
girders were erected on sand boxes, sufficient camber, or rise
in the centre, being given in setting the lower booms, to allow
for the deflection of the bowstring staging girders. The pieces
were all run out by the useful overhead gear, and the work
of erection was practically completed in four and a half days.
The floor of the Lansdowne Bridge is formed of corrugated
deck plating filled with wood, so as to give a cartway on the
same level as the railway, which passes over the bridge by a
single line. A footway for men and beasts of burden is also
corbelled out on both sides. Work on this truly noble bridge
was begun on the anchors of the Bukkur cantilever in April
1887, but at first progressed slowly for want of the steel work.
From November 1887 the work of erection was rapidly pushed
forward until its completion and testing in March 1889. The
total weight of steelwork in the huge main span is 3316 tons.
The total cost of the Lansdowne Bridge, including the three
minor spans over the Sukkur channel, is given as Rs.33,46,720,
of which Rs.27,89,340 is the cost of the great cantilever span
over the Rohri channel.
CHAPTER XII
NORTH-WESTERN SYSTEM-KHOJAK TUNNEL-OTHER RAILWAYS
The Sind-Pishin section of the 'North-Western Railway'-Outline of system-
The new Quetta loop by the Mushkaf and Bolan valleys–Rapid construc-
tion of the line from Ruk to Sibi-Hurnai Valley line-Extension of the
railway from Bostan to Chaman—The Khojak Tunnel-Largest railway
tunnel in India-Descriptive details of construction-Progress of the shafts
and headings—The rope inclines--Completion of the tunnel-Extraordinary
effects of an Earthquake-General particulars of the North-Western system
of railways-Outline of other railways—The Bombay Baroda and Central
India—The Tapti and Nerbudda Viaducts—The Rajputana-Malwa State
Railway of metre gauge--Principal structures and works—The Bengal,
Nagpur, and Indian Midland Railways-Principal works--The Railway
water-supply at Jhansi-East Coast Railway—The Bezvada bridge--Rail-
ways in Burma.
Ar Ruk Junction, situated only a few miles beyond the point
where the Lahore and Karachi trunk section of the North-
Western Railway crosses the Indus by the Lansdowne Bridge,
the Sind-Pishin section of the same railway commences. The
main line of the latter, 3351 miles long, has been constructed
as a frontier military line, and may be divided into two
portions. The first or level desert length of 1331 miles, runs
from Ruk Junction to Sibi, situated near the foot of the
Beluchistan Mountains, and the mouth of the Bolan and
Hurnai valleys. The second or mountain railway length
extends from near Sibi, viâ the Hurnai valley, to Bostan
(situated a few miles north of the frontier military station of
Quetta) and thence proceeds viâ Kila Abdulla and the Khojak
Pass and tunnel to New Chaman, on the northern or Afghan-
istan side of the dividing Amran range of mountains, within
a distance of 70 miles of Kandahar.
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RAILWAYS IN INDIA
397
A loop line extending from Sibi, viâ the Bolan Pass. to
Quetta and on to Bostan, was originally constructed, but the
portion of this loop, 98.1 miles long, passing through a very
difficult line of country from Sibi to Quetta, was made under
great stress as a temporary military line, and after having been
maintained in the face of great difficulties for some years was
in November 1891 made over for reconstruction on a new
alignment. The new Quetta loop by the Mushkaf and Bolan
valleys is not yet open, but work on it is being rapidly pushed
forward, as it is of the highest importance that a second
alternative line of railway should be permanently maintained
between Sibi Quetta and Bostan, in case the main line by the
Hurnai valley should at any time be blocked by landslips or
other accidents ; always liable to occur on a severe mountain
railway. On the Mushkaf alignment of the Quetta loop, the
works are generally of a very heavy character. There is one
through the line of hill forming the watershed between the
Mushkaf and Bolan valleys known as the 'Panir.' This tunnel
will be about 3000 feet in length. The line—which will be
about 86 miles long-runs along portions of the old Quetta
loop from Bolan Junction to Nari Bank--4 miles, and from
Kolpur to Quetta–25 miles. The new portion from Nari
Bank to Kolpur is, therefore, about 57 miles in length. The
total rise from Sibi to Kolpur is 5463 feet, and the railway
gradients over intermediate lengths are, 1 in 55, 1 in 35, 1 in
33, and 1 in 25. From the mouth of the Mushkaf valley the
country is very difficult, involving eight tunnels and four
crossings of the Mushkaf river. In the Bolan valley there
will be three tunnels, and some exceptionally high embankments
and deep cuttings. On approaching Kolpur the works are
again exceedingly heavy, including numerous rock-cuttings,
three tunnels and large bridges for nine crossings of the Bolan
river at high levels above its bed. Information as to the
details of these works is at present very scanty.
Turning now to the main line, and to the first portion of
the Sind-Pishin section from Ruk Junction to Sibi. At the
end of the year 1879 it was determined to push forward-for
emergent military purposes—and with the greatest possible
398
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
rapidity, a line of railway communication from the Indus valley
to the Bolan Pass, this being the best available route leading
from British India into Afghanistan. Only four months from
the date of receiving the first order, a broad-gauge railway,
1337 miles long, was opened for military traffic from Ruk to
Sibi. The greater portion of this length of line traverses a
triangular-shaped waterless plain, dry, barren and treeless,
locally named the ‘Put’ or desert. This sandy plain slopes at
an average gradient of 1 in 2000 from the foot of the Beluchi-
stan Mountains towards the Indus valley. For the first forty
miles, however, from Ruk, the ground slightly falls away from
the elevated channel of the Indus, and the railway over this
length is carried through thick jungle, except near the towns
of Shikarpur and Jacobabad, crossing in its course several
large inundation canals and water-distributing channels.
The rapidity with which the materials for the Ruk Sibi
section of the Sind-Pishin Railway were collected, and the line
laid and made serviceable for locomotive traffic, has hardly ever
been surpassed. Although the work in itself was of the
simplest character, its prosecution was attended with excep-
tional difficulties in connection with the housing, feeding, and
watering the large working parties of men and animals whilst
crossing the terrible desert portion of 93 miles, as well as from
the character of the climate during the winter months, which
is hot by day and intensely cold by night. The supply of
water was based on the estimated requirement of 5000 men
at two gallons per day, and 2000 beasts at five gallons, equal
to a daily supply of 20,000 gallons, and the supply was
furnished by training out water tanks by the material trains
running to the tip,' or advanced head of the works. The
execution of 1331 miles of railway in 101 days, or at an
average progress of 19 miles per day is a feat worthy of
mention, and was only possible under the most perfect system
of organisation in every detail of the operations. Yet so ably
conceived were all the arrangements for the regular and orderly
supply, whether of railway material, or of food, water, fuel and
shelter for the labourers and staff, during the fifty working
days occupied in carrying the railway over the ninety-three miles
of inhospitable desert, that practically no special inconvenience
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
399
1
was experienced, and from first to last the work progressed
with the utmost regularity and mechanical precision.
From near Sibi—the end of the desert section—the main
line traverses, viâ the Hurnai valley, a very difficult mountain-
ous country, involving works of exceptionally heavy character.
The line throughout has been constructed for a single line as
far as Gulistan (situated a short distance beyond Bostan),
beyond which it is double. The length of the line from Sibi,
viâ Hurnai and Bostan, to New Chaman, the present terminus
of the railway, is 2021 miles : of this length the Sibi-Bostan
portion was opened in the the year 1887. The ruling gradients
on this portion vary between 1 in 45 and 1 in 76, with 1 in 200
between Sibi and Nari. Between Bostan and Gulistan the
ruling gradient is 1 in 100, and from Gulistan to Chaman, 374
miles in length, the ruling gradient reaches 1 in 40, with
curves of a minimum radius of 819 feet. Over a length of 67
miles the bridging, tunnelling and earthworks on the Hurnai
valley section of the railway are of exceptional, and in many
cases of an extraordinary description. The more important
tunnels are nine in number, the two longest being 2024 and
1233 feet respectively. The total length of these tunnels is
8402 feet or 1.6 miles, and their construction cost the sum of
Rs.2,36,231. At 316 miles from Ruk Junction on the ex-
tension of the railway from Bostan to Chaman, the great Khojak
tunnel pierces the Khwaja Amran range of hills, the approaches
to which on either side involve earthworks of a most formidable
character. The Khojak tunnel—the largest railway or other
tunnel in India, has a total length of 12,870 feet, or just
under 21 miles. Of this, 7870 feet are lined with masonry,
and the remaining 5000 feet is 1 lined. It has been completed
with a section wide enough to carry through the hill a double
line of the standard or 5 foot 6 inches gauge, at a total
cost of Rs. 65,24,372. Very little information is available as
to the methods and details of construction of this recent and
interesting work, which was commenced in April of the year
1888: was practically completed in September 1891, and was
formally opened for traffic on the 1st January 1892. The
work on the tunnel was aided throughout by a special staff of
European miners, tunnellers, and electricians.

400
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
BREMIER
CHUPAR RIFT, HURNAI VALLEY RAILWAY.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
401
1
The orders of Government for the extension of the Sind-
Pishin Railway from Kila Abdulla (10 miles beyond Gulistan)
through the Khwaja Amran range, were issued at the end of
1887, but owing to the severity of the winter in these high
regions nothing could be immediately effected at the main
tunnel, or for the rope inclines over the summit of the pass,
which it was decided to construct for temporary purposes, and
for use during the construction of the main work. Staff
quarters and workmen's shelters were, however, got ready ; the
excavation of the deep cutting at the eastern approach to the
tunnel was commenced, as well as the east and west lined
shafts. Small shafts were also sunk at each main entrance
down to the tunnel level. In the course of the following year,
viz. 1888-89, the heading from the east portal of the tunnel
was run out to meet the east cutting, and towards the west
was carried 2296 feet into the hill. The second lined shaft
was pushed down to the full depth of 318 feet, and the head-
ings were carried 932 feet eastwards towards No. 1 shaft, and
1249 feet westwards towards No. 3 shaft. During the summer
months the springs failed, and water for all the working parties
on the east side of the hill had to be brought up in tanks from
Kila Abdulla, a distance of ten miles. The work at No. 3
lined shaft was sunk to the full depth of 281 feet, and the
east heading from it was carried 2740 feet towards No. 2. In
this shaft, on the 2d March 1889, a large spring was tapped.
Before any steps could be taken the pumps were 8 feet under
water, and by the 13th the water had risen 156 feet in the
shaft, necessitating vigorous measures to keep down the influx.
The gallery from the west portal was driven for a distance
of 2000 feet eastwards ; here also the heading was exceedingly
wet, but being on an ascending grade the backward drainage
was easy. This length of tunnel was joined to the heading
from No. 3 shaft on the 28th April 1889. At the end of the
official year, 1888-89, the length of headings driven was
7373 feet, out of the total length of 12,870 feet, 607 feet of
the masonry lining for double line was also executed, and the
rails (also for double line) were completed from Kila Abdulla on
the permanent formation. A temporary railway about seven
miles long was laid up to the foot of the rope inclines, Nos. 1
20
402
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and 2 of which were got to work over the Khojak summit in
October 1888, and No. 3 in February 1889. These inclines
served the purpose of conveying over the ridge, fuel and all
materials required for the west tunnel works and for the rail-
way beyond. Sixteen miles of permanent way material was
thus conveyed over the hill. The site for the New Chaman
Station or terminus of the line, was also selected at a spot
about six miles below Chaman Fort, at the foot of the western
slope of the Khwaja Amran range.
During the year 1889-90 the headings from the shafts, which
throughout were driven in water-bearing shales or shingle with
layers of soft mud, requiring heavy timbering, were pierced so
as to practically complete this operation, the progress during
the year being 5070 feet. The masonry arching was also
completed for a length of 5997 feet. The headings of the
tunnel were joined towards the end of April 1890. Owing to
the large quantity of water met with, and also to the extremely
treacherous nature of the ground in the final 300 feet of the
workings, which caused frequent slips and entailed the most
careful timbering, the progress of the headings was very
seriously delayed during the last few months. The progress
of the arching was also very greatly affected by the same
cause,
By September of the year 1891 the masonry lining was
virtually completed, and the first construction train passed
through the tunnel from end to end on the 5th of that month.
On the 1st January 1892 the section of line from Kila Abdulla
to New Chaman station, 29.35 miles in length, laid with a
double track, and passing through the Khojak tunnel, was
formally opened for traffic; the works throughout this difficult
section of line having occupied nearly four years in all.
To convey an idea of the vicissitudes and dangers to which
some Indian railways are exposed, the following press notice of
the extraordinary effects of an earthquake, which occurred on
December 20th, 1892, in the Quetta district and southern
parts of Afghanistan, will be of interest :- In the neighbour-
hood of the Khwaja Amran range the shock was very severe: a
tower in one of the blockhouses was cracked, some walls were
shattered, chimneys were shaken down, and several old houses
S

RAILWAYS IN INDIA
403
MOUTH OF KHOJAK TUNNEL
404
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
tumbled into ruins. In the Khojak tunnel the noise was
deafening, and workmen engaged on the roofing were thrown
from their perches to the ground. There was, however, nothing
very extraordinary in these effects ; it was on the line of rail-
way between the tunnel and Old Chaman that a curious
phenomenon occurred. At mile 643 (from Karachi) four or
five lengths of rail were found to have been bent by being
opened out sideways, while all the joints near by were jammed
up tightly. The bent rails were removed, and the work of
putting in new ones was proceeded with. What was the sur-
prise of the engineers to discover that the measure was less by
2 feet 6 inches than the original length. This was due to a
crack or sheer' which crossed the railway bank at an angle of
about 18 degrees, exactly at the place where the track had
been contracted. This crack bears a little east of the meridian,
passes through the old bazaar near Chaman Fort, and according
to native reports, extends across the main range of the Khwaja
Amran eighteen miles away. The fact clearly established by
the shortening of the railway track (says the Pioneer) is that
the earth's crust has contracted 21 feet in the vicinity of the
Khojak. This will be good news for those scientists who are
on the watch for facts to support the theory of the gradual
contraction of the earth. The evidence is indisputable, and
the photographs taken on the spot show exactly how the rails
were twisted out of the straight. One rather shrinks from
thinking what the effect on the Khojak tunnel would have
been had it come within the destructive action of the shock.'
The total length of the whole North-western system of State
railways at the end of the year 1891 was 2399miles, includ-
ing 981 miles temporarily made over to the Mushkaf Bolan
Railway, and 11 miles constructed, but not working. The
system is administered entirely by the State, and includes a
considerable mileage of non-commercial frontier railways con-
structed and maintained as a portion of the military defence of
the empire. The kind and weight of the permanent way over
such an extensive system of lines varies considerably, but
68 lbs. double-headed steel rails, and 75 lbs. flat-footed steel
rails are the most commonly used for renewals, laid on sleepers
of cast-iron, wrought iron, or wood in different situations.
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
405
The total capital outlay on the whole North-western system
of railways, exclusive of steam ferries and suspense items, is
given as Rs. 3333,46,055, or 381 millions sterling at par of
exchange, or an average rate of Rs. 1,59,757 per mile of road.
An early and important trunk line of railway on the standard
gauge is that belonging to the ‘Bombay Baroda, and Central
India Railway Company.' This railway, 4602 miles long in-
cluding branches, with 60 miles of double track, extends from
the Bombay terminus at Colaba to Ahmedabad, and effects a
junction with the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway of metre
gauge, extending thence to Agra and Delhi. The latter rail-
way has been leased to the Company from the 1st January
1885 to the 30th June 1900. Some portions of the Bombay
Baroda, and Central India Railway were opened as early as the
year 1860, and the system has since gradually expanded to its
present dimensions. The line runs northwards from Bombay
viâ Surat in close vicinity to the coast, in accordance with the
system of coast lines originally advocated by Colonel Kennedy,
to which reference has been made in a previous chapter. The
principal engineering works on the railway, which, however,
contains many of considerable secondary importance, are the
viaducts over the Nerbudda and Tapti rivers.
The bridge originally constructed over the Nerbudda was
seriously injured by a flood in the year 1876. The structure
was repaired and maintained for some little-time, but was
eventually replaced by an entirely new viaduct, which was
opened in 1881. The new viaduct is constructed with piers
for a double road, and consists of twenty-five spans of 1832 feet,
each carried at a height of 487 feet above low water, and with
foundations 76 feet below the same point. The total length
of the work is 46871 feet, and it was completed at a cost of
Rs. 37,75,759. The Tapti viaduct is a smaller structure,
having thirty spans of 60 feet each, carried at 501 feet above
low water. The greater portion of the permanent way on the
double-headed rails weighing 68 and 69 lbs. per yard, on
timber sleepers, iron sleepers being, however, used for renewals.
The earthworks are generally for a single line, but the piers
and abutments of bridges are made to carry a double track.
406
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The Rajputana-Malwa State Railway® which is a metre
gauge system of lines, aggregating, with branches, 1674 miles
in length-represents the first and only important trunk
system constructed on that gauge in India. The main line
extends from Ahmedabad, viâ Ajmere and Jeypore, to Delhi
and Agra, and has numerous important branches, or connected
narrow-gauge lines. The first section opened for traffic was.
from the Delhi end in the year 1873. The line is constructed
for a single track. Sufficient land, however, is occupied to
admit of another line of rails being laid. The rails originally
used were 36 lbs. and 40 lbs. weight per yard, laid on wooden
cross sleepers. The 36 lb. iron rails have nearly all been
replaced by steel rails, weighing 411 lbs., and steel rails of
50 lbs. section are now used for renewals on certain lengths.
The principal structures on the Rajputana-Malwa State
railway are the bridges over the Nerbudda, and over the Jumna
at Agra and Muttra. Important bridges also occur over the
Bangunga, Shallas, Dhund, Amanishah and Sipra rivers-the
latter consisting of six spans of 150-feet girders, on masonry
piers, and there are heavy works on the ascent of the Vindhya
Ajmere. The viaduct over the Nerbudda is a fine structure,
consisting of fourteen spans of 183 feet, carried at a height of
80 feet above low water, costing Rs. 18,73,925. The bridge
over the Jumna at Agra has sixteen spans of 133 feet each, with
foundation of piers 70 feet deep, and that over the same river at
71 feet below low water. The cost of these Jumna bridges was
Rs. 18,33,877 and Rs. 8,49,000 respectively.
The two most recently finished standard-gauge trunk-lines
now open for traffic in India are the Bengal-Nagpur, and the
Indian Midland railways, both constructed by companies. The
Bengal-Nagpur main line extends from Asanol (132 miles west
of Calcutta on the East Indian Chord line) to Nagpur, the
chief city of the Central Provinces, where it connects with the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway from Bombay. It conse-
quently completes an important direct communication, 12781
miles in total length, between the two capital cities of India, viz.
Bombay and Calcutta. The main line of the Bengal-Nagpur
AT
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
407
railway is 627 miles long, and including the Umaria-Katni
State line, taken over by the company in 1888, the system has
a total mileage of 860$ miles. From the Nagpur end the first
1453 miles of the line was originally constructed as a provincial
State railway on the metre gauge. This length was, however,
converted to the standard gauge, when the extension of the
line to join the East Indian railway near Calcutta was under-
taken by a company. The converted length from Nagpur to
Raj Nandgaon was opened in November 1888, and the new
trunk system, which was opened in sections, was completed, in-
cluding nearly all its branches, early in 1891.
On the main line the permanent way consists of 75 lbs. flat-
footed steel rails laid on transverse steel sleepers. There is a
good deal of heavy bridge-work on the railway, the two largest
structures being that over the Sheonath, consisting of fourteen
girder spans of 150 feet each, and over the Damuda, of two spans
of 100 feet, and ten of 200 feet each. Two important tunnels
also occur on the system, viz. the Saranda tunnel, 1641 feet
long, through rock and rocky shale, costing over 71 lakhs of
rupees, and the Bhortonck tunnel, 1000 feet long, through
hard rock interspersed with veins of quartz, costing over 2
lakhs of rupees.
The Indian Midland Railway is an important system, com-
prising 6771 miles of standard-gauge lines, the main trunk of
which, 3157 miles in length, extends from Bhopal (where it is
in communication with Bombay by the Bhopal-Itarsi, and Great
Indian Peninsula railways), viâ Jhansi, to Agra. A branch,
1802 miles in length, extends eastwards from Jhansi to Manik-
pur, on the Jubbulpore branch of the East Indian Railway.
From Jhansi also another branch, 1352 miles long, extends
northwards to Cawnpore, and a short branch of 464 miles runs
from Bina to Saugor. The Bhopal-Itarsi State line, of 57 miles, is
worked by the company, and the system—which was virtually
completed by the end of the year 1889-embraces several
projects, initiated and partly or entirely constructed, by the
State, the whole being taken over and worked under contract
by the Indian Midland Railway Company.
S
1 The work is not quite finished (1893).
408
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The main line and branches of this railway are constructed for
a single line, with flat-footed steel rails weighing 80 lbs. to the
yard, laid on oval pot sleepers weighing 80 lbs. each (except on
the length from Cawnpore to the Jumna near Kalpi—where
the rails are of 75 lbs. section). There is a large amount of
bridge-work of an important and costly character. The bridge
over the Chambul river (opened only in May 1891) consists of
twelve spans of 186, and two of 136 feet, carried at the great
height of 1121 feet above low water, with pier foundations 75
feet below the same point. The cost of this work was 32,71,035
Rs. The bridge over the Jumna at Kalpi (constructed by
the State) consists of ten spans of 250 feet each, placed 761 feet
above low water, with pier foundations sunk 90 feet, and cost
Rs. 25,27,545. There are two bridges across the Betwa river :
one (Manikpur) opened in 1889, has thirteen spans of 150 feet,
with one of 60 feet, carried at 77 feet over the lowest water-
the other (Laltipur) has nine spans of 150 feet. These bridges
cost Rs. 13,95,181 and Rs. 7,64,672 respectively. The bridge
over the Ken (Banda) has twelve spans of 100 feet each, and
one of 250 feet, carried at 66 feet above low water, and cost
Rs. 7,36,008. Besides these bridges there are numerous
others of considerable size. Between Jhansi and Gwalior some
heavy rock-cuttings over the Antri pass, with a bridge of nine
spans of 100 feet, and one of 60 feet, over the Sindh river. On
the Bina-Saugor branch the ruling gradient is 1 in 100. On
the main line the ruling gradients are 1 in 200, and 1 in 150,
and from Jhansi to Manikpur 1 in 125.
The principal centre of the Indian Midland Railway is
situated at Jhansi, from which place four separate lines of rail
radiate in different directions. The large railway staff of all
departments here collected forms a very considerable civil
population, and in order to provide water, both for the railway
locomotives and works, and for the staff of employés, some
extensive water-supply arrangements became nccessary. The
yearly rainfall in the Jhansi district is comparatively low and
Huctuating, and it was considered advisable to provide a suffi-
cient storage of water to meet all the demands of the railway
during several years of deficient rainfall. For this purpose a
storage reservoir, covering 150 acres of ground, and containing
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
409
400 million gallons of water, has been constructed near the
village of Guddia, situated about 4 miles west of Jhansi station,
by throwing a weir across the Pahooj river, where it passes
through a gap in the granite hills, and it is calculated that this
reservoir will be sufficient to meet all the demands of the rail-
way during a period of three successive years of minimum
rainfall. The reservoir depends for its supply on a catchment
basin of 84 square miles ; and 4 inches of rainfall on this,-
allowing for absorption, etc.-is estimated to be sufficient to
fill the reservoir.
The main weir, which is 620 feet long, and 34 feet high,
above the bed of the river, is founded on solid rock, and is
built of masonry throughout. It has been made of sufficient
section to allow for its future raising if necessary. At the
north end the weir abuts on the rocky base of the hill. At
the south end it terminates in a substantial abutment, raised
well above the highest water-level, on which the boilers and
pumping machinery are placed. In continuation of the main
weir, behind the abutment, and connecting it with the face of
the hill which bounds the reservoir on the south, is a massive
bund or embankment, 750 feet long, on which the delivery
main is carried. This bund is constructed of earthwork.
Three hundred feet down stream is a secondary dam, designed
to head up the water and form a cushion for the overflow of
water from the main weir. The pumping machinery is calcu-
lated to deliver 24,000 gallons of water per hour, direct
through 4 miles of 9-inch main, to a height of 87 feet, into a
high service reservoir constructed at Jhansi, from which the
distribution takes place by gravitation. This system of railway
water supply has been constructed at a cost of 2,92,000 Rs.-
or £29,200 at par of exchange.
On the 17th March of the current year (1893) a large rail-
way bridge on the new 'East Coast Railway,' now in course of
construction, was opened for traffic. This important bridge—
which crosses the river Kistna at Bezvada, and is the largest
in Madras, has occupied three years in construction. It con-
sists of twelve girder spans of 300 feet each, carried on piers of
stone masonry. The East Coast Railway of standard gauge,
will, when entirely completed, connect Madras with Calcutta,
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PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and will considerably shorten the journey between the two
cities. The portion of it at present under construction has a
length, with branches, of 516 miles.
No allusion has been made in this volume to the lines of
railway constructed in Burma; these being outside the limits
of India. In concluding the present chapter, however, it may
in that province. The Burma railways are all of the metre
gauge, and emanate from the port of Rangoon. The 'Irra-
wadi Line,' 161 miles long, extends from Rangoon to Prome,
and is laid with steel rails of 50 lbs. section for a distance of
29.1 (9 miles of which are double), and beyond with rails of
40 lbs. to the yard. The bridging is heavy, owing to severe
floods from the Irrawadi river. The “Sittang Line' runs 166
miles from Rangoon to Toungoo, and is laid for a single track,
with steel rails of 411 lbs. section on wooden sleepers. The
bridging is especially heavy, there being 15,730 lineal feet of
waterway, or an average of over 94 feet per mile of line.
From Toungoo the ‘Mandalay Line' extends 220 miles to the
latter city, and is laid with steel flat-footed rails of 50 lbs. to
the yard. There are seven important bridges on this length,
each with three or four spans of 100 to 150 feet. The “Mu
Valley Railway' has been carried for 53 miles north of Man-
dalay, and is in course of construction for a further 261) miles
to Mogaung.
The total mileage of railways open for traffic in Burma, in-
cluding branches, at the end of March 1892, amounted to 630
miles. The Irrawadi line to Prome was opened in the year
1877. The Sittang line to Toungoo in 1884-85; and the
extension to Mandalay was completed in the year 1889.
CHAPTER XIII
GENERAL WORKING RESULTS AND STATISTICS-CONCLUSION
S
Mileage-Capital cost, and working results of Indian railways—Value and
exactitude of Indian railway statistical returns-Growth of the Indian rail-
way system-The standard gauge-First departure from it-Introduction of
the metre gauge-Principally confined to feeders - Special gauges-Change
of policy-Assisted companies—Mileage and respective gauges of Indian
railways by quinquennial periods-Classification and mileage-Capital out-
lay and cost per mile-Reasons of difference in mileage cost of standard and
metre gauge lines Working results-Gross earnings—Working expenses
Percentage of working expenses to gross earnings-Net earnings-Return
on the whole capital expenditure-Passengers and goods traffic-Main re-
sults_Classes of vehicles-Rates and fares-Early introduction of two
classes only-Passenger and goods rolling-stock-Distribution of persons
employed-Native engine-drivers and shunters-Accident returns--Fuel
supply-Consumption of fuel-Indian coal-Centralised administration and
control of Indian railways-Advantage to India-Imperfect powers of the
Board of Trade in England— Concluding remarks.
It is now time to convey as briefly as possible to the reader, a
general idea of the whole extent of the Indian railway system,
and by the assistance of such statistical details as may be of
general interest, to indicate some of the principal data respecting
the mileage, capital cost, and working results of Indian rail-
ways, considered as a whole, and to note their exceeding value
and importance to the Government and peoples of India. In
doing this, it will be unavoidably necessary to make use, to a
certain extent, of figures, and tabular statements, expressive of
quantities and values, for which the indulgence of the reader
is craved.
It would, as a preliminary, be a matter of very considerable
interest to illustrate in some detail, the very admirable and
uniform manner in which Indian railway accounts and
statistics of all kinds are placed before the public, as well as
the very perfect and minute system of external financial con-
411
412
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
trol exercised. In these respects, Indian Railway administra-
tion has perhaps from the very beginning been well in advance
of that in any other country of the world, and notwithstanding
the unfortunate circumstance that statistical details of expen-
diture are somewhat complicated by the unavoidable inter-
mixture of two standards of value, and that some apparent
confusion is occasionally created by the non-coincidence of the
financial and calendar years, it would not be too much to say
that the railway statistical returns of all kinds, published and
exhibited yearly under the system enforced by the Indian
Government are, on the whole, more perfectly clear, exact,
and valuable for every purpose of record and comparison, than
any similar returns that have yet been elaborated by any rail-
way or Government authority in existence. It would, how-
ever, be impossible to indicate--even in outline—within the
very limited compass of such a volume as the present, dealing
as it does not only with railways but with every variety of
public works—the system and principles on which the elabo-
rate accounts and comparative statistics of Indian railways are
compiled ; the attempt, moreover, would be a trespass on
ground of too special and technical a character.
Initiated on the 18th April 1853, with the opening of the
first section of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, between
Bombay and Tannah, a distance of 204 miles, the Indian rail-
way system has steadily, and with a judicious rate of progression,
expanded, until its total mileage open for public traffic, is now
practically equal in extent to that of the United Kingdom.
Including all classified denominations, and gauges of line, the
mileage of Indian railways, on the 31st March 1892, reached
17,564 miles, of which 1116 miles only were laid with a
double track, and extensions equal to nearly 1700 miles were
in course of construction.
The gauge of all the earlier lines—which, as we have seen,
were constructed by companies working under a fixed Govern-
ment guarantee, was originally established at 5 feet 6 inches,
and this still remains the standard’ railway gauge of India.
The first departure from it was in the year 1863, on the opening
of 274 miles of a railway on a special gauge of 4 feet, built by
the ‘Indian Branch Railway Company;' afterwards the Oudh and
2
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
413
C
Rohilkund Railway Company, between Nalhati and Azimgurh,
in the North-west Provinces. This line remains a solitary
instance in India of a railway constructed on that gauge. In
the year 1864, a line from Arkonum to Little Conjevaram, in
Madras, was built by the “ Indian Tramway Company,' under a
subsidy system, on the 3 feet 6 inches gauge, but was after-
wards, in 1878, converted to a width of one metre, or 3 feet
33 inches.
The idea of superseding the 5 feet 6 inches gauge originally
adopted for Indian railways, by the construction of lines of a
narrower and lighter description, which could be opened with
greater rapidity, and at a less initial cost, had been frequently
mooted, but in the year 1870,at a time when about 4600 miles of
main trunk lines on the standard gauge had been constructed,
the recommendation that a narrower width should be em-
ployed in the case of all future lines of railway was made by
the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, and supported on
the ground of economy. The Indian Government authorities
came to the conclusion that a gauge of 3 feet 6 inches was the
maximum that should be used in the future, but the precise
dimension was left for determination in England, and a com-
mittee was appointed to consider the subject, with the result
that a gauge of 3 feet 33 inches, or one metre in width, was
accepted as the gauge for future railways. This decision led
to a memorable controversy between the advocates for adher-
ence to the original broader gauge, and for strict uniformity in
this particular, and those who contended that the evils of a
break of gauge had been greatly exaggerated, and that the cir-
cumstances of India were such, that the country was practically
constrained for the future to be content-either with a narrower
and much cheaper kind of railway than heretofore, or submit to
gress towards a complete railway system.
This heated and lengthened discussion—which emulated the
celebrated “ battle of the gauges, fought out in the early days
of English railways, when Brunel introduced an altered gauge
on the Great Western, was attended, however, with little
immediate advantage beyond placing on record the views of
the contending parties. The Government of India had, in
414
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
fact, come to a decision on the subject; the metre gauge was
introduced into the country, and in the year 1873, 911 miles
of a trunk line (eventually extended to 1261 miles), viz. the
Rajputana-Malwa State Railway, was opened for traffic. From
this date the construction of metre gauge lines in India has
steadily progressed. They were introduced, on the score of an
urgent economy, as the future type for all Indian railways; but
notwithstanding the supposed inability, in 1873, of the country
to continue the construction of the more perfect, and, in con-
sequence, more costly standard gauge lines, the relative length
of railways on the two gauges, built from the year 1873 to
1892, inclusive, have in round figures been as follows—broad
gauge lines 5000 miles, metre gauge lines 7000 miles. The
main trunk routes having been originally made on the broader
gauge, its continued use in a large number of cases became a
practical necessity, and India, although it has reaped some
possible advantages in the possession of a greater total mileage
of railways than it might otherwise so early have enjoyed, has
had to submit to whatever evils may have resulted from a break
in uniformity.
With the exception of the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway,
the metre gauge has been practically confined to feeders of the
larger lines, or to more or less isolated systems, and it is
probable that the evils of want of uniformity of gauge will be
very greatly mitigated or removed, when the aggregate of these
lines or systems throughout India are connected together in
such a manner as to form a complete internal network of
narrow-gauge railways, subsidiary to, and working within, a
main framework of trunk lines of the heavier description.
There is, in fact, room in India for both kinds of railways.
In more than one case, however, injudiciously located metre
gauge railways have been converted, almost on the eve of com-
pletion to the standard gauge, and the conversion of the
Rajputana-Malwa trunk line itself has been powerfully urged.
Moreover, the economy and advantage of the continued em-
ployment of the metre gauge, even for feeder lines, is still
seriously called in question by many persons. In addition to
the metre gauge, a small mileage of lines of special abnormal
gauges have been constructed in various parts of India, under
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
415
peculiar or local conditions, but these lines in no way affect the
general railway system of the country.
With regard to the construction of railways generally, in
the year 1869 a new policy was inaugurated by the Indian
Government. The earlier system of guarantee was abrogated
on economical grounds, and it was determined thenceforward
to largely or entirely construct Indian railways by direct
Government agency. Subsequently, however, the policy of
constructing new lines by the aid of assisted companies-
working under modified terms more favourable to the State
has been resorted to, and in one case, viz. that of the Bengal
and North-western Metre Gauge Railway, a line has been
constructed by a limited liability company, with a free gift of
land, but no guarantee.
The mileage and respective gauges of Indian railways,
together with the rates of construction, from the commence-
ment down to the 31st March 1892—à period of practically
thirty-nine years, can be best exhibited in the form of the
following table, showing the length of lines opened in the
several quinquennial periods from 1853 to 1892 inclusive—the
last period being short of nine months.
LENGTH OF LINES OPEN DURING QUINQUENNIAL PERIODS
1853 to 1892.

Quinquennial Periods.
Standard
Gauge.
| Metre
Gauge.
Special Total Mile-
age opened.
Miles.
Miles.
2881
80*
231*
3
Miles. Miles.
2881
1965) 82*
14937
14107
6071 1324)
13362 13961
1917 2200
10851 | 20641
1853 to 1857 inclusive, .
1858 to 1862
1863 to 1867
1868 to 1872
1873 10 1877
1878 to 1882
1883 to 1887
1888 to 1892 (31st March), .
Total Miles actually open, .
لم نینجا
در
20471
16003
14338
1952
2823.
4231:
3187
.
10,103
71711 2881
17,564
Lines under construction or sanctioned on 31st March 1892,
26941
Total Mileage open, under construction, or sanctioned on
31st March 1892, . . .
20,2581
* Originally 'Special Gauge,' afterwards converted to Metre Gauge.
416
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
It will be seen from this table that 17,564 miles of railway
of all classes have been opened for traffic in the thirty-nine
years previous to 1892, or an average throughout that period
of 4501 miles per year, equal to an average rate of 1.44 miles
of railway per working day. Excluding the first quinquennial
period, the maximum mileage was opened in the years 1883 to
1887, and the minimum in the years 1868 to 1872. In
addition to the above it may be mentioned that there were in
existence at the end of 1891-92, 374 miles of steam tramways
outside municipal limits. The classification of Indian railways,
and the mileage worked under each class, on the 31st March
1892, are exhibited in the following table :-
CLASSIFICATION AND MILEAGE OF INDIAN RAILWAYS.

Classification of Indian Railways.
Standard
Gauge.
Metre
Gauge.
Special
Gauge.
Total.
Miles.
Miles.
33163
Miles.
50881
Miles.
84044
State Lines worked by Companies, il
State Lines worked by the State, .
3491
11464 | 638
4701
6807)
62345
638
13,1051
25881
25881
3798
1841
1364
59
Total State Lines, .
Lines worked by Guaranteed Com-
panies, ·
· ·
Assisted Companies, . . . .
Lines owned by Native States and
worked by Companies, . . .
Lines owned by Native States and
worked by State Railway Agency, .
Lines owned and worked by Native
States, .
Foreign Lines, . . . .
399)
I 22
122 1
714
5931
124
I24
*
620-1
94
7141
*
581
588
Total Miles, .
.
10,1038/ 71711 288.1 17,564
It will be learned from the above table that the State owns
13,1054 miles out of the total mileage of 17,564, of Indian
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
417
railways. This length includes several important lines such as
the East Indian, the Scinde, Punjab and Delhi, and the Oudh
and Rohilkund Railways, originally constructed by guaranteed
companies, but since acquired by the Government under the
contract terms. The comparatively small mileage as yet
owned by native States will also be remarked.
The total capital outlay against all Indian railways, includ-
ing that incurred on collieries, surveys of lines abandoned, or
not yet begun, on unfinished lines, steamboat services, suspense
accounts, and, in fact, on all heads-up to the end of the
calendar year 1891, amounted to 22,767 lakhs of rupees, or
over 2271 millions sterling at par of exchange.
Excluding the expenditure on collieries and surveys of lines
abandoned or not yet begun, but including unfinished lines,
steamboat services and suspense accounts, the total capital
outlay amounted to 22,676 lakhs of rupees, or over 2264
millions sterling at par. Deducting, however, for purposes of
comparison, the cost of unfinished lines, steamboat services and
suspense accounts, the capital outlay on open lines of railway-
the mileage of the several classes opened and working at the
end of 1891, and their average cost per mile were as follows:-
CAPITAL OUTLAY AND COST PER MILE.

Gauges.
Miles open on
31st Decr. 1891.
Capital Outlay.
Average Cost
Rs.
Miles,
10,047 73
1,62,696
Standard Gauge, .
Metre Gauge, .
Special Gauges, .
.
.
.
6,946.68
Rs.
16,347,27, 103
4,961,69,625
86,13,182
71,425
29,875
· 288.31
Total of all Railways,
·
17,28272 | 21,395,09,910 /
1,23,795
The very great difference, as exhibited by the above table,
between the cost per mile of the standard gauge lines and that
of the metre and special gauges requires some comment. It
must not be overlooked that the difference is very largely due
2D
418
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
generally, of the smaller classes of railways, and to the com-
parative absence on these lines of engineering works of the first
order of magnitude. The 5 feet 6 inches—or standard gauge
-railways form the main trunk lines of communication
throughout India; the metre-gauge lines, with the principal
exception of the Rajputana Malwa State Railway, are for the
most part subsidiary or feeder lines. On the broad-gauge
railways from 11 to 12 per cent. of their total length is laid
double, and on all the older lines, forming a large proportion
of the whole, the earth work formation has been made for a
double track, as well as the bridge and culvert masonry in
many instances. On the metre-gauge, however, there is prac-
tically no double line, and little or no provision for doubling
the rails has been made. The broad-gauge railways of India
are, in point of weight and quality of permanent way, ballasting
and fencing, and in great respect also as regards station accom-
modation, fully equal to the best European lines, whilst the
majority of those of the narrower gauge are constructed with
light rails of 414 lbs. per yard, have as a rule a minimum of
station accommodation, and in many cases are unprovided
at least for many years after opening—with full ballast, and
are also commonly unfenced. Many of the lines of special
gauge are still lighter and less finished in these particulars
especially in station accommodation-and have, moreover, in
many instances been laid on ordinary cart roads, with works of
a very limited kind.
On the standard-gauge railways, nearly all the heaviest
engineering constructions and works of special magnitude are
to be met with, whether as regards the enormous bridges over
the principal rivers of the country—some of which we have
illustrated in previous chapters—or the splendid and costly
mountain roads for surmounting the Thul and Bhore ghâts,
on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and the difficult
passages through the mountains of Beluchistan on the extension
of the Sind-Pishin Railway to Quetta and the Afghan frontier.
On the main trunk routes these difficult and costly under-
takings had of necessity to be encountered, whilst in the case
of the majority of the metre-gauge lines--constructed for the
most part as subsidiary and feeder railways—the occurrence of
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
419
any specially difficult and expensive works would at once have
been an effectual bar to their original construction. To
exemplify this, it is only necessary to turn to the tables of
large bridges and tunnels, given in Appendices K and L, from
which it will be seen in the case of important bridges that for
the standard-gauge lines 127,911 lineal feet, or 241 miles in
length, of large bridge-work, costing 925,25,694 rupees, have
been provided, against 21,014, lineal feet or less than 4 miles,
costing 116,42,982 rupees, on the metre-gauge lines, whilst on
the latter railways no tunnels of important size will be found,
against 45,431 lineal feet or 83 miles of tunnelling, costing
150,45,991 rupees, which have been necessitated on lines of the
standard gauge. Again, the average age of the standard-gauge
railways is greater than the average age of the metre-gauge
lines, and the former have developed and carry a far heavier
traffic. Their capital cost, therefore, includes a much larger
proportion of expenditure, due to additions and improvements
-subsequent to the initial outlay—to meet continually aug-
menting requirements. It will thus be seen that the actual
capital cost per mile, as exhibited in the table, of the broad
and metre gauge railways of India, does not fairly represent a
true comparison under similar conditions of the relative mileage-
cost of the two descriptions of railway.
Turning now to 'working results': the gross earnings on
all Indian railways for the calendar year 1891 (the last year
for which the information is available) were 2404,02,790 rupees
Of this amount 76.56 per cent. was earned by the standard-
gauge lines, 22:88 per cent. by the metre-gauge, and the
balance of 0.56 per cent. by the special-gauge lines. The
following table shows the distribution of the gross earnings
under the main heads of account:-
i Vide ‘Indian Railways,' by F. J. Waring, M.I.C. E., vol. xcvii. Min. Proc.
Institution of Civil Engineers.
420
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
.
Gross EARNINGS.

Gauges.
Gross Earn.
ings per Mile
of railway
Coaching.
Miscellan-
eous and
Steamboat.
Goods.
Miles
Open.
Total.
Rs.
Rs.
18,318*73
Standard Gauge, 552,25,243
Metre Gauge, ·| 216,93,010
Special Gauges, 6,19,367
Rs.
Rs.
Rs.
1240,28,024 | 48,08,415 | 1840,61,732 | 10,047*73 |
313,59,838 19,58,026 550, 10,874 6,946.68
6,93,304 17,513
13, 30, 184
288-31
7,919'01
4,61372
Totals-Rs. | 735,37,620
1560,81,166 | 67,84,004 2404,02,790 | 17,282°72
13,910
The total working expenses' on all railways during the
year 1891 were 1130,38,471 rupees, distributed as follows :-
WORKING EXPENSES.

Gauges.
Working
Expenses,
Miles open.
Expenses per
mile of railways
open.
Rs.
Standard Gauge, . . 831,03,801 | 10,047 73
Metre Gauge,. . 290,82,250 6,946.68
Special Gauges,
8,52,420 288-31
TOTALS-Rs. 1130,38,471 17,282972
Rs.
8270*90
4186.50
2956.60
6540 60
The percentage of working expenses on gross earnings on
all railways taken together was 47.02 per cent., distributed
throughout the various heads of service as follows :-
PERCENTAGE OF WORKING EXPENSES ON Gross EARNINGS.

Main Loco-
tenance, motive,
per cent. per cent.
Carriage
and
wagon,
Steam-
Traffic. | General | boat and! Total
per cent. per cent.
| Miscel per
laneous, centage.
per cent.
6.87
Standard Gauge, 12064 | 15'09 | 436
Metre Gauge, · 13.69 17.79 4:21
Special Gauges, | 14'94 2040 6.08
8:06
4'05 2:14 | 45'15
6.93 2:19 52.87
9°73 | 1°81 64.08
II'08
TOTALS,
12.89
15074
4'33
| 4*74 | 2.15 | 47'02
7.17
02
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
421
The 'net earnings' realised were 1273,64,319 rupees, dis-
tributed over the three classes of railways as below:-
NET EARNINGS.

Gauges.
Net Earnings,
· Rs.
Miles open.
Net Earnings
per mile of
railway open.
Rs.
10,047.83
Standard Gauge,
Metre Gauge,.
Special Gauges,
.
.
.
. 1009, 57,931
.1 259,28,624
1 477,764
6,94668
288.31
3,732-50
1,657•10
TOTALS,
. 1273,64,319
17,2829727,369-40
It will, from the above table, be deduced that in the year
1891, on every mile of open railway the net earnings of the
standard-gauge lines were as one rupee against slightly less
than 6 annas in the case of the metre gauge, or as £1 against
7s. 6d.
The return on the whole capital expenditure on open lines,
including steamboat services, etc. during the year 1891, was
5.76 per cent. distributed as follows :—Standard-gauge lines
5.98 per cent.; metre-gauge lines 5:04 per cent.; special gauges
5:42 per cent. The mean mileage worked during the year was
17,037.63 miles, and the total results may be summarised
as follows :-
GENERAL RESULTS, INCLUDING STEAMBOAT SERVICES AND SUSPENSE
ACCOUNTS.

Gauges.
Mean
Miles
worked.
Average
Capital outlay, | cost per
Rs.
mile.
Rs.
Gross
Earnings,
Rs.
Working
Expenses,
Per
cent.
Net
Per
Earnings, cent on
Cap.
Rs.
Rs.
Standard Gauge, 10,055*82 16,869,18,826 162,696* 1840,61,732 831,03,801 45'15 1009, 57,931 5'98
Metre Gauge, . 6,695*225,149,13,408 71,425 550,10,874 290,82,250 52-87 259,28,624 5'04
Special Gauges, 286959 88,09,682 29,875 13,30,184 3,52,420 64'08 477,764 5'42
Totals, 17,037-63 22,106,41,916 123,795*2404,02,790 1130,38,471 47-02 1273,64,319 576
* Excluding Steamboat and Suspense.
422 PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The total number of passengers carried by all the railways
in India, during the year 1891, was 122,855,377, and the
gross earnings amounted to Rs. 775,37,620, or Rs. 14,110
per mean mile worked. The number of passengers booked per
mean mile worked was 7211. The average distance travelled
per passenger was 45.98 miles on the standard-gauge lines,
and 38.17 on the metre-gauge railways. Of the total number
of passengers carried the two lowest classes constituted 97.34
per cent., the second class 2.26 per cent., and the first class
0:40 per cent. of the whole.
The total tonnage of goods carried was 26,158,953 tons, or
1535 tons per mean mile worked, and the gross earnings were
1560,81,166 rupees. The passenger mileage reached 5,226,107,
973 miles, and the goods ton mileage 4,438,992,431 ; the total
number of train miles being 60,800,165.
The main results of working all the Indian railways during
the year 1891, divided over the three heads of gauge, will be
found detailed in Appendix M.
There are, as a rule, four classes of vehicles for passenger
traffic on Indian railways, viz. Ist, 2nd, 3rd, or intermediate,
and the 4th, or lowest class. The fares charged vary con-
siderably in working, but the schedule of maximum and
minimum fares for coaching traffic are as follows :-
Maximum
Minimum
pies per mile. pies per mile.
First class,
12 equals 2 d. to 1.d. at par.
Second class,
9
6 » 1 d. to 2d. »
Intermediate,
3 , 1d. to 3d. »
4th or lowest class, 3
1} , gd. to id. »
The ordinary fares for the lowest class are from 2 to 3 pies
per mile, or from one, to one and a half farthings. A man
can, therefore, generally travel by railway a distance of 400
miles within the 24 hours, for the small sum of Rs. 4.2.8, or
say, Ss. 4d. at par of exchange. To get over this ground by
ordinary road journeys would take him from thirty to forty
days, and the humblest traveller would of necessity expend a
greater sum for his daily food during this interval ; the
generality, even of the poorer class, would probably expend
double this amount.
18
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
423
Although the railway passenger classes are so numerous on
Indian railways, it was in India that probably the earliest
experiment was made of employing only two classes for pas-
sengers, such as adopted now for many years on the Midland
Railway in England. The Indian Branch Railway Company,
afterwards the Oudh and Rohilkund Railway, originally in- .
troduced two descriptions of vehicles for passenger traffic,
respectively called the “Upper' and 'Lower' classes, corre-
sponding with the 1st and 3rd classes on English lines.
Subsequently, however, an intermediate fare, and a some-
what superior carriage was interpolated into the lower class.
At the end of the year 1891, the number of locomotive
engines employed on the main railway system of India (i.e.
excluding the special gauges) was 3763 in all, or 2535 of
standard, and 1228 of metre gauge, and the quantity of pas-
senger and goods rolling-stock, at the same time was as
follows:-
PASSENGER AND Goods ROLLING-STOCK AT END OF
YEAR 1891.

Classification.
Standard
Gauge.
Metre
Gauge.
Total.
463
345
808
522
270
792
90
First-class carriages, . .
Second-class carriages, . .
Third or intermediate carriages,
Lowest or fourth-class carriages,
Composite carriages, . .
Miscellaneous carriages, . .
.
.
233
3,565
2,666
323
6,231
1,061
644
417
930
456
1,386
Totals, Passenger rolling-stock,
.
6,357
4,244
10,601
Goods vehicles of all kinds,
Brake vans, . . .
.
.
.
.
44,370
2,067
24,252
926
68,622
2,993
TOTAL, Goods rolling-stock, .
46,437
25,178
71,615
424
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
It will be of interest also to point out the number of per-
sons of all races engaged on the service of Indian open lines
of railway, as they are distributed throughout the various rail-
way departments. At the end of the year 1891 the total
number of persons so employed was 260,598, of whom 250,036
were natives of the country, 5936 were Eurasians, and 4626—
or 17.75 per cent. only of the whole—were Europeans.
The distribution of the above number of persons was as
follows:-
DISTRIBUTION OF Persons EMPLOYED ON INDIAN RAILWAYS.

Departments.
Europeans. Eurasians.
Natives.
Total.
353
451
13,771
14,575
1567
2197
54,625
General administration, including
agency, audit, accounts, stores,
medical, printing, police, etc., .
Traffic and telegraph departments,
Engineers' department, . ...
Locomotive and carriage and
wagon, inclusive of steamboat
establishments, . . . .
58,389
112,978
486
491
II2,001
2220
2797
69,639
74,653
TOTALS, .
4626
5936
260,056
260,595
Of the 260,595 persons employed, 198,225 were engaged on
the standard-gauge railways, and 62,373 on the metre-gauge.
The total number of railway stations throughout India was
2427, or 1489 on the standard, and 938 on the narrow-gauge
lines. The mileage open (of these two gauges) was 10,048
and 6947 miles respectively, so that the average distance apart
of the stations is 6.75 and 740 miles.
The efficient training and employment of natives of the
country in the responsible positions of drivers or shunters of
locomotives, has for many years occupied the careful attention
of railway authorities in India, and it will be of interest to
the reader to note the gradual but steady increase in this
important class of railway servants during the ten years,
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
425
1881 to 1890 inclusive, as exhibited by the following
table :-
NUMBERS OF NATIVE DRIVERS AND SHUNTERS, 1881 to 1890,
INCLUSIVE.

Class.
1881. 1882.
1883. 1884. 1885. / 1885. ||
1888.
1889.
1890.
18. | 1882. 1883. 1884.2885.2885.1887. 188. 1889. 1890.
456 579 55 650 724 805 326
Drivers, .
| 278
724 | 808
826
335 391 | 456 519
295 325 382 386
Soon
433
Shunters, .
269
414
444
444
458 | 472
458
472
TOTALS,
Totals, 547 630 716 778 905 994 1083 1168 1261 1298 |
Although, for persons who take ordinary care, there is cer-
tainly no safer mode of travelling than that by railway, never-
theless, in spite of the most stringent precautions, a certain
yearly number of accidents to trains will inevitably occur on
every railway, or railway system in the world. The accident
returns on Indian railways for the year 1891 may be thus
briefly summarised. The number of train accidents per 1000
train-miles was 0.07. Out of the 122 millions of passengers
travelling 56 were killed, or 1 in 2,190,000, and 135 persons
were injured. The total number of passengers killed or in-
jured, viz. 191, gives an average of 27 millions of miles
travelled for each casualty. Few persons thoroughly realise
the extraordinary security of railway travelling. Taking the
last Board of Trade returns of railway accidents in the United
Kingdom, and deducting the casualties for which the passen-
gers themselves were clearly responsible, it appears that a
traveller might expect to make 966,244 railway journeys with-
out mishap, and 169 million journeys without being killed.
A reasonably cautious person, therefore, making two journeys
per day on every day of the week might hope to escape fatal
accident for at least 270,000 years.
One of the most important questions connected with the
economical working of Indian railways is that of fuel supply.
The three or four thousand powerful iron horses that daily
and hourly are traversing some portion of the length and
426
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
breadth of the country with so great a rapidity, drawing
behind them such immense loads of vehicles, passengers, and
merchandise, can only maintain their vigorous life and energy
by a prodigious consumption of mineral or vegetable food, in
the shape of coal, coke, or wood. In the year 1891, the loco-
motive engines on Indian railways consumed no less than
1,036,498 tons of coal, and 363,171 tons of wood, coke, or
patent fuel. Of the coal consumed 216,822 tons were English,
and 782,664 tons were of Indian production.
Although coal was known to exist in India so long ago as
the year 1774, and was actually worked in 1775, it is only
during the last twenty years—under the stimulus of railway
requirements--that any notable development in the exploration
and opening up of the chief coal-fields of the country has
taken place, and it has been ascertained that the area in India
over which the coal formation may be presumed to extend, is
not far short of 40,000 square miles. Most of the more im-
portant collieries are worked in connection with the railways,
and by direct or indirect Government agency. The yearly out-
put of this important mineral, from collieries chiefly situated
in Bengal, Assam, the Central Provinces, and the Nizam's ter-
ritory, reached in the year 1891 a total quantity of 2,118,680
tons, as compared with 997,730 tons in 1881, of which—as we
have seen—782,664 tons were burned on the railways, the
balance going either to maintain the stocks in hand, or to in-
dustrial manufactures. A statement showing the quantity in
tons of coal produced in India during the last twelve years,
and the distribution of the output over the several provinces
of the country is subjoined in Appendix N.
In the year 1857 the Indian Government had opened 2881
miles of railway, which carried during the year two millions
of passengers and 253,000 tons of goods. By the end of 1891,
17,283 miles of railway were in operation, which carried during
the year nearly 123 millions of passengers, and over 26 million
tons of goods. As we have seen, the rates charged for pas-
sengers on these railways are as low as one farthing per mile,
whilst the goods rates range as low as one halfpenny per ton
per mile.
The centralised administration or control of Indian railways,
constructed also under a rigidly enforced system of standard
RAILWAYS IN INDIA
427
dimensions both for works and rolling - stock, and under a
thoroughly efficient and minute supervision exercised by the
Government inspecting officers, acting with the widest powers,
has been of incalculable benefit to the public, and has freed
India from many of those evils which have grown up, and
proved well-nigh insuperable, under the exercise of the largely
irresponsible powers which in England and America has fallen
into the hands of the great railway monopolists. In England,
the officers of the Board of Trade, exercising their functions
under a very strictly limited legislative authority, have little
or no power to order ; they are for the most part restricted to
recommendations, that in many instances are quite insufficient
to cope with the vast weight of private and monetary interests
to which the recommendations are opposed.
The following extract from a memorandum issued by the
India House in 1889, on some of the results of Indian
administration during the previous thirty years of British rule
in India, will fitly conclude the subject of railways :---
'It is hardly necessary to refer here to the incalculable benefits
done by railways, which in time of need carry food from prosperous
districts to famine-stricken provinces; or to the impulse given to
production and trade when railways carry to the seaports surplus
products that would otherwise have found no market, and might
have rotted in granaries; or to the enormous addition to the
military strength of the country, when troops and material can be
moved to the frontier, or to any scene of disturbance, at the rate
of 400 miles, instead of 10 miles a day, and at one-sixth of the old
cost. Railways have now been made, or are being made, on all
the main routes in British or Native territory. The system of
military railways on the North-west frontier is nearly completed,
and several lines which do not pay commercially have been con-
structed for the protection of tracts specially liable to visitation by
famine. Cross lines and branch lines have still to be made, and
during the two years 1886 and 1887, new lines or extensions,
aggregating 2228 miles, were opened. In the North-west
Provinces and Oudh, the richest and most densely peopled tract in
India except lower Bengal, railway extension has progressed so
far that it has been stated that no village, except in the Himalayas
and hill tracts south of Mirzapore, will be more than 40 miles from
a railway station by June 1889, when the Indian Midland Railway,
now under construction (1887-88) will be completed.'
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Introductory remarks--Early adoption of well-sinking and impounding water in
tanks—Method by which the modern water-supply of towns is effected-
Ancient water-supply schemes all gravitation works-Absence of pipes, and
means of pumping-Sub-soil wells-Roman aqueducts—The 'Pont du
Gard'-Advance in modern water-supply arrangements—Increased purity
and pressure of the water--Leading principles of modern water-works-
Source of water— Rainfall-Consumption of water-Intermittent and con-
stant service systems Design of water-works—The reservoir-The embank-
ment or dam-Foundation trenches-Puddle and other details Waste-weirs
and arrangements for drawing off water-Straining and screening-Pumping
schemes-Conveyance of water-Conduits and pipes-Inverted syphon in
lieu of aqueducts-Service reservoir-Settling tanks and distribution.
JUI
-LL sections of mankind, raised in
the least degree above the lowest
level of barbarism, have in every
age recognised the supreme im-
portance of a plentiful supply of
pure water for the use of the in-
habitants of those often densely-
populated centres to which we
give the name of cities or towns.

SUNA
and causes of most of the diseases
which afflict humanity are to some extent known and under-
stood, a pure and ample water-supply is, on rational and
scientific grounds, seen to be the sine qua non of all sanitary
conditions, for it is to a scanty or impure supply of this great
necessary of life that the bulk of the epidemic diseases, especi-
ally those connected with fevers or cholera, may be traced. All
the known civilised communities of ancient Europe or America
have left us certain evidence that the provision of water for the
431
432
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
wants of their great centres of population largely occupied
their attention. This evidence is given us in the numerous and
often vast ruins of aqueducts or other costly works constructed
by them for this purpose.
In the East, whether in Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, Persia,
India, or China, the artificial water-supply of towns was un-
doubtedly studied and practised before the dawn of European
civilisation.
In India the art and practice of impounding the rainfall in
tanks, or reservoirs, is probably contemporaneous with the first
introduction of Aryan speech into that country. Owing to the
extreme dryness of the climate of India, this was the most
readily available method of securing and storing supplies of
water in large quantity, especially in those parts of the country
where, during the seasons of drought, the natural water-courses
are either dry, or exceedingly scanty in volume. In Hindustan,
all the larger cities naturally grew up along the banks of the
great perennial rivers, where water for the use of the in-
habitants was available in abundance. In the case of im-
portant towns or villages at a distance from the streams, a
supply of water for drinking and domestic purposes would be
largely derived from the subsoil by means of well-sinking, an
art developed and skilfully practised at a very early stage by all
the Eastern races ; but in order to obtain those larger volumes
of water necessary for the frequent personal ablutions, washing
of garments, and other purposes imposed by the religious
customs of the country, the construction of artificial tanks for
the impounding and storing of water in large masses, would
soon be resorted to, wherever the opportunity of so doing pre-
sented itself. These tanks, so numerous in India, are generally
supplied directly by the rainfall on their own catchment basins,
but in some cases they doubtless were fed, either partially or
entirely--in early times as at present—by ducts or channels
led from the nearest, or most convenient permanent watercourse.
In most cases the tanks are found at or close to the villages or
towns; these, in fact, having in some measure grown up around
them ; but in many parts of the country instances are met with
of storage reservoirs, constructed at suitable places situated at
a distance from the towns supplied from them. In these cases
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
433
(
water from the main reservoir (a greater or less proportion of
which may be utilised for the irrigation of the intermediate
fields) is led by means of channels, or by enclosed masonry
ducts, into one, or into many smaller tanks, or cisterns, situ-
ated either in the town itself, or in the neighbouring surrounding
gardens, and from these tanks the water is distributed for the
domestic service of the population, either by the porterage of
a special caste of water-bearers or by the lower-class female
population. One of the most familiar sights in India, as indeed
generally in the East, is the crowd of female water-carriers,
passing and repassing with their earthenware or metal vessels
of water gracefully poised on their heads, or collected together
in feminine gossip at the margin of well or tank.
The water-supply of towns in modern times is effected by
one of two methods, viz. either by natural gravitation or by
pumping. In the first method the water is collected from
springs, or by impounding flood-waters in reservoirs, at an
elevation sufficiently above the level of the town to command
the whole or greater part of it, the water being delivered by
the natural force of gravity. In the second method the
necessary elevation is given to the water by the mechanical aid
of steam, or other source of power, applied to the purpose of
pumping it, either from rivers, reservoirs, or deep wells. The
two methods may also be combined, a portion of the town
being supplied by natural gravitation, and the remaining or
more elevated portion being supplied by the intermediate
agency of mechanical power, to raise or force the water to the
required height.
With the exception, perhaps, of some cases where water may
have been forcibly raised in buckets or other receptacles from
moderately deep wells or other sources, by means of manual or
animal power (or even by the aid of wind or water power), all
the larger water-supply schemes of ancient times were gravita-
tion works, working at a low pressure. No evidence exists
until comparatively recent times of the employment of pipes
for the conveyance of water under high pressures. Pipes of
earthenware or of lead were frequently used in Roman times,
but it is evident that neither of these materials could have
been subjected to more than a very moderate degree of
2 E
434
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
pressure. Moreover, until the invention of the steam-engine,
there was no means of artificially raising large quantities of
water from a low to a high level. Ancient waterworks are,
therefore, all of the low-pressure gravitation type of con-
struction.
Subsoil wells were probably the earliest artificial source of
water-supply, and allusions to them are to be found in all the
anost ancient human records. In China there exist numerous
ancient'Artesian 'wells of great depth. An Artesian' well
consists of a bore-hole carried down through some impermeable
upper strata, into a lower water-bearing bed, the water in
which, being subject to natural hydraulic pressure, at once
rises, often to the surface, through the bore-hole. In many parts
of Europe, but especially in Southern Italy, ordinary wells of
depths often considerably over 100 feet were constructed by
the early Romans. For a long time the city of Rome itself was
largely dependent on this source of supply, but as the popula-
tion of the city increased, and the Tiber became contaminated,
the conveyance of pure water from great distances was under-
taken, as testified by the ruins of many noble aqueducts con-
structed under the Cæsars, which still remain to fill the mind
of modern travellers with wonder and surprise. In almost
every country—for any length of time under the dominion of
the Roman Empire—the remains of often gigantic water-con-
duits exist, some of which are even at the present day partially
utilised for their original purpose. The Roman aqueducts
were, as a rule, boldly constructed works, carrying the water
collected from distant springs or lakes, in very direct lines,
through tunnels in the hills, and passing over intermediate
valleys in masonry channels carried on archwork, often in
several tiers one above the other, reaching very considerable
altitudes. The aqueducts had a regular gradient, or fall from
end to end, usually from 2 to 21 feet per mile. They con-
tained in some instances enormous quantities of masonry con-
struction, everywhere lined with an excellent quality of cement.
One of the largest Roman aqueducts in Europe is the ‘Pont
du Gard,' which forms a portion of the conduit for the supply
of the town of Nismes in France. This aqueduct has been
thus described : “It consists of three tiers of arches, the lowest
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
435
of six arches supporting eleven of equal span in the centre tier,
surmounted by thirty-five of smaller size; the whole is in a
simple style of architecture, destitute of ornament. It is by
its magnitude, and skilful fittings of its enormous blocks, that
it makes an impression on the mind. It is the more striking
from the utter solitude in which it stands—a rocky valley
partly covered with brushwood and greensward, with scarcely a
human habitation in sight. This colossal monument still
spans the valley, joining hill to hill, in a nearly perfect state of
preservation, only the upper part at the north extremity being
broken away. The highest range of arches carries a covered.
canal about 5 feet high and 2 feet wide, shaped in section like
the letter U. It is covered with stone slabs, along which it is
possible to walk from end to end, and to overlook the valley of
the Gardon. The arches of the middle tier are formed of three
distinct ribs or bands apparently unconnected. The height of
the Pont du Gard is 180 feet, and the length of the highest
arcade 873 feet. Its date and builder are alike lost in oblivion,
but it is attributed to Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, B.c. 19.
M. Genieys, formerly engineer-in-chief to the municipality of
Paris, estimated that the quantity of water conveyed by this
conduit amounted to 14 million gallons per day.'1
The most important advances in the modern water-supply of
towns as compared with ancient works, are the increased atten-
tion given to securing a supply of pure and wholesome water,
free from every kind of contamination, and its more systematic
and general distribution under high pressures by means of
pipes. Increased purity is obtained by a more careful selection
of the immediate source of supply, both as regards locality and
quality of water, as well as by precautions taken to prevent
defilement of the gathering-ground, and by resort to filtration
wherever necessary. Many water-supply schemes of consider-
able magnitude and interest have been carried out during
recent years by the municipalities of the larger cities of India,
but before proceeding to give the reader an outline sketch of
some of the more important of these works, it will be necessary
to summarise, as briefly and clearly as possible, the leading prin-
ciples of modern water-works.
1 Humber, 01 Water Supply of Cities and Towns.
436
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
The Sun is the original dispenser, and the ocean--which
occupies more than two-thirds of the surface of the globe—is
the ultimate source of all water-supply. Under the influence
rays, being more vertical, are more intense, the surface-water
of the ocean undergoes continual evaporation. The aqueous
vapour ascending to the upper and cooler regions of the
atmosphere, forms those clouds which, driven by established
aerial currents over the land, are there under various condi-
tions of temperature and altitude condensed, and fall to the
earth in the form of rain, hail, snow, or dew. The great
volume of water thus derived-whether absorbed temporarily
into the soil, partially retained in lakes, or hastening again to
its distant birthplace in the sea, through those surface channels
which it has worn for itself, named rivers--becomes in one
manner or another available for the service of man, and for
of water, therefore, available for human needs is immediately
dependent on the rainfall.
To all ordinary observers nothing appears more variable,
uncertain, and inconstant than the fall of rain, even in those
countries where, like India, it is plainly seen to be subject to
a general seasonable periodicity. Close investigation, however,
has clearly established that wherever accurate records, extending
over long periods of time, have been kept, it will be found that
the rainfall of any particular locality has a mean annual
average quantity, due to that locality, during such periods,
which will not greatly vary (local conditions remaining the
same) during similar periods in the future. It has also been
ascertained that if a reasonably correct estimate of this mean
annual average for any given place is required, it can only be
obtained on condition that accurate records of the actual rainfall
have been recorded for a period extending over at least twenty
years, and that records for periods of forty to fifty years will
furnish a basis for a very close estimation of the real mean
annual average. Hence in places where no record of the rainfall
has been kept for the necessary length of time, a knowledge of
the mean annual fall, with the amount and duration of the
principal fluctuations above and below the mean—information
S
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
437
which is necessary to the engineer for water-works purposes-
can only be approximately ascertained by comparison with,
and deduction from, the records of the most suitably situated
neighbouring places, where the rainfall has been recorded for
the necessary time. It will thus be seen how important a
thing it is that a regular and systematic measurement of all
rainfall should be carried out in as many selected places as
possible in every country. The study of rainfall, its distribu-
tion, and the various phenomena connected with its periodical
fluctuations in long intervals of time, has occupied the time and
attention of many scientific men during recent years, with the
object of bringing to light the natural laws by which these
fluctuations are governed; and the extreme importance of long
series of rainfall observations is now universally recognised by
all civilised nations in every part of the world.
The engineer intrusted with the design and construction of
waterworks for the supply of a town has first to consider and
determine what quantity of water will be required, and has
also to take into account the natural growth of the population,
so that the works as constructed may be able to meet an
increased consumption at least for some years. He will also,
wherever possible, design the works with a special view to their
future enlargement or extension, at the least subsequent
expense. The quantity of water is usually expressed by the
average number of gallons consumed every day of twenty-four
hours by each unit of the population, or as generally shortly
stated, the number of gallons per head per day.' This
quantity varies considerably, according to the habits and
customs of the people supplied, and is dependent upon so
many different circumstances that no very certain rule exists
by which consumption, where not directly known, can be
estimated. In England, owing to improved sanitary appli-
ances, and the large amount of water sometimes used for trade
purposes, the consumption, including wastage, varies from
20 to 50 gallons per head per day, but in India from 10 to
20 gallons are more common rates. Water is distributed to
towns in one of two ways, viz. under a constant, or under an
- intermittent' service-each of which may be at high or low
pressure. In the constant' service system the water, in prac-
438
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
tically unlimited quantity, is placed at the disposal of the
people; the pipes are always maintained full of water under
pressure, and can be drawn from them at any time through
the taps or valves provided. In the intermittent' system
cisterns of a certain capacity are provided in numbers as may
be necessary, into which the water is turned on during certain
fixed hours ; the cisterns being provided with self-closing taps
which shut off the inflow of the water when they are full. In
England, whichever system is employed, the water is invari-
ably delivered into the houses. In India, however, it is more
usual, in accordance with the habits and customs of the people,
to employ a constant service, either at high or low pressure,
delivering the water free of charge from standards erected at
convenient places in the public streets and open spaces, but it
is delivered also into the houses at special rates whenever
demanded:
In Europe, contrary to what might be supposed, it has been
found that the average consumption of water, including
wastage, is less under the constant than under the intermittent
system. As there can be no question as to the greater public
convenience, and greater cleanliness of the former, it is probable
that in all new works the employment of the intermittent
system will be almost everywhere abandoned.
The engineer having estimated the proportion of the annual
rainfall that he can reckon upon for his purposes—which will
not be more than from 4 to 6 tenths of it, owing to absorption
into the soil and evaporation, and having liberally determined
the number of gallons of water per head of population that he
proposes to provide, can now proceed to the general design of
the contemplated works. If a main storage reservoir is con-
templated, he can estimate its minimum capacity, so that it
may be capable of supplying the requisite quantity of water,
not for one year only, but for such number of years as the
rainfall data with regard to the consecutive number of driest
years niay appear to indicate, so that at no time there may be
serious risk of the supply running short. He can also deter-
mine the exact dimensions of the main pipes or conduits that
are necessary. If the water is to be obtained from wells, or
from a river by pumping, he can calculate the engine power
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
439
and size of pumps required, and fix, according to the special
circumstances of each case, all the principal dimensions and
details of the project.
He will at a very early stage have turned his attention to
the selection of the best position for the reservoir, or for the
pumping station, as the case may be, and to the quality of the
water available, so as to decide upon the necessity or otherwise,
or upon the best and most convenient means, of filtration or
purification of the water. The engineer has also numerous other
points to consider. In the case of a reservoir its elevation must
be such as to command the whole area to be supplied, or if this
is not possible, he may have to arrange for the supply of a
certain portion of the area by means of pumping. He will have
to consider the geological formation of the drainage basin off
which the water entering the reservoir will flow, both as regards
the material of which the soil is composed, the slopes, and
generally all matters which affect the rate of flow or the conta-
mination of the water. He will have to make quite sure that
after he has made the reservoir, the water will really flow into
and remain in it, and will not escape by underground fissures
or by the too porous nature of the subsoil. In most cases,
especially in thickly populated districts, he will have to care-
fully ascertain the extent to which the proposed works will affect
the interest of individuals or of communities, by withdrawing
from them water or conveniences to which they have established
right, and to decide upon the most equitable means of compen-
sation where such rights are interfered with. It will thus be seen
that the actual construction of a water-supply project is often
the least part of the labours of the engineer responsible for it.
We will suppose, however, that all the laborious initial
work has been satisfactorily accomplished, that the exact spot
for the storage reservoir embankment has been chosen, and that
the nature of the ground on which it has to be reared has been
carefully explored by means of trial excavations and bore-holes.
It is evident-no matter what may be the material of which
the embankment or dam' is to be formed-it cannot be
merely erected on the surface soil, but some portion at least of
its width must be firmly rooted in the ground in such a manner
that no water can escape under it, and this can only be ensured
440
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
O
11
by carrying a certain part of the work down to some natural
watertight stratum.
The foundation trench-of whatever width that may be
decided, a width that will principally vary in proportion to
the height of the embankment-will thus be cut from one side
of the valley to the other, until it everywhere reaches a suit-
able retentive material, and this may in some instances occur
only at very considerable depths. Generally, also, it will be
necessary to remove from the whole seat of the embankment
or dam all surface material likely to be injuriously affected by
the action of the water. If the dam is to be a solid one of
masonry or concrete, the construction will now be brought up
to a more or less general level with these materials, or if an
earthen embankment is intended, and the depth is not too
great (in which case some intermediate cement concrete might
be used) the trench will be filled in with an impermeable
material called 'puddle, formed of a certain quality of clay
well worked with water into a homogeneous and retentive mass.
This puddle will be carried up like a wall or core, through the
heart of the embankment, and will only terminate at a height
somewhat above the contemplated water-level in the finished
reservoir ; its purpose being to stop the passage of any water
through the embankment. The earth forming the main body
of the embankment-a large portion of which on either side of
the puddle-wall will be of a carefully selected character—is at
the same time built up systematically in thin layers, and with
long slopes on the outer and inner sides of the puddle-wall.
On the water-side the face of the earthen slope will be pro-
tected from injury by a stone pitching or by other suitable
means. Tank or reservoir embankments have for centuries
been constructed by the natives of India without any central
puddle-wall, but that this omission has not proved hurtful to
the stability of many of the works constructed by them, is due
to the circumstance that the average height of their embank-
ments is considerably lower, and their general thickness much
greater, than in most modern examples constructed by English
engineers ; whilst the numerous ruins of native tanks which
exist give evidence of a frequent absence of the necessary
stability in their constructions.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
441
Before commencing the embankment, the engineer will have
made due provision for disposing of all water that might
collect on the site of the reservoir that would injure or inter-
fere with the progress of the works. This is sometimes done
by cutting a catch-water' or flood-water channel round the
site of the reservoir at a level a little above the margin of the
full water-surface, to intercept all the water running off the
catchment basin. The channel is constructed with a slight
fall, and is dropped into the valley below the embankment.
The small quantity of water that may collect from the rainfall
on the actual site of the reservoir can then either be allowed
to remain, or if in the way can be disposed of by pumping; or
the permanent passage to be hereafter used for the discharge
of water from the reservoir may be constructed before the
embankment is brought up, and utilised.
The particular manner in which it is proposed to draw off
the water from the completed reservoir will have been early
decided upon, and the engineer will also have fixed upon the
most convenient and most economical alignment of the aque-
duct by means of which the water is to be conveyed to the
town. In almost every case the influx of water into the reser-
voir, in relation to its consumption, will be such that (unless
provided against) it will rise during floods to a height sufficient
to overtop the embankment, and as the latter would in such a
case be inevitably destroyed, as well as probably much life and
property below, it is necessary to render such a contingency
impossible. This is done by the provision of a waste or over-
flow weir, in some part of the embankment-or of several such
weirs—made of a total length, and finished off at such an
elevation as to carry off all surplus water tending to collect
above a certain fixed level, which is usually placed at 6 or
8 feet below the top of the embankment. The water flowing
over the waste weir or weirs, is discharged by means of a special
channel led into the valley to a point at some distance below
the foot of the embankment or dam.
Perhaps the most important matter connected with reservoir
construction, especially where the water impounded is very
deep, is the manner in which provision is made for drawing off
the water. Formerly it was the almost universal practice to
442
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
take the discharge-pipes, in one manner or another, through
the embankment; generally in its deepest part. They were
often carried in a culvert similarly placed. However well and
carefully constructed, experience has shown that such expedi-
ents are most dangerous to the stability of an earthen embank-
ment. There is nothing more penetrating than water under
pressure, and it will inevitably find out every weak spot that
may exist. No form of stopping has been found which can in
all cases be depended upon to prevent the water under such
circumstances, from finding its way along the outside of culvert
or other outlets constructed through the heart of an earthen
embankment and its puddle wall. The unequal pressure of
the embankment is also frequently the cause of irregular
settlements, tending to break or dislocate the culvert masonry.
In all properly executed works it is now usual to leave the
-perfectly intact, and to lay the discharge-pipes of the reser-
voir in a detached tunnel excavation made in the solid ground,
passing them through one or more watertight bulkheads or
stops in the tunnel. Careful provision is also made to prevent
the water in the reservoir—which may stand at a great height
above the tunnel passage—from passing along the outside of
its lining, which latter may be either of masonry or of iron.
The passage of water through the pipes carried in the tunnel,
is controlled by suitable valves and gearing conveniently placed
near the bottom of a water-tower built up from a good founda-
tion in the bed of the reservoir ; this tower being connected
with the shore by means of a service foot-bridge.
There will be but few, if any, cases of water-supply where
some method of straining or screening the water before its
admission into the pipes or conduits will not be necessary, in
order to get rid of the grosser solid matter held in suspension
in the water and prevent its choking them. It is usual to pass
the water through fine wire-gauze strainers, generally fitted in
the water-tower; but these, even if very fine, are often insuffi-
cient to exclude fish-spawn. In Bombay, fishes which had no
doubt passed through the strainers in the shape of spawn were
formerly found in the water-supply pipes, grown to a length
of over 4 feet, together with eels of even greater length, and
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
443
12 inches in girth. These, and other forms of animal life,
dying in the pipes necessarily foul the water, and render it
injurious for drinking purposes. Hence the necessity of very
great care in efficiently screening the water before its entry
into any system of piping.
If the circumstances of the case are such that no suitable
site exists for the construction of a storage reservoir at a
sufficient elevation to command the town, or if for other
reasons it is considered preferable to obtain the required
supply of water by pumping, the engineer will resort either to
the stores of water contained in the subsoil, and will collect it
into wells, sunk to a sufficient depth, from which it can be
pumped, or he will draw the water from some permanent river.
In either case he will have to provide sufficient engine power
to overcome the friction of the water in the pipes, and to
raise its whole weight to an elevation sufficient for his pur-
pose. If the subsoil water is to be utilised, he will have to
take great care that the wells are so located that the water
collecting in them is not liable to contamination from organi-
cally impure surface drainage, and in case of river supplies
there will be few cases where it will not be necessary to clear
the water from sediment and other impurities, by means of
settling tanks and filtration previous to its distribution.
be supplied by gravitation if the water is tapped at a sufficiently
high level to command the town, in which case a weir across
the river, and probably a very long delivery aqueduct may be
required. Or the water may be delivered by gravitation to
the neighbourhood of the town, and then pumped into high
and filtering tanks, it can be distributed by gravitation.
From the source of supply to the town, the water in
all cases is conveyed either in cast-iron pipes, or in canals or
conduits, open or covered over, or partly in the one manner
and partly in the other. The selection of the particular
method of conveying the water will be governed by various
considerations, among the principal of which will be the greater
head required to overcome friction in pipes as compared with
canals or conduits. In cases where the source of supply is
444
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
situated at a great distance from the town to be served, con-
duits or open channels will be economical, but the great
expense of constructing masonry or other aqueducts across
wide and deep valleys will certainly, or probably, necessitate
the cheaper expedient of cast-iron piping in the form of an
inverted syphon in such situations. Whatever may be the
means employed of conveying the water, the pipes or aqueducts
will usually terminate in a 'service' reservoir near the town,
constructed in such a situation as to command the whole area
to be supplied by gravitation. The capacity of this reservoir
will be sufficient to contain at least several days' supply of
water in order that the aqueduct may be occasionally laid dry
for necessary repairs. At the outlet of the service reservoir,
meters or appliances for exactly measuring the quantity of
water issuing from it will be generally provided, so that any
unusual consumption may be at once detected. From this
point, the distribution of water over the district to be supplied
will be effected by means of main and service pipes, provided at
various points with the necessary valves and fittings to control
and regulate the flow of water, and with standards or cisterns
to deliver it wherever required.
If the water should require cleansing and filtration before
distribution, this operation can be carried out at any point
between the source of supply and the service reservoir. In
order to get rid of the main mass of the sediment that may
be contained in the water, it is usually led or pumped in the
first instance into a settling tank, or tanks, where an interval is
allowed for the sediment to sink, and be deposited on the
bottom. The cleared water is then passed into a filtering
chamber, and is made to pass through beds of various filtering
materials, such as clean pebbles, coarse and fine sand, charcoal,
etc., after which it will be ready for distribution.
The reader will now probably have gained a general idea of
the more ordinary arrangements made for the water-supply of
towns, sufficient at least to enable him to follow the outline
descriptions of some of the chief works of this kind executed
from time to time in India, to which we will now proceed.
wed
CHAPTER II
BOMBAY AND SHOLAPUR
Examples of Indian waterworks—Bombay water-supply--Rapid development
of Bombay-Early studies for improving the water-supply-Rainfall at
Bombay–Salsette, and surveys of the course of the Goper-The Vehar
basin - The Vehar reservoir — Principal details — Further surveys—The
Tulsi scheme-The Tansa reservoir project –Principal details of construc-
tion-Cost of works-Opening ceremonial in March 1892–Extract from
speech by Viceroy--The Sholapur Waterworks- Ekruk Tank-Low-level
canal--Sanitary commissioners' report-Proposals for permanent water-
supply—Description of waterworks scheme as carried out-Low rate of
consumption - Pumping power-Settling tanks-High service reservoir-
Low service Supply pipe and distribution-Opening of works.
Bombay Waterzeorks 1856 to 1892
THE examples of modern waterworks given in the following
pages are arranged chiefly, although not entirely, in the order
of their date of construction. In the important capital city
of Bombay are to be found the earliest in point of date, as
well as the latest, and most considerable of the examples
selected for illustration. It will be convenient, therefore, to
commence with the water-supply arrangements of that city.
The extraordinarily rapid development in modern times of
the population and importance of the city of Bombay, due,
not only to the exceptional advantages conferred by geo-
graphical position, and the possession of a magnificent natural
harbour, but to the energy and commercial activity of its
inhabitants, has been accompanied with a more than equally
rapid development of its water-supply, so that at the
present time there is probably no city of the old world that
can compete with it in the abundance and excellence of its
water.
Sixty years ago the population of Bombay was only about
445
446
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
250,000 persons. In the year 1850 it had grown to 556,000.
In 1857 it was estimated at 700,000, and by the last census
of 1891 it had reached a total, including the city, island,
and cantonments, of 821,764. Before the construction of the
first water-supply reservoir, viz. that designated the “Vehar
Lake' in 1857-58, the population of the city was mainly
dependent for nine months of the year on the rainfall caught
during the monsoon in old quarry and other shallow excava-
tions which, being situated in the midst of a peculiarly dense and
dirty population, became so thoroughly contaminated, especially
during the hot season, that a charge ' for clearing dead fish from
the tanks' was an item of annual recurrence in the accounts of
the town authorities. An almost constant prevalence of malig-
nant fevers and cholera epidemics, and an abnormal death-
rate, checking the natural growth of the population, was the
inevitable consequence of the extreme pollution of the only
drinking-water the lower classes could then obtain.
The deficiency and impurity of the available water became
so great as to occasion serious alarm, both to the Government
and to the public, and the possible consequences of even a
partial failure of the local monsoon rainfall became so appalling,
that the most strenuous endeavours were made to search out
and discover, within a reasonable distance of the city, some
source of water-supply capable of meeting the growing demands
of the population. The Island of Bombay, from seven to nine
miles long and three broad, is composed of a low tract of clayey
land, situated for the most part below the level of the highest
tides ; lying in a hollow between two low ranges of basalt hills
which run nearly parallel with each other at a distance of about
two miles apart. At the upper and lower extremities of the
island these parallel ranges of hills are united by raised sandy
beaches, elevated but a few feet above the level of the sea, and
formerly liable to be breached by the waves ; a large portion
of the present area of the island was consequently at one time
a salt-water lagoon, or marsh, until the water was shut out by
artificial means, and it was gradually drained. On the north
and north-eastern sides, the Island of Bombay is now connected
with the adjacent islands of Salsette and Trombay, from which
it is only separated by a low mangrove marsh, by several road
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
447
causeways, and the railway embankments and bridges, which
unite both it and the intervening island of Salsette with the
main continent of India. The annual rainfall of Bombay-
precipitated entirely during the monsoon season, from early in
June to late in September-varies from 80 to over 100 inches.
Under such hydrographical and geological conditions a supply
of water from the subsoil was obviously out of the question ;
the only possible source of supply being the collection and
storage of the rainfall somewhere within a reasonable distance
of the city. So long ago as the year 1828, a proposal was
made by Colonel Sykes, chairman of the late Honourable East
India Company, for collecting and impounding the surface
drainage of the low ranges of hills immediately adjacent to
Bombay. It was also proposed to bring into the town water
collected and stored on the high land of the neighbouring
island of Trombay. Nothing was, however, done, either at
that time or subsequently, when under severe pressure of water
famine Colonel Sykes's project was revived in the year 1845.
In 1846 Captain Crawford, of the Bombay Engineers, pointed
out the capabilities of the Goper valley, in the northern island
of Salsette, “The central plateau of which is drained by the
Goper and its affluents, and is bounded and intersected by
ranges of hills amongst which the occurrence of favourable sites
for the storage of water might be certainly predicted.' The
distance of this source of supply, and the inevitable costliness
of the works involved were serious considerations, so that it
was not until the year 1851, when the population of Bombay
had reached nearly 600,000 persons and in the following years,
that preliminary and detailed surveys of the course of the
Goper, and of other neighbouring sources, firmly established
the conclusion that the former valley was not only the nearest,
but the then only practically possible locality from whence an
adequate supply of water could be obtained.
It was found that the high ground on which the river Goper
takes its rise afforded several excellent sites for storage reservoirs.
On more detailed investigation, the basin of Vehar was shown
to be sufficiently capacious for the collection and storage of a
supply of water judged to be amply sufficient for some years
to come. The quantity then considered necessary for the
448
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
wants of Bombay was estimated at a daily consumption of
nearly eleven million gallons, or 4000 millions annually. At
the rate of twenty gallons per head per day this would suffice
for a population of 500,000 persons, whereas the population of
Bombay was already estimated at nearly 700,000 (1856). It
was urged, however, that the proposed supply would be in
addition to that derived from existing sources, and that financial
considerations were of paramount importance. On the other
hand, it was admitted that the extremely rapid rate at which
the population was increasing rendered it imperative that the
works should be designed with a special view to capabilities of
future extension, and that it was most desirable that the
reservoir should be made as capacious as possible, in order to
contain a reserve sufficient to meet the contingency of a defi-
cient monsoon.
The area draining into the Vehar basin, above the sites
proposed for the impounding reservoir embankments, is a little
over 6 square miles, capable, however, of being enlarged to
over 81 square miles by the extension of catch-water drains
along the western slopes of the boundary hills. It was con-
sidered that the mean annual rainfall over the Vehar basin
might be safely assumed at 124 inches—or that registered at
the sea-level near Tanna—and that deducting is of this fall, the
remainder, or 74.4 inches, would yield an available annual
supply of 6600 millions of gallons from the smaller, and about
9000 millions of gallons from the larger area. The actual
storage capacity assigned to the Vehar reservoir was 10,800
million gallons, which, after deduction for evaporation and
absorption, would leave an available supply of about 9800
million gallons. As the annual rainfall available for storage
on the smaller catchment greatly exceeded the consumption
of Bombay, it was calculated that the reservoir would retain
a volume of water, as a reserve, nearly equivalent to a two years'
supply:
The detailed plans and estimates for the construction of the
Vehar reservoir were elaborated between the years 1852-56,
and the work of construction was commenced at the end of the
latter year. This large artificial lake, when filled to the level
of the waste-weir, has a maximum depth of 84 feet. It covers
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
449.
an area of 1394 acres, or 2:17 square miles, and it stands at
180 feet above the general level of Bombay. The water is
impounded by three stone-protected earthen embankments,
42 feet, 49 feet, and 84 feet high respectively. The top width
of the highest of these is 24 feet and of the two others
20 feet, the inner slopes in every case being 3 to 1, and
the outer 21 to 1. Each embankment contains in its centre
a puddle-wall 10 feet thick at the top, with a batter on each
side of 1 in 8. The puddle-wall trenches were excavated from
15 to 25 feet deep, through the surface rock, below all surface
springs, and well into the impervious solid basalt below.
The whole of the embankment slopes and top surfaces are
covered with a pitching of squared basalt stone twelve inches
in thickness, laid on a similar thickness of broken stone. It
was considered necessary to cover the top and external slopes
in order to protect them from injury by the exceedingly lieavy
having a cross width of 20 feet, and faced with chisel-dressed
stone set in cement, was provided for the escape of surplus
water. The water is withdrawn from the reservoir through a
tower erected near the foot of the inner slope, the upper floor
of which is connected with the top of the embankment by a
girder foot-bridge in two spans of 85 feet 6 inches. The tower
is provided with four inlets, each 41 inches in diameter, placed
at vertical intervals of 16 feet. The three inlets not in use
are closed by conical plugs, faced with gun-metal, and the fourth
or open inlet is surmounted by a wrought-iron straining cage,
having a surface area of 54 square feet. The conical plugs
and straining cage are each capable of being raised or lowered
by a gearing fixed on the top floor of the tower. At the
bottom of the tower, or inlet well, and exactly over the orifice
of the supply main, a conical seat carries a similar straining
cage of copper-wire gauze, having forty meshes to the inch.
The water thus passes through two strainers before starting for
Bombay.
The supply main, 41 inches in diameter, and 14 inches thick
is passed below the principal embankment, being laid in a level
trench excavated in the rock, and filled with concrete, and is,
2 F
450
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
therefore, unfortunately inaccessible. That portion of the pipe
line passing through the puddle trench, is supported on cut
stone masonry set in cement. It is coated with 6 inches of
puddle, and is then arched over with 4 rings of brickwork ;
two teak-wood washers being fixed transversely on the pipes to
prevent water from creeping between the latter and the puddle.
The sluice-house is situated at the outside foot of the em-
bankment. Here the large 41-inch main bifurcates into two
mains, each 32 inches in diameter. One of these branches only
was, in the first instance, continued into Bombay; the quantity
of water delivered by it being considered sufficient for the
requirements of the population at that time. The length of
the 32-inch main from the Vehar reservoir to Bombay is nearly
14 miles, and its water was distributed throughout the town
by means of sub-mains and service pipes in the usual manner ;
delivering water under a head of pressure varying from 165 to
180 feet, into the houses, as well as gratuitously to a large
proportion of the inhabitants by means of self-closing
conduits.1
The supply from the Vehar reservoir was first delivered into
the city of Bombay through the 32-inch main in March 1860.
The works had been originally estimated to cost £250,000, but
the final capital outlay on the project, including subsequent
developments, reached a total sum of £650,000, the ultimate
draw-off from the reservoir reaching a maximum of about 12
million gallons per day. No very long time elapsed, however,
after the completion of the Vehar scheme, before it became
evident that further steps would very shortly be imperative to
augment the water-supply, owing to the rapidly increasing
trade and population of the city, due in great measure to the
opening up of the railways connecting Bombay with the
interior of the country.
In the year 1868, survey parties were sent out into the island
of Salsette, and into the mainland beyond it, to study and
report upon the most favourable sites for reservoirs, as well as
the most economical means of collecting, storing, and conveying
into the town, an adequate supply of water to meet the well-
1 Abridged from a descriptive paper on the Vehar Water-supply, contained in
vol. xvii. (1857-58) of the Nlin. of Proc. of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
451
foreseen requirements of the near future. In the following
year a special commission appointed by Government, considered,
but rejected as too ambitious, a proposal for a huge artificial
lake at Shivla, with an earthen dam 96 feet high, and a steel
main 56 miles long. The commission, however, recommended
the construction of a smaller reservoir at Tulsi, situated near
the celebrated cave temples of Kennery in the northern part of
the island of Salsette. Nothing was, however, definitely decided
upon by the town authorities at this time, the Tulsi scheme
being considered inadequate ; but between the years 1870 and
1872 detailed and more exhaustive studies and surveys were
carried out, both on the island of Salsette, and on the neigh-
bouring mainland of the Concan, with a view to ascertain the
full extent of the resources practically available for an exten-
sion of the water-supply adequate for the growing demands of
Bombay. These surveys resulted in the first discovery and
recommendation of a site for a reservoir of enormous propor-
tions, situated below the spurs of the Western ghâts, on the
Tansa river ; a gigantic work eventually carried out, and only
very recently brought to completion.
In the meantime the proposals for the construction of the
smaller water-supply reservoir at Tulsi were again considered,
and the execution of this work being determined upon, it
was put in hand, and was completed in the year 1879. The
Tulsi reservoir provided the town with an additional 4.1
millions of gallons per day, raising the total daily consumption
of water to 161 million gallons. This was, however, but a
mere temporary slaking of the ever-growing thirst of the city.
Within 43 years—that is to say, as early as the 10th August
1883, a motion was proposed and carried at a meeting of the
Municipal Corporation to the effect, that the water-supply
available from the Vehar and Tulsi reservoirs being only
sufficient for the ordinary domestic wants of the town, apart
from its trades, industries, and sewerage system, it was absolutely
necessary to provide an additional and permanent supply from
a high-level source, which would give the city a continuous
supply at full pressure. Whereupon the Municipal Com-
missioner was called upon to furnish the Corporation with a
new scheme for such increased supply.
LULU
17
452
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
.
The exhaustive surveys and studies made in 1870-72, had
demonstrated that the construction of the Tansa reservoir.
scheme would be in the nature of a final settlement of the
question of water-supply for Bombay, and this scheme had now
come within the range of practical municipal politics. The
Municipal Commissioner accordingly recommended its adoption,
and that a working survey and detailed estimates should be
undertaken. This recommendation was accepted ; a sum of
£10,000 was voted for preliminary expenses, and on the 19th
November 1885, the Corporation passed a resolution accord-
ing sanction to the construction of the Tansa waterworks,
estimated to supply the town with a daily supply of 17 million
gallons, at a cost of £1,230,000. The execution of this
magnificent project, which ranks amongst the foremost ex-
amples of modern engineering undertakings, was commenced in
January 1886, and was opened with great ceremony by the
Viceroy and Governor-General of India, on the 31st March
1892.
The Tansa reservoir is situated at a distance of about 55
miles from Bombay in a north-westerly direction. It lies on
the mainland of the Concan, below the spurs of the Western
ghâts, in a considerable valley bounded by low hills, distant
about y miles from the Atgaum station of the Great Indian
Peninsula Railway. Here a mighty masonry dam, or solid wall
of artificial rock, stretching for nearly 2 miles across the Tansa
country, and intercepting two considerable rivers, has been
reared, forming behind it an immense deep artificial lake,
having a waterspread covering from 6 to 7 square miles, formerly
a dense jungle. The catchment area draining into this lake is
52 square miles of hilly country.
The dam, which is built of rubble masonry, is one of the
largest in existence, being surpassed only in point of height
by two or three large masonry dams in France. It contains
no less than 11 millions of cubic feet, or 407,408 cubic yards,
of masonry, a quantity sufficient to build a wall 104 miles long
10 feet high and 2 feet thick, or to construct a fortification round
the whole island of Bombay, 10 feet high and 6 feet thick. The
duct leading the water from the reservoir is 55 miles long, con-
sisting of about 23 miles of masonry conduit, carried at numerous
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
453
points on massive aqueducts, 27 miles of iron main 4 feet in
internal diameter, about 4 miles of tunnel, and nearly a mile of
girder bridges. This gigantic work, which may be regarded as
the finest town water-supply scheme in the world, has been made
capable of providing a generous supply of pure water to a
larger population than Bombay is likely to possess for twenty
years to come. It was estimated to supply 17 million gallons
of water per day, but, as a matter of fact, can easily deliver
from 20 to 21 millions. It is calculated that during the hot
season of 1892, and subsequent years, the water-supply of
Bombay from the Tansa, Vehar, and Tulsi reservoirs (allowing
for a reduced draw-off of 9 instead of 12 million gallons from
Vehar, which had hitherto been overtaxed) will reach from 30
to 32 million gallons per day, as against 16 millions available
in the previous year—or at the rate of, at least, 40 gallons per
from the reservoir, the water-supply from the Tansa lake as
constructed, can at any time be increased to 26 million gallons
per day. Nor does this exhaust the special provision made
for the future. By raising the height of the dam, to an extent
duly provided for, the available storage capacity of the reser-
voir can be increased so as to supply no less than 68 millions
of gallons per day.
The estimated cost of the Tansa water-supply project was
£1,230,000. It has actually cost £1,500,000, or a crore and a
half of rupees, and takes rank as the most costly municipal work
carried out in India up to the present time. On the occasion
of the formal opening of the water-works, in the presence of
an immense concourse of people on the 31st March 1892, the
Viceroy and Governor-General of India is reported to have
remarked as follows: "The benefits of such a supply of water to
your great and growing population cannot be overrated. It
is on record that, 200 years ago, a traveller who visited
the island of Bombay declared not only that provisions were
scarce and bad, but that the unhealthiness of the water bore, a
just proportion to the scarcity and meanness of the diet. It is
a pity that we cannot recall that traveller to life, and show
declared to be finer than those of any great city of Europe,
454
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
and the works which we are to open this evening. There will
not be a resident in the city, from His Excellency at Malabar
Point, to the dweller in the humblest native bazaar-who will
not be a gainer by what you have done. There is no result of
European civilisation in India, which I look upon with more
unmixed satisfaction than I do upon the great water-works,
which so many of our principal cities have lately called
without feeling that here at least is something which our
civilisation has done for the country, and which has conferred
upon it an absolutely unmixed advantage. . .. I am glad to
congratulate your municipality on the readiness with which, as
the representatives of the ratepayers of Bombay, they have
faced the responsibilities of this great enterprise. There is,
however, a special reason for which it is satisfactory to be able
to dwell on the success which has attended municipal self-
government here. Bombay may claim for itself the credit of
having been the city which was the first to introduce into
India a true measure of municipal self-government, and when
the history of municipal institutions in this country comes to
be written, the Bombay Council Act of 1872, which for the
first time gave to your citizens a corporation, elected in great
measure by the ratepayers of the city, will certainly be regarded
as the most important departure of this kind which has yet
taken place in India. The completion of these works proves
that the municipal resolution of 1872 gave to your city some-
thing more than an ingenious paper constitution. It gave to
it a civic body capable of seeing the necessity of such a project
as this, capable of undertaking it, capable of carrying it
through under the supervision of its own officers.
. As an evidence of the firmness and stability of the financial
credit of the corporation and city of Bombay, it may be stated
that in the year 1885, when the Tansa water-works scheme
was determined on, the municipality was in debt to the extent
of £1,335,515, and its paper stood at 100%. In 1892 the
debt, after the completion and payment for the works, stood at
£3,565,255, and its paper at nearly 114.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
455
Sholapur Waterworks, 1879 to 1881.
The water-works carried out for the supply of Sholapur, the
chief town of the Sholapur district of the Bombay Presidency,
These water-works were commenced in the year 1879, and were
practically completed early in 1881. The population of the
town, as given by the census of the latter year, consisted of
59,437 inhabitants, of which 57,000 were reckoned as per-
manent residents within the area commanded by the water-
supply.
At a distance of about 4 miles north of Sholapur is situated
the ‘Ekruk'tank, one of the largest of the reservoirs under-
taken by the Government for irrigation purposes. This reser-
voir—the details of which are given under head Irrigation
works in the Bombay Presidency,1 was commenced in the year
1866, and in the year 1871 the low-level canal—one of the
principal irrigation canals fed by it was brought into opera-
tion. This low-level canal passes round the town of Sholapur
at a distance varying from a 1 to 1 mile from the outskirts,
or from 11 to 2 miles from its centre. Before the date of
the opening of the Ekruk low-level canal, the town population
suffered greatly from the insufficiency and impurity of the
water-supply, then derived solely from local wells and surface.
tanks, supplied by a very precarious and uncertain rainfall;
but the opening of the canal greatly improved this state of.
matters, notwithstanding its inconvenient distance from the
larger portion of the town. The beneficial effects were especially
101 inches. The Sanitary Commissioner to the Government of
Bombay, in his report for that year, remarked as follows:-'I
may incidentally mention that had the Ekruk tank and canal
not been in existence, the town of Sholapur must during this
year perforce have been deserted, as all the ordinary supply of
water had dried up, and the people were entirely dependent on
the canal.'
From so far back as the year 1868, several proposals for a
permanent water-supply for the town had been made; the
1. Vide p. 208.
456
· PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
water to be taken either direct from the Ekruk reservoir, or
from the canals derived from it, but beyond studies and
estimates nothing was practically done until the year 1878, when
the municipality decided to adopt the scheme since carried out
and when the necessary funds were easily raised in the open
market by a loan duly authorised by Government.
The existing water-supply scheme at Sholapur is essentially
as follows :—The water is drawn from the Ekruk low-level
canal, at a site situated in the fifth mile of its course, about a
mile and a half from the centre of the town, and is passed at
once into a settling tank, from which it is pumped direct,
through a rising main into two service reservoirs placed at
different levels within the town, from which, under a constant
service, the distribution is effected by gravitation. The popula-
tion estimate, according to a return corrected up to 1872, was
taken at 50,666 persons, and a daily allowance of 5 gallons per
head was assumed-or a minimum daily demand of 253,330
gallons. This low rate of consumption was estimated under
the consideration that the numerous wells and small tanks in
and about the town would be still available for washing
purposes. In the year 1881 the actual quantity of water con-
sumed, which admitted of simple and accurate measurement,
was recorded, and it was found that the actual average daily
consumption per head, for the eight months May to December,
was 4.52 gallons only, and the average daily consumption in
each month was 257,005 gallons; the largest daily consump-
tion being 5.14 gallons per head during the month of May.
It is certain, however, that during the first year, the population
would draw more largely from the older sources of supply than
they would do later, when the convenience and greater purity
of the new water was more fully appreciated, and it would not
in India, in ordinary cases, be sufficient to estimate the average
consumption, even of a small uncommercial town, at so low a
rate, without special provision being made for its augmentation
during the hot months, or in times of drought and emergency.
This, however, was done in the case of Sholapur. The water
is taken from a permanent canal, derived from a large reser-
voir, in which the supply—so far as that town is concerned
—is practically unlimited, and the pumping power—to provide
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
457
primarily against breakdown—was furnished in duplicate, so
that a doubly increased consumption of water could on neces-
sity be provided for.
Close to the Ekruk low-level canal, from which the water is
drawn through a 9-inch pipe, fitted with a sluice-valve for
regulating the supply, and a meter for measuring the flow-a
settling tank is constructed. This tank is square in plan,
measuring 146 feet on each side at the bottom level, and 148
feet on the top. The available depth of water, after allowing
a space of 94 inches deep for deposit, is 9-60 feet. The tank
holds 1,292,705 gallons, or rather over five days' estimated
consumption. It is constructed entirely in excavation, carried
through gravels and soft rock ; the sides of the excavation
being protected by retaining-walls of rubble masonry, carrying
a parapet. The floor is formed of concrete, guttered to facili-
tate the cleaning and scouring out of the deposit, which is
effected through a scouring-pipe fitted with a sluice-valve.
From this settling tank the water is pumped by two direct-acting
special' steam pumps, capable of being worked singly or in
combination. Each pump is capable of raising 200,000 gallons
in ten hours, and delivering the same to a height of 160 feet
(including head due to friction in pipes), through a rising
main, 10 inches in diameter, and 8500 feet long, when working
at thirty-three strokes a minute. The water is pumped into
a high service-reservoir situated on the highest ground in
Sholapur, distant 8125 feet from the pumping station.
This reservoir is circular, having a floor diameter of 95 feet,
and a total capacity of 96,399 cubic feet; the available capacity
being 88,193 cubic feet, or 549,442 gallons, which is equivalent
to rather over two days of the estimated daily demand.
Close to the Bijapur, or northern gate of the town, a branch
from the 10-inch rising main is taken off to a low-service reser-
voir, which is situated at a distant of 5800 feet from the engine
and pump-house. This reservoir, which supplies the town,
with the exception of the higher portions and suburbs, com-
manded by the high service, is similar in details of construc-
tion to the high-service reservoir. It is circular in plan, having
a central pillar 10 feet in diameter at base, and eight arched
radial walls, which support a roof of T irons and corrugated
iron sheets. The thrust of the arches in the radial walls are
458
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
taken by buttresses projecting from the external wall, which
also serve to strengthen the latter.
The diameter of the low-service reservoir is 82 feet on the
floor, and 851 feet at full supply-level, which is 12 feet above
the lowest bottom. The external wall is 10 feet high ; is con-
structed of uncoursed rubble masonry, faced with coursed work
on the outside face; it is 6 feet thick at the bottom, and 2 feet
6 inches at the top, the interior face having a batter or slope
of 1 in 12, and the external face a curve of 17 feet radius.
The floor of the reservoir is situated at a height of 581 feet
above the floor of the settling tank, and its total capacity is
71,224 cubic feet, of which 68,711 cubic feet, or 1.69 days of
the estimated daily demand is available.
The supply pipe, 10 inches in diameter, discharges over the
reservoir wall into a small chamber, from which the water
passes over a ledge or weir into a second chamber, and thence
escapes through an opening into the main reservoir. The main
10-inch distribution pipe, and a cleaning or scouring pipe—the
latter carrying a vertical overflow—are each provided with
sluice-valves situated inside the reservoir, and worked from
above. They are both carried through the concrete foundation
below the main enclosing wall. Sluice-valves are fixed on the
main, so as to admit of a supply from either reservoir being
cut off when water is being pumped into the other. Frequent
air-valves, along the line of piping, and a reflux-valve, situated
close to the northern gate of the town ; about 3000 feet from
the pumping station, are also provided. Upwards of 33,000
lineal feet, or about 61 miles of sub-mains and service-pipes,
carry the water over all the principal parts of the town and
suburbs, and are furnished with the necessary sluice-valves, so
as to render each part of the distribution independent. The
water is delivered to the inhabitants by means of numerous
stand and pipe-posts, fitted with convenient push-cocks. The
pipe-posts are each fitted with twelve taps, and are only placed
in localities where the population is most dense, in order that
a number of people may be able to draw water at the same time.
The Sholapur Waterworks were opened with some ceremony
by the Governor of Bombay on the 22nd July 1881. The total
initial cost of the project as completed was £21,718, or £161
short of the original estimate.
CHAPTER III
MADRAS AND NAGPUR
Madras Waterworks—The Seven Wells supply-The City Waterworks-Out-
line of projects—The Red Hills reservoir and feeders--Details of Madras
City water-supply-Injuries froin floods-Insufficiency of scheme-Opening
of works, and improvements suggested — The Nagpur Waterworks—Popula.
tion of Nagpur-Old sources of water-supply-Native reservoir at Amba-
jhari—The new project Details of execution-Puddle trench and wall-
Earthworks of new embankment–Waste weir-Arrangements for with-
drawing water—The straining and regulating tower. The syphon discharge
pipe—The main to the city--Completion of works—Later supplementary
supply for higher parts of the town, and for civil station--Principal details
and particulars of the new project.
Madras Waterworks, 1866 to 1872.
By the census of the year 1891 the city of Madras and suburbs
contains a population of 452,518 persons. It depends for its
water supply on two separate and distinct sources,—one being
the Seven Wells' Government Waterworks, supplying Fort
St. George, the shipping, and various Government institutions
and offices,—the other being the “Madras Water-works,' which
is the main supply of the city, and is under municipal control.
The Seven Wells waterworks is a very early project, having
been initiated 120 years ago, or in the year 1772, by a Captain
Baker, who constructed it under a contract with Government,
by which he undertook for a period of seven years to supply,
and keep always full, certain reservoirs in the fort, containing
three quarts per man per day. In the year 1782, the works
were purchased by Government for the sum of £10,500. In-
cluding this sum the total cost of the Seven Wells water-
supply amounted to £42,492. As originally constructed the
supply was confined to the garrison of Fort St. George, but it.
459
460
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
has since been extended to nearly all the inilitary institutions
and buildings in the Presidency town.
The Seven Wells premises or compound' is situated about
a mile from the sea, and nearly two miles from the Fort and
Penitentiary, which are the farthest points to which the supply
extends. On these premises there are now 10 wells, each
16 feet in diameter, varying from 23 to 29 feet deep, from
which the water is raised by means of “Picottah’ levers into
cisterns, and passed through a filter, measuring 48 feet by
30 feet by 6 feet. From the filter the water is again raised
into two main cisterns, each holding about 2000 cubic feet, and
thence is conveyed by gravitation through lines of cast-iron
pipes, varying from 5 to 31 inches in diameter, to the various
points of distribution, the principal of which are the gunpowder
factory, clothing and medical store, arrack distillery, bullet
factory, Commissary-General's office, Fort St. George, the
Ordnance Lines, and Penitentiary. The Seven Wells water-
works discharges over 140,000 gallons a day, or 511 million
gallons a year, at an annual cost of about £1200. During the
long period that the Wells have been in operation they have
shown no signs of failure, and it is estimated that should a
further supply of water be necessary it could easily be
augmented to three times its present amount.
The inception of the Madras City Waterworks, under the
control of the Municipality, dates as far back as the year 1866.
Long before that year, however, the great impurity of the
drinking water obtained from the numerous wells scattered all
over the town, which formed the only source of supply, was fully
recognised. In the year 1855 an extensive irrigation improve-
ment scheme, estimated to cost nearly £434,000, was proposed,
and in combination therewith the surplus water from a number
of large irrigation tanks or reservoirs was to have been stored in
a reservoir situated about 8 miles from the town, and conveyed
by an open channel or canal into two basins in Madras, from
whence it could be pumped into settling reservoirs and thence
passed into the mains for distribution. No action was taken on
this proposal, but in the year 1861 a somewhat similar project was
brought forward, and an engineer officer was appointed to report
on it, without, however, leading to any practical results.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
461
By the year 1863, in accordance with orders from the
Madras Government, plans and estimates were elaborated for
an improved scheme which had for its object the enlargement
of two already large irrigation reservoirs, with a view to in-
creasing their storage capacity for irrigation purposes, as well
S
establishments, with an abundant and wholesome supply of
water. The Government portion of this scheme was originally
estimated to cost $61,176, and provided for the construction
of an open channel about 71 miles long to deliver the water
from the nearest of the two reservoirs to a point near Madras,
the Municipality being left to provide for and construct the
general scheme was approved by the Government of India in
1866, and subsequently sanction to a municipal loan for the
construction of the distribution works was accorded; the muni-
cipality being required to pay for the supply of water delivered
from the reservoirs at a fixed rate.
The City Waterworks, as carried out, has for its immediate
source a large irrigation reservoir known as the “Red Hills
Tank,' situated about 8 miles north-west of Madras. This
reservoir is fed by a channel from the river Kortalayar, which
passes through a reserve reservoir called the Cholaveram
Tank,' before reaching Red Hills. The Kortalayar river itself
has its origin in the surplus escape of the huge “Kaveri Pauk
Tank,' which is fed from the river Palar.
At a point on the Kortalayar river, about twenty-two miles
from the sea, an anicut or weir is constructed, diverting the
water into a channel which, after a course of about eight miles,
enters the Cholaveram reservoir, and issues at a point two
miles distant from its entry by another channel over two and
a half miles long, which conveys the water into the Red Hills
reservoir. The water for the city supply is drawn from this
reservoir through six sluices, three of which are at the lowest
level, the remaining three being placed above at 4 feet intervals.
The discharge is received into a circular basin 80 feet in
diameter, and, falling over a shutter-weir, passes into an open
canal 3 feet 6 inches deep, originally calculated to deliver
about 24 gallons per head per day for a population of 545,000
462
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
persons. This channel passes in a south-easterly direction
through cuttings, and on embankments, for a distance of nearly
seven miles, with a fall of only 3 inches per mile, and delivers
the water into a circular well, 22 feet in diameter, situated near
Madras. From this well, or masonry shaft,' a 42-inch main-
pipe extends towards the city for 4455 feet, and then divides
into two mains of 36 and 30 inches respectively. The water is
distributed to the population by means of numerous cistern
fountains, public standards, and wall taps, as well as into the
houses when demanded.
In preparing its distribution scheme, the Municipality decided
to adopt the principle of distribution by natural gravitation
in order to avoid the permanent expense entailed by the use of
steam-power for raising the water, and delivering it under
artificial pressure. This economy, however, was only gained by
a considerable sacrifice in the quantity of water, the latter
having to be drawn off from the Red Hills reservoir at a much
higher level than that originally contemplated. The settling
tanks originally proposed were also discarded. It had been
intended that the open channel should have a permanent
current; but owing to the intermittent system of supply which
the altered circumstances imposed, the water in the channel was
frequently dammed up for long periods of twelve hours at a
time, the bed of the channel being thus virtually converted
into a settling tank, with a consequent rapid silting up, and
noxious growth of vegetation, together with numerous other
attendant evils.
The supply portion of the project appears from the com-
mencement to have suffered severely from the effects of floods
of unexpected severity, and from original errors in the methods
of construction employed in raising the older embankments of
the Red Hills and Cholevaram reservoirs, which entailed very
heavy outlay to render the new work secure.
Water was first supplied to the city from the Red Hills
reservoir in May 1872, but it was soon universally admitted
that the supply system was far from satisfactory, and that the
works needed considerable remodelling. The principal im-
provements suggested appear to be, an off-take from the Red
Hills reservoir at a lower level ; a closed pipe line to Madras
03
111
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS TO
463
IN INDIA
TY
in place of the open channel, together with the much needed
pumping and filtering works. A project for placing the water-
supply works of Madras on a more satisfactory footing was
prepared in the year 1877, but the Municipality was not in a
position to vote the necessary funds for the purpose. Up to
the year 1881 the cost of the original water-supply scheme, for
a consumption of about 325 million cubic feet annually, had
amounted to £143,000.
Nagpur Waterworks, 1869 to 1873.
A water-supply scheme possessing many interesting features
is that projected and carried out between the years 1869 and
1873 at Nagpur, the capital city of the Central Provinces.
Previous to the completion of these waterworks the population
of the native city, which then numbered over 80,000 persons,
derived their supply of water from a large number of wells sunk
in the basaltic and metamorphic rocks on which the town is built.
The greater number of these wells yielded a brackish water,
so impregnated with salt as to be absolutely unpotable. A
considerable additional supply was obtained, first from the
“Jama Talao,' an old native artificial tank adjoining the city,
the water from which was greatly polluted by the surface
drainage of a thickly inhabited gathering-ground; and second,
from an old reservoir situated at Ambajhari, four miles from
the city, from which water was conducted by a line of stone
piping; but the works in connection with which had in course
of time become greatly decayed, and almost useless.
In 1869, after the nearly total failure of the rains of the
previous year, the sufferings of the native population of Nagpur,
from the scanty and impure nature of the water-supply, had
become so great, that energetic measures were taken to ascertain
the best means of furnishing the city with an abundant and
wholesome supply of water, and, after careful study and
examination of the available sources of the neighbourhood, it
was eventually decided to remodel and greatly enlarge the old
and decayed native reservoir at Ambajhari, and render it
capable of supplying a permanent and sufficient quantity of
water for the wants of at least the largest portion of the
464.
.
.
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
native city. As this old work is a characteristic example of
native water-supply engineering, and is, moreover, one which
has been entirely obliterated and lost in the modern scheme
which has superseded it, a brief description of its original
essential features may be of interest.
The native reservoir at Ambajhari was constructed upwards
of a hundred years ago, under the Bhonsla Rajahs of Nagpur.
An earthen embankment, faced with a vertical wall of rubble
masonry, was reared across the valley of the Nag river (from
which the city of Nagpur derives its name), about 4 miles
south-west of the city, and near the small village of Ambajhari.
This name, meaning the spring of the mango grove,' points to
the probable existence of a considerable natural spring or
springs at this place, which may have led to the choice of the
site for the reservoir. The embankment across the Nag valley
was 2568 feet long, 20 feet in extreme height, and of an
average height of 12 feet. It was 40 to 60 feet wide on the
top, with a back slope of 1), or 2 to 1. The vertical masonry
wall on the water-face was built of basalt-stone, with numerous
semicircular or octagonal projections, or bastions, of similar
character.
Near the deepest portion of the reservoir, situated somewhat
towards the northern end of the work, the water was withdrawn
through a masonry passage, carried at a low level through the
embankment. This masonry passage projected into the re-
servoir for some distance beyond the line of the face-wall, ter-
minating in a series of steps. On either side of the projection
a broad flight of stone steps led down to the water from the
summit of the embankment. The discharge of flood-water was
provided for by two escape or waste weirs, one 100 feet long,
situated at the south end of the embankment, and a smaller
one, 28 feet long, at the extreme north end. The reservoir,
when filled to the escapes, had a water area of 237 acres, and
contained about 80 millions of cubic feet.
The arrangements for regulating the discharge of water were
as follows:-On the outer steps terminating the projection into
the reservoir of the masonry discharge passage was a series
of five holes at different levels, closed by wooden plugs.
The highest submerged plug being withdrawn, the water
35
TUY
1
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
465
flowed into a well or chamber (situated in the body of the
embankment), the water in which was maintained at a few feet
lower than that in the reservoir by opening one or more of a
series of seven issue holes ; also placed at different levels in this
chamber. These holes communicated through a vertical
passage with the lower part of a second small well, placed
immediately behind the first. From near the bottom of the
second well the masonry passage through the main portion of
the embankment issued, and by closing this single outlet, water
could at any time be cut off from the main passage. The flow
of water was further regulated by a third well or chamber, pro-
vided with another series of holes and wooden plugs, and an
escape, situated on the discharge line, a short distance beyond
the foot of the embankment slope. Provision also seems to
have been originally made for collecting the water from the
springs below the reservoir into this latter well.
The water, when clear of the embankment and regulating
chambers, was conveyed to the city through a cut stone pipe,
4 miles in length, formed of a series of sandstone blocks, each 2
or 3 feet long, and 18 inches or more, square, with a hole, 9
inches in diameter, bored through it. The stone blocks were
socketed together, the joints being laid with specially prepared
mortar, and the whole was enclosed in basalt rubble masonry.
Along the course of this pipe-line—which was somewhat
irregular-frequent water-towers or cisterns acted as air-valves,
and at the same time reduced the head of water, which was
allowed to escape through openings, provided with plugs, in
the sides of the tower. The water was delivered to the city on
the intermittent system-into small cisterns, each provided
with holes in the bottom (closed by the usual wooden plugs),
which communicated with service-pipes of unglazed earthen-
ware.
The design and construction of this old work exhibited con-
siderable skill in many particulars—especially in the adaptation
of the pressure of the water to the strength of the masonry
and other piping employed. In 1869 these old constructions
were in a very ruinous condition, and owing to heavy leakage
on the pipe-line, together with evaporation from the small
depth of water retained in the reservoir, the latter occasionally
2 G
466
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
ran dry during the hot months, so that as a source of supply
for the city of Nagpur the works had become practically
useless.
Among the reasons which influenced the selection of the old
Ambajhari reservoir site as a suitable position for the contem-
plated new works, were the following: It was found that
above the reservoir there was an uncultivated gathering-ground
of over 61 square miles, consisting, for the most part, of only
lightly covered trap and other basaltic rocks, thus furnishing a
very clean and favourable surface from which to collect the
rainfall. The elevation of the site of the old reservoir was
moreover sufficient to command all but a comparatively small
portion of the native city by means of gravitation works, and
admitted in other respects of the construction of a very exten-
sive supply scheme at a moderate outlay.
The new project, elaborated in 1869-70, and subsequently
brought to completion in the year 1873, contemplated the
following main works, viz. : A puddle-trench excavated through
the heart of the old embankment, and cut for several feet into
the solid rock beneath, filled in with good retentive puddle to
prevent all leakage. An embankment raised about 17 feet
higher than the old one, completely burying in its centre the
whole of the old work, including the masonry face-wall. A
new waste-weir, having an elevation and discharge section,
adapted to the altered conditions. Suitable arrangements for
withdrawing and controlling the exit of water from the
reservoir-now greatly enlarged by the raising of the embank-
ment and escape-weir--and in due connection therewith, a main
of cast-iron pipes, about 4 miles long, from the reservoir to the
city, together with a certain initial provision of distribution-
pipes and self-closing standards, the whole being estimated to
cost £36,554.
The execution of these works was commenced in the early
part of the cold season of 1870. The centre of the puddle-
trench through the old embankment was placed at a distance
of 451 feet from, and approximately parallel with, the old
masonry face-wall. This trench was 3099 feet long, with an
average depth of 25 feet, and an extreme depth of 36 feet.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
467
A
It was excavated with side slopes on each side, into which steps
were cut, up which the numerous body of labourers employed
carried their basket-loads of earth. A portion of the earth
excavated was deposited to form a slope of 2 to 1 in front of
the old face-wall inside the reservoir, and the remainder was
placed so as to form the base of the new outer slope. The
solid rock bottom was met with at depths varying from 3 to
14 feet below the natural ground-level, and into this rock the
puddle-trench, 5 feet wide, was cut until everywhere a sound
and impermeable strata was reached. During the execution of
the work the water in the old reservoir stood from 15 to 20
feet above the lowest part of the excavations, and the leakage
from the reservoir, or from underground springs, was kept
down by steam-pumping. The puddle-wall was built up with
clay brought from a distance of about 3 miles ; the total
quantity transported and utilised being 900,000 cubic feet, or
33,300 cubic yards. The clay was deposited in the trench in
thin layers of 6 to 8 inches thick, and was well kneaded and
worked up with water, to ensure a perfect consistency through-
out the mass. The width of the clay-wall—which was brought
up through the entire height of the embankment—was 5 feet
both at top and bottom, widening out gradually to a maximum
width of about 10 feet on the line of natural ground-level.
The earth work of the new portion of the embankment was
everywhere joined into the old work, by means of stepped
trenches deeply cut into the latter, and above the line of the
old masonry face-wall a berm, or horizontal bench of earth-
work, 9 feet 6 inches wide, was constructed, in order to relieve
the wall from too severe a pressure. The finished embankment
is 7 feet 6 inches wide at the top, finished off with edge curbs
of rough stone. The inner or water face-everywhere protected
with a layer of hard stone pitching 1 foot thick—is formed of
two slopes, of 21, and 2 to 1 respectively, separated by the
horizontal berm, or flat, above alluded to; having its surface
only a foot above the summit of the old masonry wall. The
outer slope was made with an inclination of 2 to 1, and was
turfed. The total height of the new embankment was 53 feet
above the lowest bottom of the puddle-trench, and 17 feet 4
inches above the top of the old work. The new portion
111
468
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
contains nearly 3 million cubic feet, or 107,400 cubic yards of
earthwork.
At the southern end of the work a new waste-weir, 13 feet
4 inches higher in level than that of the old reservoir, was con-
structed, consisting of a curved wall of masonry 200 feet long,
protected by side walls 120 feet in length. The crest of the
weir was placed 6 feet below the top of the embankment, and
the flood-water flowing over it discharges itself through a rock-
cutting, and is led for some distance into the valley below.
The arrangement finally adopted for withdrawing water from
the enlarged reservoir was a syphon discharge-pipe, laid over
the top of the old embankment and face-wall, but below the
level of the new portion of the work. The syphon starts from
reservoir, 30 feet distant from the front of the old masonry
sluice, and terminates in a valve-house situated at the foot of
the outer slope of the embankment. This expedient was em-
ployed as the expense of constructing a tunnel outlet in the
natural ground round the end of the embankment, owing to
the conformation of the valley, would have been great, and it
was not considered advisable to interfere with or break through
the continuity of the old face-work by carrying a discharge
pipe through or below it.
The regulating tower, situated at the toe of the new slope
inside the reservoir, was founded on the solid rock 12 feet
below the old bed, and its internal dimensions are 15 by 6 feet.
The outer wall of the tower has three openings at different
levels, each 2 feet square, covered by iron sluices or vertically
sliding doors, each protected by wire-netting and worked by a
screw-gearing placed on the upper floor of the tower. By
opening the sluice-door nearest the surface of the water, the
latter is admitted into a straining chamber and passes through
a set of copper wire-gauze strainers, having 30 meshes to the
inch, before reaching the mouth of the syphon discharge-pipe.
A valve commanding the entrance to the syphon pipe is also
worked from the upper platform of the tower ; which latter is
covered in overhead, and is connected with the top of the
embankment by a light wrought-iron footbridge. The nearest
foundation of the water-tower is connected with the masonry
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
469
of the old native discharge sluice by a half-arch, so constructed
as to carry the ascending portion of the syphon pipe. The
latter is 2 feet in diameter and 184 feet long. It is sup-
ported throughout its length on masonry blocks and concrete,
everywhere founded so as to be secure against any possible
subsidence, especially where the syphon pipe is carried through
the puddle-trench. The summit or crest of the syphon passes
through a charging well, inside which, and connected with the
syphon, is a vertical charging pipe 4 inches in diameter, having
a funnel mouthpiece, through which the syphon is filled with
water, after closing the terminal valves at each extremity of the
main pipe. At its outer and lower end the discharge syphon
terminates in a valve-house at the foot of the embankment. It
is here turned upwards and carries an 8-inch air-valve, by
means of which air from the main is prevented from entering
the syphon. A branch pipe at right angles to the upturned
end of the syphon is furnished with two 15-inch valves--one of
which controls the entrance into the main supply-pipe leading
to the city; the other opens or closes a short scouring outlet,
by means of which the syphon and the bottom of the straining
tower can be cleared out, or through which any available
surplus storage water can be given out for irrigation below the
reservoir.
The lift, or height of the syphon, from the bottom of the
· lowest sluice-door in the tower to its crest in the charging-well
is 14:55 feet, but it is not contemplated to withdraw the water
in the reservoir lower than 5 feet above that level, so that the
working lift is not more than 9:55 feet, at which level the
valves at the outer end of the syphon would be 5.2 feet below
the water surface. The main pipe to the city is 13 inches in
diameter, and four miles long. In addition, 10,500 yards or
six miles of distribution pipes of various sizes were provided.
These pipes work at an average head at lowest water of from
30 to 60 feet. The city service is for the most part a public one
on the ground level, as common in India ; the water being sup-
plied from self-closing standards placed at frequent intervals
along the public thoroughfares. Fire-cock air-valves are also
provided at every 100 yards.
The new and enlarged Ambajhari reservoir, as completed in
470
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of 24 h the prod.re as in
1873, contained 2571 millions of cubic feet of water, with an
available storage of 240 millions, calculated to supply the
greater portion of the native city of Nagpur with 15 gallons
per head per day of 24 hours, during years of minimum rainfall.
The completed cost of the project, including all incidental
charges and the distribution service as initially contemplated,
was approximately £40,000, or at the rate of 9s. 5d. per head
of population supplied.
The water-supply scheme as above outlined provided for the
wants of the larger portion of the native city of Nagpur; but
some of the higher parts of the town, together with the whole
of the adjoining civil station, containing a numerous and
increasing population, was not commanded by it; still remain-
ing entirely dependent upon subsoil wells. After a severe out-
break of cholera in the year 1887, largely due to the scarcity
of water attending the failure of these wells, an extension of
the water-supply to those areas situated at too high a level to
be supplied by gravitation from the reservoir was determined
upon, and a project was drawn up for raising the additional
water required for the higher levels by means of pumping
The calculations undertaken showed that, including a liberal
supply for the service of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company,
the total daily requirements for the proposed high-level exten-
sion was 438,400 gallons, or 70,144 cubic feet, equivalent to a
supply of 21 millions of cubic feet in 300 days, which was taken
as the largest interval of continuous drought. This require-
ment it was estimated could be met from the existent Am-
bajhari reservoir ; but, to allow for the natural increase of
consumption in the city, and still to retain the lowest water
level at the limit originally considered advisable, it was deter-
mined to slightly increase the storage capacity of the reservoir
by raising the crest of the waste-weir one foot, in order to
impound an additional 15 millions of cubic feet of water—a
demand which it was shown the drainage area of the reservoir
and the average monsoon rainfall could amply meet.
Under the new scheme, which was carried out and opened
for service in the year 1890, the level of the original waste-weir
was raised 12 inches, and its length was at the same time
increased from 200 feet to 457 feet, so as to greatly increase
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
471
its discharge under a more limited head. The water for the
high service was drawn from the original 13-inch city main, at
a point situated 21 miles from the reservoir. Here a 13-inch
branch pipe 735 feet long was connected, to convey the water to
a large covered underground cistern, holding about a day and
a half's supply. From this cistern it is pumped by powerful
steam-pumps into a covered service-reservoir, situated on high
ground at a distance of one and a half miles, from whence it is
distributed over the new area by gravitation.
The pumping cistern or reservoir measures 150 feet by 40
feet, and provides for a full water depth of 17 feet 3 inches,
and an available capacity of 95,000 cubic feet. The pipe or
rising main,' 8000 feet long, through which the water is
pumped to the high service-reservoir is 8 inches in diameter.
The high-service reservoir itself is divided into two compart-
ments, each measuring 75 feet by 40 feet by 16 feet. It has
an available capacity of 82,500 cubic feet, and a level 704 feet
above the crest of the weir at Ambajhari.
The utilisation of two and a half miles of the original 13-inch
main for the new scheme was decided upon, after full considera-
tion, solely from motives of economy; but it having been found
that the pressure in the city in the hottest months is incon-
veniently affected, the municipality have since determined to
incur the extra expense of a separate and independent 12-inch
main from Ambajhari to the pumping reservoir. Thirteen
miles of additional distribution pipes were required for the new
high-service extension. These work under a minimum effective
head of 13 feet, but an average effective head of 35 feet in the
civil station and 24 feet in the city. The extension provides
for the daily wants of 44,000 persons, at an estimated outlay
of three lakhs of rupees.1
11
1 The data for the above outline of the Nagpur Waterworks, and the subse-
quent high level extension, is derived from vols. xxxix. and cx. of the Min. of
Proc. of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
CHAPTER IV
LAHORE AND KARACHI
Lahore Waterworks-Situation of Lahore and population—Aspect of the city,
Project for waterworks and drainage-Main features of the water-supply as
carried out-Quantity of water—The supply-wells in the bed of the Ravi-
The pumping-well—The service-reservoir--Particulars of the distribution-
Failure of the service-reservoir-Intermediate arrangements-Rates charged
for water-Karachi Waterworks—Peculiarity of scheme--Necessity for
improved water-supply-Proposals made-Project as finally decided on-
The Malir river-The supply-wells—Excavation of wells without pumping
-The masonry conduit-Pipe and masonry syphons—The valve-house
and service-reservoir-The distribution-Cost and success of the Karachi
Waterworks.
Lahore Waterroorks 1877 to 1881.
LAHORE, the capital of the Panjab, is a very ancient walled city
standing on the alluvial plain formed by the Ravi, a river
now passing about two miles to the north of the town, but
formerly running close under its walls. Like all ancient cities
on the plains of India, the accumulating débris of centuries has
gradually and irregularly raised its area somewhat above the
level of the surrounding country. The highest portion of the
elevation in the case of Lahore, and marking probably its
oldest seat, consists of a ridge running east and west on its
northern side. The city walls form a parallelogram, enclosing
a densely populated area of about 461 acres ; the suburbs of
the town having in recent times rapidly extended themselves
outside the walls in every direction except to the northwards.
The total population within the walls, by the census of 1871,
was about 92,000, and in the suburbs 36,000, giving a total popu-
lation of about 128,000 persons. The only source of water-supply
for this population was that derived from wells situated within
the densely crowded city area, and sunk into a subsoil saturated
472
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
473
with the filth of ages ; yielding a water totally unfit for human
consumption. The high and excessive death-rate of Lahore,
which for so long naturally attended this condition of the water-
supply, at length aroused the action of the authorities, and
various proposals for improving it, as well as for the introduc-
tion of an efficient system of sewage drainage, were made and
discussed, until in the early part of the year 1877 the existing
water-supply scheme, which has been in operation since the 30th
June 1881, was at length approved, and the municipal loan re-
India. The aspect of the city at this time is found thus officially
recorded : The streets and lanes in the city of Lahore are
of alignment it has been lost sight of long ago, and at the
commencement of the works they might nearly all be described
as mere passages and water-courses, winding about in a most
tortuous fashion, liquid sewage and storm water having been
for a long time the only engineers, and sun and rain almost
their only sanitary conservators. It is only lately that a cart
could get into many of the streets, and where it did get in, the
difficulty was to get it out again.'
It had long been the desire of various civil officers con-
nected with Lahore to ameliorate in some degree this state of
matters, and to open out the city and widen some of the streets.
It was, however, found impossible to alter their alignment, as
they were the natural drainage courses of the city, the roads
having their levels well below the sites on which the houses were
built. When the water-supply and sewage-drainage schemes
were being designed, the widening of some of the principal
streets was considered one of the objects to be held in view.
There were, however, many difficulties to contend against ;
amongst the greatest being the prejudice of the inhabitants
against any attempt to alter the existing state of things—by
far the most serious, however, was the question of taking up
land in the streets. The houses were huddled close together,
and each house occupied a very small base area, although built
many stories high; and in any street improvement requiring
widening, the great number of tenements to be taken up, and
the many inhabitants thus left houseless, became a serious
474
PUBLIĆ WORKS OF INDIA
consideration. The Government and the municipality, however,
recognised the fact that the introduction of water-supply and
of drainage schemes made it imperative to do something to-
wards widening the streets ; it was in fact compulsory to make
a re-alignment where the principal mains had to be laid. To
avoid taking up more land than was absolutely necessary it was
decided to re-align that side of the street only on which the
pipes would be laid, and this was adhered to.
The main features of the water-supply scheme actually
carried out at Lahore are the following: The supply of water
is taken from wells sunk, practically speaking, in the bed of the
Ravi river, from which it is lifted by pumps into a service
reservoir placed at such a height that every part of the city
and suburbs are supplied with pure water under a head of
pressure ; the distribution being by means of cast-iron mains
and service-pipes. On the northern side of Lahore, in the
form of a horseshoe, extends the plain of the Ravi. It is well
known that the valleys through which the Panjab rivers flow
their surface run, in fact, clear and sparkling underground
rivers, whose flow is continuous and inexhaustible at all seasons,
and it is this underground Ravi that has been laid under con-
tribution for the water-supply of Lahore. The northern plain,
selected as the most favourable and convenient position for the
supply-wells, was practically virgin soil, free from all organic
impurities, and as during heavy freshets it is liable to be
flooded by the river, there was no probability of the city ever
being extended on that side.
The quantity of water required for the daily service of the
city population, taken at 130,000, was 1,300,000 gallons, or
208,000 cubic feet, at the fixed rate of 10 gallons per head in
twenty-four hours, and from the result of some experimental
trials made on the site selected for the wells, it was estimated
that a series of six-afterwards reduced to four-connected
wells, each 20 feet in internal diameter, sunk to a depth of 32
feet, and placed 300 feet apart, would yield this supply, as well
as a surplus quantity ample for the city demands for some time
to come ; a supply, moreover, which could at any time be aug-
mented by sinking additional wells.
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
475
As the current of the underground river flows from east to
west, the wells are placed in a straight line north and south, at
right angles to the stream. On the up-stream side of the line
of supply-wells two rows of 16-inch pipes, 3 feet 6 inches apart-
placed at a depth below the lowest limit of pumping-connects
the wells with each other, and with the sumph, or pump-well,
by means of 12-inch connecting pipes; joined and controlled by
valvės in such a manner that the supply of water from each
can be carried into the pumping-well independently. To the
connecting pipe inside each supply-well is fixed a vertical pipe,
also 12 inches in diameter, provided with horizontal arms for
drawing off the water, at either 10 or 20 feet below the normal
water level. On each of these arms a valve is fitted, worked from
above by a screw-down rod, by means of which the water can be
either cut off from one or other of the arms, or the supply from
any one well can be completely cut off. The connecting pipes
are carried through a continuous line of trench-wells, each 7 feet
square, running parallel with the line of supply-wells, all being
provided with large openings through their sides for the passage
of the pipes, which are supported on the well curbs. The
cavities at the bottom of the trench-wells are filled up with
broken bricks, so that the pipes rest on a firm foundation
throughout. After the pipes were laid the masonry of the
small wells was brought up to a level of 3 feet above the water-
line, and the whole line was then arched over and filled in to
ground level ; manhole doors being left at 50 feet intervals to
facilitate future inspection of the piping.
The sumph, or pumping-well, is 15 feet in internal diameter,
and is situated on the line of supply-pipes at a distance of 65
feet from the first supply-well. It is completely closed at the
bottom with solid blocks of masonry, the joints of which are
filled in with hard-wood wedges to prevent the entry of water,
which might disturb the sandy soil when the pumps are at
work. The bottom of the well is 32 feet below water-level,
and the pumping is effected by two horizontal condensing
engines with double acting bucket and plunger pumps, each
capable of raising 1,300,000 gallons of water in twelve hours to
a height of 150 lineal feet, and forcing this quantity, through
a 20-inch main, 3200 feet in length, when working at forty
revolutions a minute.
476
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Y
The service-reservoir, 265 feet in length and 150 feet in
width, divided into two compartments by a division wall, was
constructed on a site selected on the highest part of the city
ridge. Its capacity was calculated for a two days' supply, when
full to a depth of 11 feet 6 inches. The ridge within the city
on which the reservoir is erected, was the only site sufficiently
high to allow the water to be delivered under an average head
of about 40 feet of pressure throughout the main distribution.
There were, however, some elevated portions of the same ridge
where the pressure would only admit of a street service, but as
it was deemed desirable that the houses in the highest parts
should be supplied, as well as an efficient fire-service, three
stand-pipes were erected on the north side of the reservoir, of
sufficient height, when water was passed over them, to effect
the object desired. This high service is capable of exerting a
pressure on the mains and service pipes of 50 feet over the
highest water-level in the reservoir, or a total pressure of about
90 feet.
The city area supplied was divided into five separate districts,
each having its own main, and system of street service-piping,
supplied directly from the reservoir, or high service stand-pipes.
The service pipes of each district are, however, connected
with the main pipe of the adjoining system, so that in case
of a stoppage of one main, the pipes can be supplied from
another by opening the necessary connections and closing
the stopped main. By this means also the water can be con-
fined to any one or more districts ; it can be made to circulate
freely throughout the entire system, and thereby establish a
better equilibrium of pressure, or in case of any abnormal
demand in one district, the adjoining mains can give it an
auxiliary supply. Altogether nearly twenty-two miles of main
and service piping, varying from 20 inches to 3 inches in
diameter were initially provided. Provision is everywhere
made for direct communication between the street service
pipes and the houses, into which water is delivered whenever
desired, in preference to drawing the supply from the street
stand-posts, of which 300 were originally erected at convenient
intervals. One hundred and eighty street fire-hydrants of 2
inches diameter, were also furnished at convenient sites, so as
4
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
479
2
to be available in cases of fire, as well as for sanitary purposes.
The pipe laying was a work of great difficulty, requiring great
care, owing to the narrow and tortuous nature of the streets
and lanes, and to the bad soil.
Soon after the first opening of the Lahore Waterworks a
settlement in the foundations of the service-reservoir occurred,
which compelled its disuse until a new reservoir could be built.
In the interval, arrangements were made to carry on an inter-
mittent supply system by making use of the high service stand-
pipes ; provision being made for the overflow by a special out-
let, instead of allowing it to pass through the reservoir. In
order to avoid the needless expense of pumping the whole
water to an unnecessary elevation, the height of the stand
pipes, was, as a temporary measure, reduced to nearly the same
level as the ordinary pressure of the disabled reservoir. The
new service-reservoir on the original site was completed in the
year 1883, and has been entirely successful. It consists of four
large iron tanks, each 60 feet by 60 feet by 12 feet containing
a supply of a million gallons.
The rates charged by the municipality are 8 annas per 1000
gallons when supplied retail, and 6 annas for manufacturing
purposes. It is satisfactory to find it recorded that any caste
prejudices against using the water has long since broken down,
and the people fully appreciate the pure water, with as genuine
a feeling of satisfaction as those who are considered more
advanced in civilisation. The total initial cost of the Lahore
water-supply project, as above sketched, is given as rupees
15,00,935 or £150,093 at par.
U
Karachi Waterworks, 1880 to 1884.
The peculiarity of a gravitation scheme of water-supply
derived directly, and without intermediate pumping from
wells, is met with in the case of the sea-coast town of Karachi,
the capital of the Province of Scinde. The works in connec-
tion with this scheme were commenced early in the year 1880,
and were brought to completion in 1884, having been partially
opened in 1883. The necessity, on sanitary grounds, for an
improved water-supply for the rapidly rising commercial town
478.
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
of Karachi, had already for many years been admitted, and
several proposals for its improvement had been made and
rejected on various grounds, when, in the year 1868, careful
experimental trials were made to ascertain by means of pump-
ing: at what level 1200 gallons of water per minute could be
obtained from the underground flow of the Malir river. The
experiments made proved that the above quantity of water-
which was that necessary to supply the town of Karachi with
twenty-two gallons per head per day for a population of
80,000 inhabitants--could easily be obtained at no great
depth. A project was accordingly elaborated for supplying
the town with water to be derived from wells sunk on the
banks of the Malir river, and carried across the intervening
country by means of a main of cast-iron pipes, to a reservoir to
be built near the town. The total estimated cost of this project
was £152,000. Owing, however, to a great rise in the price of
iron in England occurring before the works were put in hand,
the scheme was indefinitely postponed, the money at the com-
mand of the municipality not being sufficient to meet the
increased outlay.
In the year 1873, the question of the water-supply was again
taken up, and in order to reduce its initial cost—the price of
iron being still high——it was proposed, in view of the cheapness
and excellence of the stone available in the neighbourhood of
Karachi, to substitute a masonry conduit, built underground,
in place of a cast-iron main. A new scheme, embodying this
substitution, estimated to cost £120,000, was prepared, but the
available means of the municipality--without recourse to a
loan, which was not desired-being limited to about £85,000,
the cost of the project was further reduced to that amount, by
a curtailment of the distribution system. On the completion
of the reduced scheme, however, the public appreciation of the
pure water, and the demand for it at remunerative rates was so
great, that the municipality at once applied for, and were
accorded permission to raise a loan for the execution of the
curtailed portion of the project, which was then carried out
with little or no delay.
The Malir river, which rises in the mountainous district
between Karachi and Sehwen, drains a sparsely populated
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
479
country about 600 square miles in extent. At the point
selected for the supply-wells, it is about 2100 feet wide, and
when in flood it discharges a vast body of water. For the
greater part of the year, however, the bed of the river is per-
fectly dry, but water is everywhere to be found by digging a
few feet below the surface of the sand. About 1000 feet from
the near bank of the Malir, which is well defined, two wells,
each 40 feet in internal diameter, 36 feet deep and 400 feet apart,
were sunk. These wells supply by gravity, through a conduit
a service-reservoir situated close to the town of Karachi. From
the service-reservoir and inlet-well in connection with it, water
is delivered by gravitation to all parts of the town, port,
civil lines, and military cantonment, through cast-iron pipes ;
numerous public street services being also established. The
two supply-wells were excavated to their full depth of 36 feet
without the aid of pumps of any kind. About 3 miles from
the Malir, the line of conduit crosses a smaller river called the
Thudda, and as the bed of this stream, at the point of crossing
was at a lower level than the bottom of the wells, the excava-
tion of the trench for the conduit was commenced at this point,
and carried onwards to the site of the wells. By this means all
the water found, both in the conduit-trench and the wells, was
drained off into the Thudda. An enormous extra expense in
pumping was saved by the possibility of this expedient, as it
volume of water drained through the conduit-trench excavation
amounted to two million gallons of water per day. As soon
as the excavation of the conduit-trench and the two wells was
completed, the latter were steined' or lined with masonry
3 feet thick, consisting of large blocks of stone, laid dry; the
joints being everywhere left rough and open, so as freely to
admit water. Above water-level the lining-wall is set in mortar,
and is carried to a height of 23 feet above ground-level; the
work being finished off with an ashlar cornice and coping.
In the centre of each well-on a secure foundation—is
erected a cast-iron valve-shaft, 4 feet in diameter, provided
with three sliding sluice-doors, worked from an upper platform,
through which water is admitted into the shaft at different
480
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
levels. Near the bottom of the valve-shaft a 24-inch main
pipe, fitted with a regulating valve (also worked from the
upper platform) issues, and connects the valve-shaft with a
junction tank or chamber 22 feet deep, and 10 feet in diameter,
situated nearly a mile from the Malir wells. At this junction
tank the masonry conduit commences.
The masonry conduit, including the length of several cast-
iron pipe-syphons, constructed to pass the water under the
natural streams intersected in its alignment, is over 171 miles
long. For the first 104 miles of its course from the junction
tank its internal section is 3 feet 3 inches wide and 3 feet
high, with a fall of 2 feet per mile; for the remaining part of
the length the internal section is 2 feet 6 inches wide and
2 feet 3 inches high, the fall varying from 3.9 to 9 feet per
mile. From the level of the bottom of the 24-inch pipe issuing
from the valve-shaft in the supply-well, to the bottom of the
masonry conduit at the first point where it terminates in the
inlet-well, adjoining the service reservoir, the total vertical fall
is 69.02 feet. The conduit is built of rubble masonry coated on
the inside with Portland cement plaster half an inch thick.
The top is slabbed over with stone 8 inches in thickness, over
which is laid a covering of concrete, any remaining depth of
the trench being filled in with soil.
Along the course of the conduit, the water is passed under
five intervening nalas or streams, by three pipe and two
masonry syphons, the largest being the pipe-syphon carried
under the Thudda river. Ventilating shafts, 5 feet by 21 feet
in section, are provided at intervals of j a mile to 1 mile apart,
foot-irons being fixed in each shaft to enable an inspection of
the conduit to be made when desired. The water is discharged
by the masonry conduit into an inlet-well, 20 feet in diameter,
which, together with the valve-house, is built adjoining the
service-reservoir, and acts as a second chamber to it. The
walls of the inlet-well are carried up to a height of 24 feet
above ground level, and carry a concrete roof and an ashlar
battlemented cornice. The distributing or service-reservoir is
200 feet long and 150 feet wide, and contains a maximum
depth of water of 10 feet 9 inches. The total capacity is nearly
2 million gallons. The reservoir is built in excavation, and is
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
481
roofed over with rubble masonry, concrete, and earth, sup-
ported on lines of archwork. A partition wall runs for nearly
the whole length of the reservoir, and separates the inlet-pipe
from the main delivery-pipe, thus ensuring a complete circula-
tion of the water. The water-level in the reservoir is 55 feet
above the average ground floor-level of the houses in the native
town.
A cast-iron inlet-pipe, 24 inches in diameter, controlled by a
valve at the well-end, connects the inlet-well with the reservoir,
where it terminates in a bell mouth. The main delivery-pipe,
also 24 inches in diameter, has two branches, leading, one from
the inlet-well, and one from the reservoir. These are fitted
near each inner end, with 24-inch sluice-valves, so that water
can be supplied to the town direct, either from the inlet-well
or from the reservoir, as occasion may require. A cleansing or
scouring-pipe, which communicates with a built drain, is laid
2 feet below the level of the main delivery-pipe, and, like it,
has one branch from the well and one from the reservoir, end-
ing in each case with a sluice valve.
The distribution throughout the town, port, civil lines and
military cantonment of Karachi, is effected through main and
service-pipes of cast-iron, varying from 24 inches to 21 inches
in diameter, having an aggregate original length of nearly 32
miles (now probably much more). A 5-inch pipe was laid
down for the special supply of the main railway station, and a
6-inch pipe was carried to Keamari, a distance of over 5 miles
from the civil lines, for the supply of the shipping and engine-
house at Merewether pier. In the town, hydrants are placed,
at intervals of 200 feet in the principal thoroughfares, to
facilitate street-watering, and in other streets at 400 feet inter-
vals. A neat and ornamental pattern of bhisti (i.e. water-
carrier) service, delivering water from overhead, as well as a
roofed-in public street service, each containing twelve self-act-
ing bib cocks and drinking-trough for cattle, is adopted at
Karachi. Of these forty, and twenty-eight, respectively, were
originally provided, distributed over the more thickly-popu-
ated parts of the town.
The total cost of the Karachi Waterworks, as completed in
1883, amounted to nearly £115,000, and the maximum possible
2 H
482
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
daily supply of water was 2,500,000 gallons, or 25 gallons per
head per day for a population of 100,000 persons. The rates
charged for private supplies, after the opening of the works,
varied from 5 to 1 Rs. per month, according to size of connec-
tion, or from 6 to 10 annas per 1000 gallons by meter. As
the water flows by gravity from the supply-wells to the dis-
tributing reservoir, there is no expense for pumping; whilst
the cost of maintenance, repairs, and establishments is at a
minimum. The scheme, therefore, should be a remunerative
one to the inhabitants and municipality. The Karachi Water-
works were formally opened to the public on the 21st April
1883, but were not fully completed until the year 1884.
CHAPTER V
JUBBULPORE-CONCLUSION
Jubbulpore Waterworks-Scarcity and impurity of the former water-supply-
Population of Jubbulpore-Outline history of the scheme-Main features of
proposed works-Provision of funds—Preliminary operations—Construction
of the masonry dam-Escape weirs-Straining and regulating tower—Pipes,
valves, and supply main-Arrangements for future extension of the water-
supply-Concluding observations—Other water supply projects—Water-
supply of Lucknow-Artesian well-Failure to obtain water-New scheme
-Outline of project--Water-supply of Delhi-Conclusion.
Jubbulpore Waterworks, 1881 to 1884
A VERY thorough and well-considered scheme of water-supply
for the provincial city of Jubbulpore, in the Central Provinces,
was carried out between the years 1881-1884. This rapidly
rising city and important railway centre, previous to the con-
struction of the water-supply works now to be outlined, was
dependent on the supply afforded by numerous shallow wells, for
the most part sunk in the hard granitic rock with which Jubbul-
pore abounds. The water derived from these wells, at the best
of times, was uncertain in quantity and of indifferent quality;
but in years of short rainfall it was extremely scanty and im-
pure. By the census of 1881, the population of the native city
and military cantonments of Jubbulpore numbered nearly
63,000. In the city proper, numbering about 47,500 souls,
there existed 1058 wells ; but less than 200 of these furnished
water suitable for drinking purposes, and even in years of
average rainfall a large proportion of the latter ran dry.
In the year 1874, the scarcity of water was so great that it
sold in the city at from 2 to 4 annas per ghurra (a vessel
holding about 2 gallons); and this is stated to have been a
customary experience in the hot season, except after years of
heavy rainfall. A large number of the wells in the city were
483
484
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
also contaminated by the neighbourhood of small tanks fed by
the surface-drainage of the streets; for many years, therefore,
an improved water-supply for Jubbulpore was a most urgent
want.
The history of the scheme carried out in the years 1881-84
may be shortly told. As far back as 1872, a special engineer
was deputed by Government to examine and report upon the
available sites—within a reasonable distance of the city-
offering facilities for the storage of water. A number of sites
were at that time reported on; but all proved in one way or
another unsuitable. In the following year, the Government
engineer then attached to the Jubbulpore Division, was in-
structed to make proposals for a water-supply scheme, and he
shortly afterwards submitted sketches of two projects to supply
the city by gravitation.
Of these proposals, one was rejected owing to the very
limited head of water available. The remaining scheme, which
formed the basis of that afterwards carried out, was to con-
struct a reservoir on the Khandari nulla, at a favourable site
situated about 7 miles from the city, and convey the water the
whole distance by means of pipes. The head of water in this
scheme was sufficient to command at good pressure all parts of
the native city and cantonments; but its estimated cost amounted
to five lakhs of Rs., or £50,000 nominal, and the finances
of the municipality would not admit of so heavy an outlay.
The scheme was, therefore, in abeyance for some years. The
privations undergone by the city population in consequence of
the deficient rainfall of 1878 were so great, that the improved
water-supply scheme, and especially the means by which the
necessary money could be raised, was earnestly taken up by
the local civil officers, with the result that arrangements were
shortly afterwards entered into with a local firm of wealthy
bankers, through whom the funds were obtained on fairly easy
terms. It is owing to the public spirit and liberality of this
firm that Jubbulpore is in great measure indebted for the
excellent water-supply which it has now enjoyed for more than
a decade.
The question of funds having been satisfactorily settled, the
necessary surveys and studies for the proposed water-works
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
485
Thy
1
were commenced towards the end of the year 1879, and a
detailed project was elaborated. The new census of the early
part of the year 1881, however, showed so considerable an
increase of population that a revision of the project as origin-
ally prepared became necessary, and the details of an enlarged
scheme, providing for the supply of 100,000 persons, were
rapidly drawn up. This scheme was sanctioned by Government
towards the end of the same year. Preliminary work had,
however, been commenced early in 1881, enabling the construc-
tion of the reservoir dam to be put in hand before the close of
the year. From this time operations were carried on vigorously
up to the beginning of the year 1883, when the works were for-
mally opened, with some ceremony, by the Chief Commissioner
of the Central Provinces on the 26th February, although it was
not until about a year later that the full scheme was entirely
completed.
The preliminary operations, commenced in April 1881, com-
prised excavations for the foundations of the masonry dam of
the intended reservoir; the construction of service-roads, and
accommodation for the supervising establishment and for the
work-people. Owing to the great scarcity of water during the
hot season, provision was made for the temporary storage of a
certain supply by the construction of a small tank within the
reservoir area. The important matter of conservancy was also
attended to, and so efficient were the arrangements made to
preserve the coolie lines in good sanitary condition, that not-
withstanding the small army of labourers--numbering nearly
3000 persons, which was collected at the sitem-no epidemic
occurred during the entire progress of the works. The quarry-
ing of the necessary stone for the main works, and the pro-
vision of the other various materials, as well as plant, required,
was rapidly pushed forward, so that by the month of December
1881 the construction of the masonry dam could be com-
menced. The site for the dam was chosen at a point on the
Khandari nulla, situated about 8 miles east of Jubbulpore, at
an elevation of 1390 feet above mean sea level. The founda-
tion material met with along the whole alignment of the dam
was of a most favourable character; a good description of
basalt rock being everywhere found at moderate depths.
486
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Excellent basalt stone for building purposes was also procur-
able close at hand, so that the site offered great natural
advantages for the construction of a masonry dam.
The dam, as constructed, is 1680 feet long, and has a
maximum height of 714 feet above foundations. The maxi-
mum thickness is 52 feet at the bottom, and it is everywhere
9 feet thick at the top; the finished structure containing about
1,111,200 cubic feet, or 41,155 cubic yards of rubble masonry,
with about 53,000 cubic feet, or 1963 cubic yards, of concrete
in foundations. For the whole length of the dam a trench, 3
feet broad and from 3 to 2 feet in depth, below the general
level of the foundations, was cut into the rock, and filled with
concrete, and wherever faults or fissures were encountered,
these were carefully and completely opened out, until firm rock
was reached, the void spaces being filled in with concrete.
Thus the work was everywhere rooted into a solid and im-
pervious strata, and rendered perfectly secure against all
leakage along the line of junction.
A flood-escape, 300 feet long, with cill, or crest, placed at
the top level of the stored water, or 614 feet above the lowest
bottom of the reservoir, is provided on the right flank of the
dam. Immediately adjoining this—which may be called the
normal escape-weir—an additional length of escape, 437 feet
long, is placed, having its cill 3 feet higher, whilst in continua-
tion of the latter a further length of 628 feet has the cill level
4 feet above the normal escape; the remaining flank of the
dam, 315 feet in length, being 5 feet above the same level,
The combined discharging power of the escapes is estimated at
18,450 cubic feet per second : this is equivalent to a rainfall of
5.44 inches in an hour over the whole catchment of 54 square
miles, reaching the escape at a uniform rate in the hour. The
water is discharged directly on to the solid basalt rock below
the dam, without the intervention of steps, or precautions of
any kind; the height of the fall at the normal escape being 23
feet. On the left of this escape, a long guard wall, 326 feet in
total length, cuts off the water from access to the lower part
of the valley, and a short guard-wall, 80 feet in length, affords
protection to the base of the hill on the right flank of the dam.
These guard-walls are set well back from the extremities of the
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
487
escape, so as to be clear of the falling water. The crest of the
escape-weir is protected with ordinary concrete, finished off
with 2 inches in thickness of fine Portland cement concrete,
instead of with cut stone.
A solidly built masonry water-tower, securely founded on
the solid rock, is constructed at a distance of 10 feet from the
inner or reservoir face of the masonry dam, and is connected
with the top of the dam by a flight of steps carried by an arch.
The tower is circular in plan, with an octagonal covered-in
chamber at the summit. It has an internal diameter at bottom
of 6 feet, and an external diameter throughout of 18 feet. At
the top, the internal diameter is 11 feet, and the height of
the tower from bottom of foundations to the battlemented
summit of the octagonal chamber is 871 feet. Attached to
the outside face of the tower is built a rectangular chamber,
10 feet by 6 in plan, carried up from the floor level (which
is 10 feet above the lowest bottom of the reservoir) to a short
distance above high-flood level. Into this chamber the water of
strainers, placed a short distance apart, and fixed in wooden
frames, which work in grooves provided in the outer wall of
the strained-water chamber, and either set can be hauled up
for cleaning or repair, by special tackle fixed above for the
purpose. The object of these strainers is to prevent fish or
any solid matter from the reservoir entering the pipes.
From the strained-water chamber the water passes into a
vertical stand-pipe, fixed inside the water-tower, through three
radiating inlet pipes, which are carried through the intervening
wall at three different levels. The entrance of water is con-
trolled by valves placed on the inlet-pipes near their junction
with the stand-pipe inside the tower, where they are at all
times accessible. The outer ends of the inlet-pipes inside the
strained-water chamber are turned upwards, and are bell-
mouthed, so that whenever repairs to the inside valves are
required, the outer ends of the pipes can be closed by a ball of
wood, or other stopper of proper diameter. A small pipe, pro-
vided with a stop-cock, connects the interior of each inlet-pipe
with the outside water, so that when it is desired to remove
488
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the stopper, the pressure can be equalised by the admission of
water below it. In addition to the three inlet-pipes, a fourth
pipe placed on the bottom floor of the tower, passes from it
through the strained-water chamber into the reservoir, ter-
minating in a hinged flap-valve worked from above. The
pipe, which is provided with a large valve in the interior of
the strained-water chamber (worked also from the top floor), and
with an ordinary screw-down valve inside the tower-is called
the 'scouring-pipe,' and its object is to remove any sediment
which may collect in front of, and inside, the strained-water
chamber, which is done by the scouring action set up when the
valves are opened. The vertical stand-pipe within the tower
is connected with the main supply-pipe, and this, together with
the scouring-pipe, both pass from the bottom of the tower
hrough a culvert, which is carried underneath the dam. The
scouring-pipe ends at a short distance beyond the outer toe of
the dam, and the main supply-pipe, 16 inches in diameter,
carries the water to the town of Jubbulpore. No arrangements
are required for filtering the water, but special precautions are
taken to prevent any fouling of the catchment area of the
reservoir.
The 16-inch main pipe between the reservoir and the town
is provided with frequent stop-valves, and on all the pipe
systems air-valves on the summits, and scour-valves in the
depressions are fixed. The pipe system conveys water to all
parts of the native city, where it is supplied free at all the
numerous public standards. A supply is also furnished to the
cantonments and civil station, to the central jail, railway
station, and other public buildings, as well as to private houses
at agreed rates.
The total original cost of the project amounted to 6,91,140
rupees, or £69,114 at par of exchange. It was arranged
that the money borrowed for the construction of the works
should be repaid in a period of twenty-two years, the yearly
instalments to be met from the annual income of the muni-
cipality. As actually carried out, the Jubbulpore waterworks
are designed to supply 88,423 persons at the rate of 15 gallons
per head per day of twenty-four hours, or nearly 591 millions
of cubic feet per annum, which is reckoned, exclusive of the
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
489
monsoon, at 280 days. The full capacity of the reservoir up
to the level of the normal escape-weir is 203 millions of cubic
feet. The thickness of the masonry dam, moreover, has been
made so as to allow an extra height of 3 feet being added
whenever it may become necessary to increase the storage
capacity. By thus raising the dam, additional water, to the
amount of 36 millions of cubic feet, can be stored. In estimat-
ing the quantity available for the wants of the city, the bottom
10 feet in depth of the reservoir, which amounts to 548,413
cubic feet, is neglected, this space being left for deposit of silt.
A vertical depth of 6 feet, taken on a mean area of the stored
water, and amounting to about 47} million cubic feet, is also
allowed for evaporation and absorption. These volumes added
to the calculated yearly draw-off from the reservoir of 597
million cubic feet, amount in all to 1071 millions of cubic feet
of water. The available annual flow from the catchment basin
of the reservoir, calculated on the lowest observed rainfall
during a period of thirty-five years, is taken at 1197 millions of
cubic feet, giving a lowest surplus volume of over 12 millions.
In average years the quantity available for storage is of course
much greater, and it is calculated that the reservoir will practi-
cally store sufficient water to meet the requirements of two
consecutive seasons without replenishment.
The foregoing examples of town water-supply schemes in
India, include among them some of the largest of these under-
takings which have been carried out in that country; they
have, however, been partly selected from the large total of
such works, with a special view to illustrate distinct types and
varieties of construction, one or other of which, merely modified
in size and detail according to local necessities and conditions,
will be almost certainly found repeated in the majority of the
remaining works of this class, which of late years have been
called into existence by so many municipalities throughout the
country, but which it will be unnecessary for the purposes of
this volume to further particularise. The gradual loosening
of caste prejudices, and the growing public appreciation of the
practical benefits and advantages derived from a pure and un-
failing water-supply, is now sufficiently apparent, and for many
years to come the provision of an adequate supply of whole-
490
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
some water to the town populations of India, must everywhere
be one of the chief concerns of the urban authorities. That a
vast number of such works urgently call for construction does
not require assertion, nevertheless no inconsiderable progress
has already been made. Besides the particular works which
we have arbitrarily selected as illustrative examples, water-
supply schemes of considerable importance have been carried
out at Burdwan, Dacca, Mhow, Poona and Kirkee, Satara,
Jalgaon, Maraj, Pandapur, Thana, Kolapur, Secunderabad,
Bangalore, Ootacamund, Wellington, and Hyderabad in Scinde,
as well as in the case of a large number of the smaller towns
throughout the country.
Projects for the water-supply of most of the larger cities of
the North-west Provinces—such as Lucknow, Cawnpore, and
Benares, are either in active construction, or under preparation.
In the case of Lucknow, the great necessity for introducing a
supply of pure drinking-water, has occupied the serious atten-
tion of the Government and Municipality for many years. In
the year 1881, a special engineer officer was appointed to
report on the subject, and after some discussion it was deter-
mined to sink an Artesian well. The boring was commenced
in the year 1889, and by May of the year 1890 had reached a
depth of 1336 feet, at a cost of 93,000 rupees (£9300 at par)
without result. The boring was then abandoned, and it was
decided to adopt a scheme for the supply of water by pump-
ing, and the formal inauguration of this project-by the Lieu-
tenant-Governor of the North-west Provinces--took place in
November 1892.
The main features of the new Lucknow water-supply are, an
intake pumping station at a spot above the city on the right
bank of Nagaria Nala: a service-reservoir, with settling-
tanks, filtering beds, etc., and a distribution of the filtered
water through thirty-three miles of iron piping, and 351 stand-
posts in the native city and civil lines, and through nineteen
miles of piping and 100 standposts in the military cantonment.
The scheme is calculated to supply two million gallons of pure
drinking-water per diem to the population of the native city
and civil lines, and 200,000 gallons to the cantonment; the
estimated capital outlay amounting to 151 lakhs of rupees.
sct, and enginea Palit
WATER-SUPPLY OF TOWNS IN INDIA
491
(£155,000) with an annual expenditure of 1,40,000 rupees
(£14,000) in interest and cost of maintenance.
On November 4th, 1892, a water-supply scheme for the
capital city of Delhi, which was begun in the year 1890, was
formally opened for the public service. A reservoir 300 feet
long and 150 feet wide has been constructed on the highest
part of the famous ridge, close to the city, and a supply of
ten gallons per head per day for a population of 173,000
persons in the city, fort, and cantonments has been provided
for. In numerous other parts of India water-supply projects
are being mooted, or are in active prosecution, and everywhere
a practical recognition of the immense value of this special
class of public works, so necessary to all real progress in
sanitation and civilisation, can be noted as one of the most
wholesome and valuable products of the comparatively recent
development and progress of municipal institutions in India.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Introductory observations—Electric telegraph apparatus—Varieties of signals-
Origin of the electric telegraph-Outline of early history of the inven-
tion-Statical electrical apparatus--Dynamic electricity-Deflection of mag-
netic needle—Wheatstone and Cook-First telegraph line in England-
First experimental line in India--Dr. O'Shaughnessy—India a pioneer in
electric telegraphy—Telegraphic communication between England and
India--Statistical details of modern electric telegraphs in India – Extent of
the system-Capital outlay—Revenue-Number of messages, Establish-
ments—Classifications and working-Concluding observations.

1.
I
:
OMMUNICATION by means of the elec-
tric telegraph is a practically indispens-
able adjunct to the effectual and safe
working of railways, and it was princi-
pally, in rapid correspondence with early
railway necessities, that this exceedingly
useful invention assumed a practical and
workable shape. In every civilised country in the world, the
clectric telegraph is now so common and familiar an agent,
and its use, and numberless public and private conveniences, —
altogether apart from railway service—forms so integral a part
of all civilised life in modern times, that it has become difficult
to realise that its practical use extends only over a single half
century. It is unnecessary here to enter into any detailed
description of the essential principles of an invention so well
known, and in its main features so familiar to every section of
the community. It will suffice to say that, proceeding upon
the principle that an electro-magnetic current can pass along
a conducting wire to a great distance, and can be made to
move a magnetic needle at any point of its course-signals-
according to any established code, can be readily conveyed,
495
496
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
O
with almost incredible speed from one end of a wire to another;
the signals being sufficiently varied to express letters of the
alphabet and the ten numerals, or particular combinations of
letters, words, or phrases, so that communications can be
made at any one place, and can be read off at another, even
although many hundreds of miles apart.
The apparatus of an ordinary aërial electric telegraph con-
sists of a line of conducting wire, or wires, of galvanised iron,
suspended on earthenware tubes or “insulators,' carried on
poles which are spaced at certain distances apart from station
to station. A single wire will serve for one circle of the
electric current; it being found that the earth itself is a con-
ductor, so that if a current pass along a wire above ground, it
will return through the earth, provided the wire at each end is
carried into the ground, and is attached to a mass of buried
metal. Each aërial wire will therefore form a circuit, and
carry a distinct set of signals. The electric current is generated
and is maintained by the use of galvanic batteries, of which
several forms are employed,—the strength of which requires to
be proportionate to the distance between the extreme stations.
Many varieties in the kinds of signals, and in the methods by
which they are produced, have also from time to time been
introduced, and the rate of transmission of messages has been
greatly increased.
It is hardly possible to assign to any one person the merit of
originating this very valuable invention. Like many others of
like importance, it has been perfected by degrees from small
beginnings, and a considerable number of scientific men and
practical workers are each entitled to their due share of merit.
The following brief résumé of the early history of the electric
telegraph, abbreviated almost entirely from an interesting and
valuable paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers
on March 2nd, 1852 (vol. xi. of Proceedings), will convey a
sufficiently clear idea of the early steps by which the infant
electric telegraph arrived at practical maturity.
The electric telegraph has its origin in the combination of
three separate yet correlative physical forces, viz., electricity,
galvanism, and magnetism. Its history is divisible into two
distinct eras ; the first era comprises all telegraphs in which
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA
497
statical electricity (or electricity produced by friction) was the
exciting agent, the second era comprehends all telegraphs in
which dynamic electricity (or electricity produced by chemical
affinity) is the acting principle. The employment of magnetism
for telegraphic purposes appears to have been thought of as
early as the sixteenth century. The Jesuit ‘Famianus Strada,
professor of rhetoric at Rome, states in his Prolusiones Acade-
micæ, published in the year 1617, that Cardinal Bembo, who
died in Rome in 1547, was possessed of a plan for corresponding
at long distances by magnetic electricity, i.e. by the occult
sympathy' of two needles-a notion said to be alluded to by
Galileo, and also by Sir Thomas Browne. In 1774 Lesage, at
Geneva, constructed an electric telegraph, composed of twenty-
four wires, between two rooms. On exciting an electric machine
and joining it to one of the wires, the pith ball of an electro-
meter belonging to it was repelled, and the motion signified a
letter of the alphabet. This invention was submitted to Frederic
the Great, but was never carried into execution.
In 1787, Lomond improved upon Lesage's plan and reduced his
twenty-four wires to one, and various other modifications were
made down to the year 1826. Amongst other inventors, about
the year 1819 a Mr. Ronald, of Hammersmith, is stated to have
applied electricity for the purpose of effecting telegraphic com-
munication, and succeeded so far as to complete a current
through eight miles of wire. In 1826 the first registering tele-
graph is said to have been constructed by Mr. H. G. Dyar, of
Long Island, in America. He used the decomposing power of a
spark, acting upon a fillet of paper moistened and stained with
litmus, and moved by hand, or by clockwork. The passage of
each spark from a conductor to the paper produced a discolora-
tion, and by the different combinations of marks thus made any
signal could be transmitted and registered.' This is the main
principle of one of the subsequent printing telegraphs. So far,
statical or frictional electricity had been the agent employed,
but from about the year 1800, when Volta made his celebrated
discovery of the pile now bearing his name, the dynamic era of
telegraphy may be said to have commenced. The distinguishing
characteristic of the new voltaic current was, that it flowed in
a continuous stream, instead of in sudden flashes or gushes, and
21
498
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
:
the minds of inventors were directed into a new channel. In
the year 1811, Sömmering—who appears to have made the first
electro-dynamic telegraph-described before the Academy of
Sciences at Munich his plan of a telegraph, based on employing
as the means of indication the decomposition of water by a
battery. He used 35 wires, which signified the 25 letters of
the alphabet and the ten numerals. Soon afterwards Schweiger
suggested several important improvements in Sömmering's de-
vice, and proposed a considerable diminution in the number of
signals, by employing two batteries of different powers, and
reduced the number of wires to two. About the same time
also, Professor Coxe, of Philadelphia, devoted much time to
the subject, and confidently predicted the future success of the
electric telegraph.
In the year 1819 a great impetus was given to the science of
electro-magnetism by Professor Oersted, who discovered that
when a magnetic needle was placed above or below a wire, and
a current was passed through the latter, the needle had a
tendency to place itself at right angles to the current.
Schweiger soon after improved on this discovery, and found
that by taking a silk covered copper wire, and coiling it round
several times, the deflections of a magnetic needle suspended
about it became extremely sensible. Fechner conceived the
idea of adapting Oersted's discovery to telegraphic purposes,
but was forestalled by Ampère, who, on the 2d October 1820,
read before the Academy of Sciences a description of an
electric telegraph on this principle. About this period, Arago
observed the magnetic properties of the electric current, and
discovered the attractive power of soft iron, while Sturgeon, in
1825, constructed the electro-magnet, and noticed the increased
power to be obtained from it. It is stated that Baron de
Schilling of St. Petersburg, about the year 1832 or 1833, con-
structed an electric telegraph consisting of five magnetic
needles placed in the centre of coils or multipliers, and set in
motion by keys.
The main elements of the electric telegraph were thus com-
plete, nothing was wanted but a master mind, or minds, to com-
bine the discoveries made, and mould them into practical and
workable shape. In the annals of the year 1837 four names
THE 499
LY
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA
stand pre-eminent as claimants for the honour of inventing
long-distance telegraphy, viz., Wheatstone, Alexander, Steinheil,
and Morse. There appears to be no doubt of Wheatstone's
priority, whose discovery was announced in the Magazine of
Useful Science on 1st March 1837. On the 12th June of the
same year, Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke sealed their first
patent ‘for improvements in giving signals, and sounding
alarms in distant places by means of electric currents trans-
mitted through metallic circuits. The five needles at first
used were soon afterwards reduced to two, and numerous other
patents were taken out by the same gentlemen. In July of
1837, M. Steinheil of Munich made an electric telegraph con-
sisting of magnetic needles and coils of very fine insulated
copper wire. Signals were obtained by the action of a magneto-
electric machine, and he employed the earth to complete the
circuit, but the apparatus was of a very complicated nature.
Professor Morse in America (one of the great names of
electric telegraphy) also patented in the same year an electro-
magnetic registering telegraph, employing only one wire, and
consisting of an electro-magnet, the coiled wire of which forms
the continuation of the line wire. The armature of this
magnet was attached to the end of a small lever carrying a
steel point at its opposite extremity. Under this point was a
roll of paper set in motion by the aid of wheelwork. When
a current was transmitted, the magnet attracted the armature,
which caused the pen to press against the paper. This
principle has developed into the well-known Morse registering
telegraph. If the contact is rapidly made and broken by the
finger-key, simple dots only are made on the paper. If the
circuit is kept closed for some time, the pen or style traces a
line proportionate in length to the time the circuit is closed.
If no current is transmitted for some time the paper exposes a
blank surface, and the combination of these dots, lines, and
blank spaces, forms a symbolic alphabet.
The original system of signals employed by Messrs. Wheat-
stone and Cooke, consisted of a dial, on which various symbols
were depicted, to which the needles-deflected by the current-
were made to point. The first telegraphic line in England
upon Wheatstone's plan was erected in the year 1839, between
500
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
London and Slough, on the Great Western Railway, a distance
of 18 miles. In the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
for September 1839, is a very interesting account of Dr.
O'Shaughnessy, M.D., F.R.S.—afterwards Sir William Brooke
(O'Shaughnessy—of a series of results obtained in April and
May 1839, on a line of wires 21 miles in length constructed
by him in the vicinity of Calcutta, suspended on bamboo poles.
In that paper, the one-wire system, the earth circuit, the use
of the induction machine, and the traversing of rivers by means
of insulated wires, were prominently set forth, and accurately
described, and the importance of the introduction of the electric
telegraph into India was strongly urged. This appears un-
doubtedly to have been the first long line of telegraph ever
constructed in any country. Interesting details relating to the
construction of this line of telegraph-which presents an im-
portant if not solitary instance, of the practicability on a large
scale of a great invention being first demonstrated on Indian
soil—will be found in the Preface to The Electric Telegraph
in British India, by W. B. O'Shaughnessy, M.D., F.R.S.,
Surgeon, Bengal Army, Chief Superintendent of Telegraphs to
the Honble. East India Company, London. Printed by order
of the Court of Directors, 1853, from which the following is
quoted. “In April and May 1839, the first long line of
telegraph ever constructed in any country was erected by the
writer of these pages in the vicinity of Calcutta. The line was
21 miles in length, embracing 7000 feet of river circuit. The
experiments performed on this line removed all reasonable
doubts regarding the practicability of working electric telegraphs
through enormous distances, a question then, and for three
years later, disputed by high authorities, and regarded generally
with contemptuous scepticism. It is never too late to acknow-
ledge an obligation. In the experiments then carried on I
received the warm aid and support of Dr. Wallich, then Super-
intendent of the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, now Vice-President
of the Royal Society, London. One terminus of the line was
placed in his house, and all the resources of his establish-
ment and library were held at my disposal. He saw at a glance
the marvellous future which these and simultaneous experi-
ments in other countries foretold, and with his high name he
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA
501
protected the experimentalist from much of the derision which
his attempts excited in the community of Calcutta. The
experiments having been completed, and the results published,
the line was taken down.'
It will thus be seen that India has been a pioneer in electric
telegraph development. Dr. William Brooke O'Shaughnessy
was afterwards intrusted with the first public lines of telegraph
laid down in that country. Under his direction working lines
of telegraph were rapidily established over the whole of Hin-
between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour, opened in December
1851. By the year 1858, all the seats of Government were
connected by wires aggregating 3000 to 4000 miles in length,
and additional telegraphic lines—at least equal in extent—were
in course of construction.
By the year 1872, every important place in India was con-
nected by telegraph, which was also in working order along the
whole 5373 miles of railway then opened. Three alternative
lines of cable telegraph also connected the great dependency
tion between India and Europe viâ Turkey, was planned and
carried out by the late Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Stewart of the
Bengal Engineers, on the failure, a few days after completion,
of the original cable laid from Suez to Bombay in 1857; capital
for which had been raised by a company on a twenty-five year
guarantee from the Government of India. Colonel Stewart
did not, however, survive to see the successful result of his
labours. He died at Constantinople in January 1865, from the
effects of exposure and over-exertion, a very short time before
the lines were formally opened.' 2
This Turkish line remained the principal means of telegraphic
communication with India until the year 1870, when a new era
dawned on the history of Eastern telegraphy. Almost simul-
taneously with the successful laying of the new Red Sea cable,
the Indo-European Telegraph Company's line was opened to
Teheran, and was carried to London by way of Tiflis, Warsaw,
1 Vide No. 714-731 of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, September
1839.
2 Moral and Material Progress Report, 1873-74..
502
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
.
and Berlin. The Anglo-Persian line from Teheran to Bushire
had previously been much improved, and a second wire erected.
An alternative cable had also been laid from Bushire to Cape
Jask, whence it was continued by land wires to Gwadur, and
the Turkish Government, stimulated by the competition, took
steps to improve the older service. Between the years 1862
and 1872, the Indian Government expended upwards of
£1,150,000 on telegraphic communication with Europe, in
addition to a sum of £18,000 annually—or half the guarantee
on the original Red Sea cable. By the various routes now
open, the English and Indian public enjoy the utmost facilities
for the rapid transmission of intelligence from the one country
to the other.
The length of inland telegraph lines opened in India under the
administration of the Indian Government Telegraph Depart-
ment, reached, at the end of the year 1891-92, the great total
of 38,625 miles, and the capital outlay on these lines—deduct-
ing receipts on capital account-reached 521,82,804 rupees, or
£5,218,380 at par of exchange. The aggregate number of
telegraph offices throughout the country open for the despatch
of paid telegrams at the end of the same year, was 1001 depart-
mental and postal offices, and 2245 offices on railways and
canals, or 3246 offices in all. Some of the more interesting
statistics of the Indian system of electric telegraphs, during the
last year for which the information is available, viz., the official
year 1891-92, are as follows. The capital expenditure during
the year was Rs.19,42,128, of which Rs.15,47,523 were expended
on new lines. The working expenses were Rs.48,34,295, whilst
the revenue derived from all sources reached a total of
Rs. 74,30,092, leaving a surplus of Rs. 25,95,797, representing a
dividend of 4.97 per cent. on the capital account. If, however,
the charges for State messages, and news free and other pro
forma revenue be deducted, the net receipts by Government
equalled Rs. 10,43,697, representing a net return of 2 per cent.
as compared with 0:37 per cent. nine years earlier, and 2:193
per cent. in the maximum year 1889-90. The revenue receipts
on account of State messages may, however, be legitimately
included in estimating the return on capital outlay—including
these, therefore, but deducting the news free, and other pro
11
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN INDIA
503
forma revenue, amounting to Rs. 49,807 only, the net receipts
were equivalent to 4:85 per cent. on the capital expenditure.
During the year 1891-92, 3,808,998 messages were booked
in the Telegraph Offices of the Department, to the value of
Rs. 56,82,729. Of these, 3,140,690 were private inland or
foreign messages (the number of private inland messages alone
being 2,627,408). As compared with the previous year, this
represents an increase of 262,380 in number, and Rs. 2,42,140
in value, equivalent to 11.09 and 9:87 per cent. respectively.
During the last ten years the number of private messages has
increased by about 120 per cent., and their value by nearly
100 per cent., and in the same period the number of tele-
graphic offices has increased 218.7 per cent. These figures
show how greatly the use of the telegraph is appreciated, and
how rapidly it is extending among the people of India.
At the end of the year 1891-92, the strength of the
signalling establishments of the Indian Telegraph Department
amounted to 2842 persons, of whom 1550 were departmental
officers, 357 were British military signallers, and 935 were
postal clerks. Over the enormous total of telegrams trans-
mitted and received during the year, the number of complaints
made was 1045, or 0·025 per cent. of the total number of messages.
Of these about one-half, or 542, were admitted. The number
of telegrams that from various causes could not be delivered
amounted to 13,899, equal to 0.308 of the whole number re-
ceived for transmission, the latter figures illustrating a peculiar
phase of Indian civilisation.
Inland telegrams in India are classified under three main
heads, viz., “State,' 'Private,' and 'Press'; and under each of
these heads the messages are sub-classified as Urgent, Ordi-
nary,' and 'Deferred, subject to a decreasing scale of charge
in the order named. «Urgent' telegrams take precedence of
all others; Ordinary' telegrams are forwarded next in order,
and · Deferred’ messages are a cheap class of telegram trans-
mitted onwards whenever the wires are clear of urgent and
ordinary traffic. The year 1891-92 is the decennial year of
the existing tariff with these classes : it will be interesting,
therefore, to note in the case of private telegrams, the relative
popular appreciation of the three kinds of message. During
504
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
the ten years, Urgent telegrams have increased in value by 92
per cent., Ordinary telegrams by 59.1 per cent. (sharing the
fate of almost every second class) and deferred telegrams by
247.3 per cent. The latter cheap form of message, in fact,
amply satisfies the needs of all the less important concerns in
business and domestic life, and its greater relative use may be
expected to steadily continue. In the “State' and 'Press'
class, the percentage of deferred telegrams during the year
1891-92 is even higher than in the case of private messages.
The net additions to the system maintained by the Indian
Telegraph Department during the year were 1555 miles of
line, 6647 miles of wire, and about 2 miles of cable. The
total mileage of wire on the 38,625 miles of open lines was
120,159 miles (or sufficient to go more than five times round
the circumference of the earth), of which 40,999 miles were in
connection with the railway system, 76,819 miles belonged to
imperial lines, and only 288 miles were maintained for native
States; the remaining mileage being classed under private or
provincial lines, or maintained in connection with canal
systems.
Among the more important of the electrical improvements
recently subject to careful experiment in India, are the use of
“dry' batteries to test their suitability under the varying and
trying conditions of the Indian climate. The experiments
with this form of battery have been attended with a promising
degree of success, its chief merit being that it requires no
maintenance. The application and extension of the system of
duplex and quadruplex telegraphy over unusually long dis-
tances, has also made considerable progress, and the practic-
ability of working duplex direct through an iron wire between
Calcutta and Bombay, à distance of 1346 miles has been
proved.
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS
Introductory-Paucity of harbours on Indian coasts-Principal ports-Bombay
-Early improvements and development-Karachi harbour-Description of
port--Harbour works undertaken-Object in view-Outline of principal
works, The Manora breakwater-Details of construction—The port of
Karwar-Improvements effected— The open roadstead of Madras–Extract
from report of a committee in 1868—Proposals for improvement of the port
Breakwater project-Enclosed harbour scheme adopted—Description and
construction of the works— Main features as carried out-Disastrous effects
of a cyclonic storm in 1881–Proposals for restoration of the harbour-
Committee of eminent harbour engineers—The port of Calcuita-Kidder-
pore docks-Lighting the coasts of India--Important lighthouses— Coasts
of Burma-Alguarda lighthouse-Double Island, Cocas and Khrisna shoal
lighthouses - The Great Basses, and Tuticorin lighthouses—The ‘Prongs:
lighthouse, Bombay-Concluding remarks-Summary of aim of volume.

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F all the many necessities for the
carrying out of a great export and
import trade in any country, secure
harbours, liberally provided with
suitable accessories, whether for the
safety and guidance of ocean-going
vessels entering or leaving them, or
dry and wet docks for cleaning and
repairing, or for the rapid and con-
venient loading and unloading of their cargoes, are as import-
ant as improved internal communications ; larbours and docks
being, in fact, the great transfer stations of outwards and
inwards traffic from sea to land carriage, or vice versa, on the
road to the final destination of the merchandise. It is neces-
sary, therefore, in this concluding section to indicate the main
features of some of the chief sea and harbour works carried out
on the coasts of India, although the space available will only
admit a brief reference to the more important examples.
507
508
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Important as harbour accommodation really is as a link in
the chain of inter-communication between India and the outer
world, the ports, harbours, and anchorages of the Indian coasts
are singularly few in number, and have, moreover, until com-
paratively recent years, received a far smaller degree of atten-
tion than has been so largely devoted to the internal com-
munications of the country. Much, however, has been done,
not only in the matter of surveys, and thorough scientific
investigation into the capabilities of all those places presenting
the most promising features for the construction of artificial
harbours --whether as commercial ports, or as harbours of
refuge, and in the gradual improvement of many of them, but
also in the development on an extensive scale of the more
important of these places by means of heavy and costly works.
It is to these latter only--where works of especial consequence
have been undertaken—that we can here refer.
· Unlike most of the other great peninsulæ of the world,
India, although possessing upwards of 3600 miles of coast line,
is remarkably destitute of natural harbours affording accom-
modation and security to large ships. This disadvantage is,
moreover, augmented by the circumstance that at certain
seasons of the year the neighbouring seas are peculiarly liable
to furious tempests and cyclones, of exceptional severity.
Along the whole eastern coast of the peninsula--facing the
Bay of Bengal, from the head of the bay to Cape Comorin,
absolutely no really commodious natural harbour exists,
although at a few places, greater or less facilities for the im-
provement of natural features, and the formation of artificial
harbours are to be found. The Presidency city of Madras, the
most important centre on this wide stretch of coast, lies on an
exposed and open roadstead, and, until quite recent years, has
possessed no accommodation or protection whatever for ship-
ping.
At the head of the Bay of Bengal—in the Gangetic Delta,
the port of Calcutta is situated 100 miles inland, on one of
the mouths of the Ganges called the Hooghly, through which
the navigation is tortuous and difficult, and affords a certain
degree of accommodation for large ships. The port of
Colombo, on the west coast of the island of Ceylon, has been
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
509
vastly improved of late years; Ceylon, however, being a Crown
colony, is outside the limits of this volume. On the western
coast of the peninsula-facing the Arabian Sea, the two prin-
cipal commercial harbours are Bombay,-taking rank as the
first and most important natural harbour in India-and
Karachi, situated not far from the mouths of the Indus; the
capabilities of which place are only of a moderate kind. On
this coast also, the small natural harbour of Karwar—the port
for North Canara and the cotton districts of Dharwar, affords
some degree of protection, and has been artificially improved.
Along the whole seaboard of India small seaports, chiefly
situated in the mouths or estuaries of the principal rivers, are
very numerous, and are largely used by native and English-
coasting craft. Most of these have from time to time received
attention in the way of dredging and deepening their available
areas, or have been protected by the provision of groynes or
small breakwaters. Many have been provided with wharves,
quays, or landing-piers (as at Calicut)—for the convenience of
the shipping, so that the aggregate amount both of work and
expenditure, from local or imperial funds, on the improvement
of the smaller ports along the Indian coasts, must be very
considerable ; a few of the smaller ports, such, for instance, as
Mangalore, are said to be capable of great improvement, and
in at least two cases, viz., the backwater of Cochin on the west,
and the so-called “Blackwoods' Harbour on the east coast,
natural facilities appear to exist for the formation of semi-
artificial harbours of some considerable importance : Cochin
has, in fact, been reported of as capable of being made one of
the finest close harbours in India, when it might become the
outlet for the whole trade of the Southern Peninsula.
Bombay, the western sea-gate of India, and by far the best
natural harbour in the country, was for a long period destitute
of any suitable accommodation to enable ships to load and
unload alongside quays or wharves. From about the year
1855, considerable improvements were initiated in buoying
and lighting the entrance-channel. The long split of land
called the “prongs,' running out from Colaba—which for many
years was a fruitful source of danger to ships, owing to the
original lighthouse having been built on Colaba Island, too far
510
.
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
inland from the point of danger, was protected by a new light-
house, erected at great expense 11 miles farther out to sea.
The old Government dockyard and docks at Bombay were
supplemented by a fine dry dock at Mazagon for the Peninsula
and Oriental Company's steamers, on ground reclaimed from
the sea on the eastern side of Bombay Island. This dock was
constructed 382 feet long inside gates, 531 feet wide at
bottom, 79 feet wide at top, and 26) feet deep, but approach-
able only by large vessels at spring-tides. The increasing need
of wet-dock accommodation at Bombay gradually led to the
construction of extensive works of this character, on the site
known as the Elphinstone Estate, which was reclaimed from
the sea by the Elphinstone Land and Dock Company, and
dock construction at this port has greatly extended, so as in
great measure to keep pace with the growing necessities of the
sea-borne trade.
The harbour of Karachi, situated near the mouths of the
Indus, and slightly nearer in a direct line to the entrance of
the Red Sea at Aden, than is Bombay, is the port of Scinde,
and-through the Indus river and valley railway-of the whole
Punjab. It thus occupies a very important position, and has
now for some time enjoyed a large and growing prosperity.
The harbour, which in point of accommodation can never
seriously rival Bombay, is essentially a backwater, having an
area at high tides of 15 to 18 square miles; but a very con-
siderable portion of this is only very lightly covered by the
tidal flow. The range of the tide is rather over 7 feet at main
springs, and sometimes 10 or 12 feet at extraordinary springs.
The western half of the harbour is formed by a long narrow
strip of sand, ending in a rocky promontary at Manora Point,
and the eastern side is formed by the low sandy island of
Keamari. The main entrance for ships is between the western
side of Keamari and Manora Point. Across this entrance a
sand-bar had formed nearly 3000 feet in width, with a depth
over it at low water spring-tides of 11 to 2 fathoms only; the
soon current driving forward the loose sand lying immediately
off the extremity of Manora Head. It was to remove this bar,
and preserve a permanent and deep-entrance channel that the
works carried out at Karachi were mainly undertaken.
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
511
The chief objects in view were, to increase the volume of
water passing through the entrance at each tide; to give the
current a proper direction, and to shut out as much as possible
the heavy south-west seas from the mouth of the harbour. A
secondary entrance was originally situated between the main-
land and Keamari Island, called the Chinna Creek, and the
first object was gained by blocking up this entrance, so as to
force all the water through the main entry—and by opening a
passage through a long mole or dyke which had been pre-
viously constructed by Sir Charles Napier, from Karachi town
to Keamari Island, but without any opening. The second
object was secured by running out a long groyne from Keamari
Island to seaward, so as to direct the whole force of the tide
on the bar; and the third, and the principal operation, was the
construction of a breakwater extending to seaward from
Manora Point, to break the force of the heavy seas. These
works were aided by continuous dredging on the bar to assist
the tidal scour, and the removal by blasting of a rocky obstruc-
tion at "deep-water point,' on the west or Manora side of the
harbour.
The blocking of the Chinna Creek, or eastern inlet entrance
-including the construction of an iron screw-pile bridge 1200
feet long, over the opening made in the Napier mole, together
with the principal subsidiary operations in the deep-water
channel, cost altogether nearly £130,000. A new jetty near
the town-end of the harbour, where goods could be landed and
shipped by the smaller craft, cost £13,000; and the Keamari
groyne, which was 'commenced in November 1861, and com-
pleted in 1865, cost over £48,000. The closing of the Chinna
Creek, 980 feet across, was completed in the year 1873.
The construction of the valuable Manora Point Breakwater
was commenced in 1869, and it was completed in the year
1873, at a cost, including plant and establishment, of rather
under £100,000. This breakwater is of especial interest, both
on account of the novel features of its design, and as being the
first that was constructed in deep water with a view to break
the force of the heavy seas raised by the south-west monsoon
on the west coast of India. It runs in a SSE. direction from
the southern extremity of Manora Point, for a distance of
512
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1503 feet beyond low-water mark, terminating in a depth of
5 fathoms, or 30 feet at low water. For the first 500 feet of
its length the water at low tide is 2 to 2 fathoms only, and
the irregular sea-bottom consists of conglomerate rocks, wholly
or partially imbedded in sand: the bottom along the remain-
ing outer portion consists of sand resting on a bed of clay.
The base of the breakwater is formed of a heavy bank of
rubble stone thrown to the sea-bottom from boats; and the
top surface of this bank was levelled off by divers at a height
of 15 feet below low water in the deeper, and 10 feet in the
shallower portion towards the shore end. Upon this rubble
bank, made with ample width, and side slopes of 1 to 1, was
raised a solid superstructure, consisting of a vertical double
wall built up of huge concrete blocks, each 12 feet long, 8 feet
high, and 4 feet thick, weighing 27 tons. These blocks,
which were placed on edge, with a backward rake or inclina-
tion towards the shore of 3 inches to the foot—to prevent
movement during the progress of the work-form a wall
24 feet high and 24 feet wide. The cross section of this wall
presents six blocks, two, without bonding, forming the width,
and three the height.
The manufacture of the large concrete blocks was carried on
on shore by the aid of concrete mixing machinery: they were
made in moulds of the requisite dimensions, and contain one-
eleventh in bulk of Portland cement, mixed with conglomerate
and sand. After being allowed a suitable interval to dry and
harden, they were—by means of a special machine --- lifted on
to trucks, and run out to the breakwater, where they were de-
posited in place by the aid of a powerful - Titan' or travelling
crane, with projecting arm of special construction ; the lifting
and lowering tackle being worked by a powerful steam-engine.
The Manora breakwater was virtually completed in 1873,
at the very moderate cost, exclusive of establishment, of
£69,489. The total cost of the Karachi Harbour improve-
ment works, up to the year 1873-74, was about £450,000 ;
their united effect has been entirely satisfactory. A new
direct entrance channel, preserving a depth of 20 feet at
low water, was formed, and the harbour was rendered acces-
sible to vessels of the largest size, whilst at the same time the
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
513
capacity of the anchorage was considerably increased. The
breakwater, which has sustained no serious injury from the
violence of the sea to which it is exposed, permits the use of
the port at all seasons, and allows the regular arrival and
departure of the mail-steamers. At Keamari-no longer an
island—a landing-pier, and extensive wharfage, has been con-
structed, to which the railway has now for many years been
extended, and the possession of an excellent, though moderate-
sized harbour, out of the track of cyclones, and situated 500
miles from the nearest good harbours on either side of it, en-
sures to Karachi a continuous growth of trade, and commercial
as well as military and naval importance.
The port of Karwar, on the west coast, about 50 miles south
of Goa, consists of a bay or cove, partially protected from the
south-west monsoon. In the year 1858, an English harbour
engineer of eminence was deputed to report on its capabilities
as a harbour of refuge. He reported that the bay was in great
measure protected from the most violent south-west winds, but
was exposed to the west and north-west, and recommended the
construction of breakwaters, aggregating a mile and a half in
length, by means of which a perfectly quiet harbour, of upwards
of 4 square miles in area, would be formed, with a depth vary-
ing from 14 to 32 feet at low water. In 1860 it was deter-
mined to effect some improvements in this natural harbour, in
order to render it available as a port for the shipment of
cotton from Dharwar. A road was constructed to connect
it with that district :-Along the east side of the bay a wharf-
wall of masonry, 845 feet long, was built, and a landing-place
was formed by excavating the hill-sides, which here descend
nearly to the water's edge. It was at first intended to construct
a screw-pile pier 200 feet long, with a T head of 90 feet, and
the necessary materials for this pier were obtained from Eng-
land in 1864, but, owing to unexpected difficulties met with
in securing the piles in the treacherous soil, the pier materials
were utilised in the construction of a landing-stage, about 100
feet square, commanding 71 feet at low water, and extending
45 feet beyond the wharves. A lighthouse was also built on
the Oyster rock, westward of the port, the light of which is
205 feet above the level of the sea. The harbour improvement
2 K
514
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
1
works at Karwar were estimated to cost £115,000, including a
wharf road and iron bridge costing £65,000.
The condition of the Madras open roadstead, as a port of
call for vessels, was thus referred to by the members of a com-
mittee appointed by Government in the year 1868 to report
on the best method of improving the facilities for the sea-borne
trade at that place. They say :-“The port of Madras at the
present time, so far as the facilities for trade are concerned,
differs very little from what it was nearly 250 years ago, when,
as a small fishing village, it first attracted attention. It re-
mains an open roadstead, destitute of any natural shelter, and
still unprovided with any artificial substitute; and its surf still
offers an insurmountable difficulty to the passage of boats of
every kind, except the primitive Masulah boats. But though
manned by thirteen trained men, a Masulah boat carries only
11 tons as an ordinary load in the finest weather, and often
less than half a ton in heavy weather. The very skill of the
boatmen is one of the difficulties of the port, for their numbers
being limited, they are able to set regulations at defiance,
and to charge pretty much what they like-twice, four, and six
times the legal hire being a common rate, and ten times by no
means uncommon; well knowing that the course which would
elsewhere be followed of importing additional men from other
localities would be inoperative at Madras, for in consequence
of caste prejudices, and the disinclination of natives to adopt
customs, or to follow trades which have not been followed
by their fathers before them, the ordinary laws of political
economy cannot be applied in their integrity in this country,
and it does not follow that because there is a greater demand
than supply of Masulah boatmen, and a very handsome profit
to be reaped by those who might qualify for the occupation,
that outsiders will qualify for it, and come forward to break
the monopoly. The great objections then to the port of
Madras are- First, That it is an open roadstead, destitute
of shelter, which renders it necessary on the approach of a
gale for ships to put to sea for safety; or if out of trim and
ballast, and unable to put to sea, to incur the imminent risk
of dragging their anchors, or of parting from them and going
ashore complete wrecks. Secondly, That owing to the com-
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
515
munication between the shipping and the shore being for the
most part by Masulah boats, only carrying 11 tons at a time,
the delay in loading and unloading is so great as to deter many
ships, to which a preference would be given, from coming to
the port at all. Thirdly, That the actual cost of landing and
shipping cargo, even at legal rates, is needlessly great, while
the much higher rates which the mercantile community pay on
demand, rather than incur the inconvenience and odium of
prosecuting the boatmen, enhances the cost so much as to
wise regarded as a cheap one. Fourthly, That, notwithstanding
the skill of the boatmen, the damage to goods from spray,
and from shipping seas in crossing the surf, is a very serious
consideration.'
Some time before the date of this report, a screw-pile pier,
projecting some 300 or 400 yards from the shore, had
been constructed with a view to lessen the evils above de-
picted. The committee recommended the construction of a
breakwater 2000 yards long, lying parallel with the shore,
and distant about 1200 yards from it, in 7 or 8 fathoms of
water, the cost of which they considered might reach about
11 million sterling. They were of opinion that a closed harbour
would be preferable to a breakwater, but the majority of the
of sand—the long shore movement of which would be arrested
by the projecting piers of a closed harbour-would be an
insuperable objection.
From this time numerous proposals were made and lengthily
discussed, until, in the year 1872, a project for the construction
of a closed harbour was submitted by an experienced English
harbour engineer, whose services in the following year were
secured for a period of twelve months, in order that he might
fully investigate the subject. The scheme proposed was, the
construction of two piers to be run out for 1200 yards at right
angles to the foreshore, and placed about 500 yards north and
south of the existing screw-pile pier. These side piers to be
connected at the ends by a cross-pier or breakwater, running
parallel with the shore, with an opening, 150 yards wide in
the centre, as an entrance into the closed harbour which would
516
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
thus be formed. It was proposed that the piers should be
constructed generally after the pattern of the Manora break-
water at Karachi, viz., a rubble-stone bank or mound, brought
up from the sea-bottom to a depth of 22 feet below low water,
on which would be built a vertical wall 24 feet thick, of large
concrete blocks—each weighing 27 tons-capable of resisting
the force of the waves. The cost of this close harbour was
estimated at L565,000, and the enclosed area available for
ships would be a rectangle about 1000 yards long by 830
yards wide, or 170 acres, with a depth at low water of from
3 to 7 fathoms, with a further space of about a quarter of that
area, with a depth of less than 3 fathoms for boats, lighters,
and native craft. The question of the probable advance of
the foreshore was discussed, and it was considered that the
accumulation of sand would at first be heavy, but that when
once the piers were extended into the deep water the further
advance. would be so slow as practically to remove to a very
distant date any danger of the harbour shoaling up.
This scheme was generally approved by the Government of
India in 1874, after much discussion of its details, and much
opposition by the advocates of the breakwater alternative, but
on various counts the Government raised the estimated cost from
£565,000 to £776,000. In the following year the sanction
of the Secretary of State to the construction of the proposed
harbour was communicated, with the following liberal remarks
on the estimates of probable expenditure :- The contingencies
upon which the cost of constructing and repairing a harbour
depends are so uncertain that it would be hazardous to express
a confident opinion in respect to these conflicting estimates.
But the question is too large to be dealt with only on financial
grounds. Many human lives are sacrificed in the tempests
which annually ravage the Coromandel coast, and it is possible
that a large proportion of these might be saved if vessels which
are now surprised in the roadstead could seek the shelter of a
harbour. The material interests of a vast population that in-
habits the Presidency of Madras are not less deeply affected
by the unsheltered condition of the port. It can hardly be
doubted that if a safe and regular access to the sea could be
secured to them, their industry and trade would be greatly
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
517
stimulated. The public utility of a harbour can seldom be
measured by the actual return in the shape of dues which it can
be made to pay, and in the Presidency of Madras, where the
destitution of shelter upon the seaboard is so remarkable, such
a principle of valuation would be specially misleading.
The work of construction on the North Pier was put in
hand in December of the year 1876, the South Pier not being
commenced until about a year later. In carrying these piers
through the shoal water, much trouble and delay was occasioned
in consequence of the rapid accumulation and advance of sand,
but, as had been confidently anticipated, as soon as the
4-fathom line was reached, all difficulty on this head ceased,
and the work was carried on without further interruption.
The general features of the work as carried out were as follows:
-The rubble stone base was made 78 feet wide at the top,
with side slopes of 1 to 1; its height varied with the depth of
water, being about 25 feet at the deepest part, where the top
of the mound was 22 feet below the water. The rubble was
deposited in situ from steam-hopper barges, and its surface was
levelled by divers to receive the concrete blocks. The founda-
tion blocks were 14 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 41 feet thick ;
those forming the remainder of the wall being 12 feet by 8 feet
by 41 feet, weighing 27 tons each ; upwards of 13,643 blocks
were used; they were laid, with a backward rake of 3 inches to
the foot, by the aid of powerful “Titan'cranes with over-
hanging arms. The walls were constructed without bond, the
resting on, and in side contact with each other, each block
having a tenon on its upper surface, and a corresponding
mortice on its lower surface to prevent slipping. The greatest
depth of water in which the piers were founded was 8 fathoms,
or 48 feet. Towards the ends, forming the central entrance
into the harbour, the pier-heads were widened out to about
double width. The total length of the piers (those to the
north and south being of nearly equal length) was 7856 feet.
With the exception of a small re-entering curve, which it
was proposed to add at the pier-heads, the works were practi-
cally completed towards the end of the year 1881, when, on the
518
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
raising exceptionally heavy rollers and ground swell, although
unaccompanied by any very violent wind. The result of this
storm was to wreck nearly the whole of the outer, or breakwater
face of the harbour, from the elbows, or turns of the pier-
walls, where the injury was greatest, to the entrance on either
side; the side piers, from the shore to the elbows, being but
little affected. In the case of this storm, the action of the sea
was sufficiently severe to undermine foundations at a depth of
22 feet under low water, an action far in excess of that hitherto
held possible by harbour engineers in England, where a depth
of 15 feet below low water was considered as safe against all
possibility of disturbance by the worst waves.
This regrettable incident caused a suspension of operations
for some time, and gave rise to a long discussion as to the most
secure methods of restoring the harbour. The recommenda-
tions of a committee, composed of eminent harbour engineers,
which was appointed in England in the year 1883, advising a
certain remodelling of the works, estimated to cost £430,000,
were eventually in the main adopted, after very considerable
opposition had been offered by the local, nautical, and other
authorities in Madras, who advocated the closing of the outer
or easterly entrance to the harbour, and the construction of a
new and wider entrance in the north-east angle. This pro-
posal, after a long discussion, was, however, overruled, and the
restoration of the harbour on the main lines recommended by
the English committee was ordered. The final estimate for
the restoration works reached a sum of £459,000, so that, with
the original outlay up to the time of the storm, the estimated
completed cost of the Madras harbour ranged not far short of
a million and a quarter sterling.
There is little of general interest that need be here referred
to in connection with the port of Calcutta. That portion of
the Hooghly tidal channel abreast of the city, chiefly occupied
by the shipping frequenting the port, is from 4 to 5 miles long,
and averages about 300 yards in breadth. A considerable ex-
tension of wharves and jetties along this water frontage has
from time to time been carried out by the port authorities,
and the provision of wet dock accommodation, somewhere at
or near Calcutta, is a question which in one form or another
SEA AND HARBOUR WOKKS IN INDIA
519
has been under discussion for the best part of half a century.
Much difference of opinion has existed as to the most suitable
position for the construction of commercial docks (or even
whether such docks were necessary at all), and numerous pro-
posals have been put forward. Diamond harbour-situated
about 50 miles lower down the river, or 31 miles by land from
Calcutta-has been particularly favoured. Proposals for the
construction of docks at this place were made so far back as
the year 1839, and were again urged in 1847, when, chiefly on
the opposition of Lord Dalhousie, the project was shelved. A
special committee, appointed to consider the question of dock
accommodation at Calcutta in the year 1883, was also favour-
able to the revival of this scheme, but an important and
influential minority, composed of all the mercantile members,
agreed in rejecting it. Another committee, subsequently ap-
pointed to pursue the investigation, came to a unanimous
conclusion against Diamond harbour, and was in favour of
the construction of docks at Kidderpore, on a site situated on
the Calcutta side of the river, about 31 miles from the city.
The estimated cost of these docks, including subsidiary works
of dock accommodation proposed being nearly 111 acres, con-
sisting of a tidal basin of 9 acres, and two docks of 36 and
644 acres respectively. The approval of the Home Govern-
grounds, limited to the tidal basin, and the smaller of the two
docks only, and to the expenditure of a sum not exceeding
200 lakhs, or £2,000,000 sterling.
Considerable difficulty was experienced by the Port Com-
missioners in raising the necessary funds, and much discussion
and differences of opinion as to the kind and degree of financial
assistance to be rendered by the Government occurred. It was
clear that the latter, as the owners and guarantors of so large
a mileage of railways converging on Calcutta, were intimately
concerned in the forwarding of all port arrangements promising
facilities to trade, but from various causes it was not until the
year 1886 that a final agreement between the Government
and the Port Commissioners was arrived at, that the money
required for the prosecution of the Kidderpore Docks should
520
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
be raised in India by Government loan, and lent as required to
the local authority; the interest charged being the actual rate
of borrowing—plus 1 per cent. for a sinking fund, to be in-
vested at the end of four years after the completion of the
docks. The work was accordingly undertaken, but whether,
under the conditions of the port, the number of ships using
the new Kidderpore Docks is likely to be such as to render
them a financial success, it is as yet probably too early to
determine.
Although the lighting of the coasts of India is by no means
perfect, a great deal has from time to time been done, especially
on the Burma seaboard, so that there are now probably upwards
of seventy lighthouses or lightships stretched along the great
'extent of coast from the Manora light at Karachi to the
Malay peninsula. Some of the more important of these light-
houses occur on the coast of Burma, such as that erected on the
Alguarda reef, a short distance off the mouth of the river
Negrais. This graceful tower is 120 feet high, showing a
light 1431 feet above high-water spring tides, and has a base
diameter of 421 feet. It was completed in the year 1865, at
a cost of about £100,000. The Double Island Lighthouse,
situated near the mouth of the Bassein river, 56 feet in height,
with a light 134 feet above high water, costing about £6000.
The Cocas Island Lighthouse, 721 feet high, with light 195
feet above sea level, built on Table Island north of the Cocas,
off the coast of Burma. This lighthouse is an iron-plated
tower, and cost nearly £12,000. The Khrisna Shoal Light-
house, in the Gulf of Martaban, is erected on iron screw-piles,
screwed to a depth of 24 feet into the sea-bed in 3 fathoms
of water at low tide, where it is exposed to the heavy seas raised
by the south-west monsoon. The tower is 84 feet in height,
and it cost upwards of £16,000. The Great Basses Light-
house, off the coast of Ceylon, is a granite tower, containing
37,365 cubic feet of that stone. It is 971 feet high, and cost
£64,000.
The “Prongs' Lighthouse at Bombay, about 1} miles to
seaward of the old lighthouse on Colaba Island, has already
been referred to. This tower, owing to the nature of the
bottom, was founded on a great thickness of concrete, enclosed
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
521
in a massive dam faced with concrete blocks of large size. It
is built of hard grey trap, and is 42 feet in diameter at the
base, and 16 feet at the top; the total height being 1271 feet.
The central core of the shaft is 12 feet in diameter, divided
into eight stories, each 12 feet high. The lighthouse at Karwar,
also already mentioned, is built on the Oyster rock, about 3
miles westwards of the port, a rock which rises 160 feet above
the sea. The lighthouse was finished in 1864; it consists of a
level. These various lighthouses are all provided with dioptric
lights of the first order. Along the coast of the Madras Presi-
dency there are numerous lights of all classes, including a fine
tower 90 feet high, with a dioptric light of the second order
at Alepy, and one 82 feet high, with a fixed white light at
Tuticorin, first lighted in 1874. These are a few examples of
prominent lighthouses erected on the Indian coasts.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
In the foregoing pages, all the principal fields of operation in
connection with public works in India have been separately
brought before the reader, and, although the large compass of
the entire subject has compelled a very condensed treatment
of individual departments, and especially of individual works,
it is hoped that the main object of conveying to the mind of
the reader a more comprehensive idea than he may have pre-
Indian public works, and of their great importance and value
to the country and to the Government, may at least have been
partially attained. Statements exhibiting mere money expen-
ditures on works of public usefulness, are necessarily a very
imperfect expression of their real value, it has, therefore, been
sought not only to interest the reader in the constructive
details of Indian public works themselves, and to convey
some idea of the dimensions and comparative magnitudes of
the foremost examples; but it has been endeavoured at the
same time to depict the astonishing manner in which as a
whole, they have affected the general welfare; whether in ameli-
522
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA ..
:
orating the material conditions of life by advancing the average
wealth and wellbeing of the people, or by increasing industrial
activity and improving the public revenues.
The enormous increase given to the productive capacity of
the country by the labours of the engineer in India, is in
truth incalculable, and the improvement, there as elsewhere, is
plainly written on the face of the land, and in the wonderfully
increased resources of the Government on every side. Scientific
and practical engineers as a body, are commonly far too
absorbed in the details of their multiform occupations, and too
careless of the unconscious injustice and ingratitude with which
their arduous and exceptionally responsible labours are so
often requited by an unreflecting public, to go out of their
way to assert the true greatness and importance of their pro-
fession in relation to the world's advancement. It is in back-
ward and undeveloped countries that its true value is the most
clearly exemplified, because it is in these, that the immediate
springs and sources of progress are the most clearly visible to
the public eye.
Mr. Alfred Milner, in his recent work on Egypt, relates that
when a native statesman, and one of those most intensely
opposed to British interference in the country, was asked by
him how he imagined the country would get on without the
English irrigation engineers, replied, “You do not suppose that
if Great Britain were to retire from Egypt we should let the
engineers go ?-I myself should be the first to do everything I
could to retain them.” The true secret of the successful
financial administration of Egypt under British guidance was
here too patent to be overlooked or obscured, and found
natural expression in the above remark. The same author-
his own sympathies and interest lying naturally in the direction
of finance-admits that the efforts of the British financial
advisers in Egypt would have been thrown away but for the
work of the irrigation engineers, he says, “We at the finance
office have, so to speak, registered that improvement in our
easier budgets and growing surplus, but it is the engineers
who have created it. Among the numerous bodies of engineer
officers of all classes who, under the wise initiation or direction
of the Government, have for so many years been engaged with
SEA AND HARBOUR WORKS IN INDIA
523
untiring industry in laying the foundations and steadily build-
ing up the material prosperity of India, many individuals of
widely varying degrees of professional aptitude and capacity
may no doubt be found, and there, as in every other part of the
world, various degrees of success and failure will be found to have
attended individual efforts ; but the prodigious transformation
effected in the country, and the success and economy with
which, as a whole, the great railway and irrigation works of
India have been created and administered, is the test to which
the body of Indian engineers—whether working directly in the
service of the Government, or under the supervising control of
the Government officers—may confidently appeal.
To recapitulate : It has been the chief aim of this volume,
however imperfectly attained, to exhibit on a single canvas an
outline picture of the more important works of public utility
which have been carried out in India by British or native
engineers, and to emphasise their special value, meaning, and
importance. The enormous aggregate of Indian public works
may be regarded as the fundamental basis of that notable
advance in the material prosperity, wealth, and culture of the
peoples of India which has taken place mainly within the last
thirty or forty years—which, alone has rendered this advance
possible, and without the existence of which the best efforts of
British civil administration, British finance, education, and
British laws, would assuredly have been as a few grains of wheat
cast into a wilderness. The judicious extension throughout
India of great public works of all kinds, under the Government
of Great Britain, is the true cause of the existing remarkable
development of the average standard of individual wealth and
comfort among all classes of the Indian people : of the great
increase in population, the steady improvement in the Govern-
ment revenue, and the generally improved financial condition
of the country compared with what these severally were within
comparatively recent memory.
The rapid internal development of the resources of India by
means of public works, irrigation canals, telegraphs, and, above
all, by railways, has, moreover, not only assured material pro-
spérity, but has also rendered possible that simultaneous and
marvellous moral and intellectual progress, and that steady
1
-
-
.-
524
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
overturning of pernicious superstitions and caste trammels, which
to-day is so profoundly affecting the whole social life of the
heretofore stagnant races of the continent. To be assured
that this is so, it is only necessary to try and picture in imagi-
nation what would have been the present comparative condi-
tion of a poorly irrigated, roadless, and rail-less India.
The mean level of human progress and of human wellbeing
bears a direct proportion to the greater or less application of
the practical sciences to the purpose of relieving the necessities
and satisfying the wants and aspirations of man, and enlarging
the sphere of his possible activity: to the power he possesses
of favourably moulding his environment by bending the great
sources of power in nature to his service and convenience. To
realise this truth it is sufficient to contrast the rate of advance-
ment of the civilised nations of the world during the present
century with that of the whole antecedent historical period : to
compare the India of the present day with the India of forty
years ago. It is on the firm foundation of a steadily augment-
ing material prosperity created by the great public works of
the country, that the beneficent English administration of
India has its support, and it is on this foundation that it has
alone been possible to erect that magnificent superstructure of
moral government, which is at once its justification and the
admiration of the civilised world.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
52

APPENDIX A.-PUNJAB CANALS. 1890-91
For Year 1890-91.
Main
| Names of Canals, | Canal
etc.
and
Branches.
Of
which
are
Navi-
Distri-
buting
Chan.
nels.
Irrigated
1890-91.
Areated
Value of
Irrigated
Crops
1890-91.
Capital
Outlay up
to end of
1890-91.
Results,
including
Interest, from
commencement.
Net
Revenue
earned.
Per ct.
on
gable.
Results,
including
Interest.
| Cap.
Miles. Miles.
Acres.
to
140
88,907
243
Miles.
22
280
362
319
223
143
Swat River Canal,
Western Jumna,
Bari Doab, .
Sirhind British,
irhind, Native,
Chenab, .
Lower Sohag
and Para,
Sidhnai, .
911
1048
2445
1940
283
88,875 | 247,518 360,349 | 14,139 3.92
388,505 2,111,943 | 1,119,283 103,366 9.23
535,045 1,624,008 1,643, 356 132,777 8.07
4600, 162 1,712,936 2,328,739 106,351 4.05
52,390 182,007
570,315
L 482 0.08
38,604 107,164 69,156 – 1,621
122,525 252,949 93,575 | 10, 181 10.88
+297
+60,984
+69,618
+17,285
- 17,934
Head of
Account.
MAJOR
WORKS.
Canals in
operation
only.
+2,995,919
+ 128,668
- 854,540
- 77,127
- 4,245
+6,742
- 13,442
+25,496
Total Major Works, .
. !
1450
432 6954 | 1,826,106 6,238,525 6,184,773 365,675
5.91 | +132,747 | +2,116,067
MINOR Five Works and
WORKS AND Madhopur
NAVIGATION. Workshops, .U
2608
591 1,016,552 2,577,252
187,669 35,638
19.0
+35,638
+812,657
Grand Total for Province, .
4058
432
7545 2,842,658 8,815,777 6,372,442 401,313
6.33
+168,385
+2,928,724
528
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX B.-NORTH-WEST PROVINCES CANALS. 1889-90.
For Year 1889-90.
Main
| Names of Canals, 1 Canal
etc.
and
Branches
Of
which
are
Navi-
gable.
Distri-
buting
Chans
nels.
Area
Irrigated,
1889-90.
Value of
Irrigated
Crops,
1889-90.
Capital
Outlay up
to end of
1889-90.
Results,
including
Interest, from
commence-
Net
Revenue
earned.
Per ct.
on
Results,
including
Interest.
ment.
| Cap.
Miles.
168
Miles. Miles.
321
MAJOR
WORKS.
456
213
2523
6.73
Betwa Canal, .
Upper Ganges,
Lower Ganges, .
| Agra Canal, .
Eastern Jumna, .
199
2078
Acres.
€
€
24,282 727138 418,417 -413911 -Il – 19,927 1 - 123,556
807,574 2,999,200 2,839,360 191,012 +84,380 - 260,670
499,894 1,548,747 | 3,309,602
1076 -63,620 - 184,877
178,254 499,133 912,710 43,633 478 +9,873 - 236,295
243,817 | 932,421 333,705 72,657 21•77 | +60,313 +1,357,699
557
134
Canals in
operation
Head of
Account.
only.
123
565
640
130
Total Major Works, .
1445
535 6127 1,753,821 6,051,639 7,811,794
361,543
4.63
+71,021
+552, 301
MINOR | Three Systems
WORKS AND and Jhansi and
NAVIGATION. Hamirpur Lakes
20
519 | 125,582 | 475,595 | 247,506
9020
3:27
9,020
+137,316
Grand Total for Province, .
1465
535
6646
1,879,403 6,527,234 8,059,300
370,563 4.60
80,041 | +689,617
APPENDIX C
529

APPENDIX C.---BENGAL CANALS. 1890-91.
For Year 1890-91.
Main
Canal
Head of
Account.
Names of Canals,
etc.
Of
which
are
Navi.
gable.
Distri.
buting
Chan-
nels.
Area
Irrigated
1890-91.
and
Value of
Irrigated
Crops
1890-91.
Capital
Outlay up
to end of
1890-91.
Results,
including
Interest, from
Branches.
Net
Revenue
earned.
Per ct. | Results,
on | including
Cap. Interest.
Orissa Canals, .1
Miles.
252
Miles. Miles. Acres.
765 | 180,299
177
391,059
-6,316 -.-25 – 10$,475
76,41
K
339
82,002
842,837
+3,576 -0.42
- 30,236
}-4,029,596
Canals in
operation
MAJOR
WORKS.
only.
Midnapore Canal,
Hidgellee Tidal
Canal, .
Sone Canals, i
- 10,238
29 29 ...
204,739 | - 2,553 -0.21
3674 | 2184 | 1211 | 281,014 | 1,080,820 | 2,643,336 | - 2,480] -0.09
- 99,062
Total Major Works,
.
. ]
7201 4963
2315
543,315
1,660,484 6,167,323
-7,774 -0.12 - 248,011 - 4,029,596
MINOR
Six Systems,
Two being Navi-
WORKS AND
vigation Canals
NAVIGATION.
only, . .
1638
1441
2,226
4,997 1,032,873
+26,363 2.55
+23,562 +1,275,343
Grand Total for Province,
530
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX D.-MADRAS CANALS. 1890-91.
For year 1890-91.
of
Main
Canal
Distri-
and
which I buting
are
Area
Irrigated
1890-91.
Chan-
nels.
Value of
Irrigated
crops
1890-91.
Capital
Outlay up
to end of
1890-91.
Net Per ct.
Revenue 1 on
earned. | Cap.
Navig-
able.
Results,
including
interest,
from
commencement.
Results,
including
Interest.
Branches.
496
Miles.
506
325
22
Miles. Miles.
1732
284
| 1614
Acres.
680,495 | 1,574,679 | 1,273,203
157,419 12°36
+ 114,067
I20
65,080
Godavery Delta,
Kistna Delta, .
Pennair Anicut,
Sangam Do. .
Kurnool Cudda-
pah Canal, .
Barur Tank, .
130,679
165,996 |
187,540 | 10,641
364,001 7620
68,224
5.67 1 +
2'09 -
4,129
4,262
250
313
22
24,848
2,774
70,050
8,002
2,164,131
41,133
177,945
591
- 3768 -0:17
0'14
66,154 | 37:18
- 90,334
- 1,479
+ 59,530
62
28,896
33,929
145,154 /
2652
1.83
-
2,752
Total Major Works, ...
1931
970
5363 2,346,732 5,637,385 5,354,159 372,440
6.95
+ 174,269
Not Given.
MINOR WORKs for which Capi-
1158
3043
1264
421,043
833,961 1,405,532
28,902
2.05
+ 28,902
MINOR WORKS for which no
.
Head of
Account.
Names of
Canals, etc.
MAJOR
WORKS.
Canals in
operation
only.
Srivaikantham
Anicut,
tal and Revenue Accounts
Capital or Revenue Accounts
are kept, . . . . .
Agricultural Works, . .
not
given
not
given 2,746,409
not
given
not
given
n
| 406,485
- 56,949
+406,485
1 - 56,949
Grand Total for Presidency, · | 3089
12743 6627 5,514,184 6,471,346 6,759,691 750,878
+552,707
APPENDIX E
531

APPENDIX E.-SCINDE CANALS. 1889-90.
For Year 1889-90.
Of
which
Head of
Account.
Main
Canal
Names of Canals,
etc.
Distri-
buting
and
are
Navi-
gable.
Area
Irrigated
1889-90.
Chan-
nels.
Value of
Irrigated
Crops
1889-90.
| Capital
| Outlay up
to end of
1889-90.
Results,
including
Interest, from
commencement.
Branches.
I Net Per ct.) Results,
| Revenue 1 on 1 including
earned.
Interest.
| Cap.
Miles. | Miles.
Miles.
443
338
784
293
Acres.
350,261
135,574
404,828
174,936
All
:::
::::
Bigari Canals, .
Shikapur Canals,
Ghar Canals,
Eastern Nara, .
Hyderabad
Canals,.
Fuleli Canals, .
Karachi Canals,
::::
Works by
Districts.
1670
II41
364,297
290,657
256,710
:::
: :
::
850,730 72,701 | 8.54 / +39,951:
332,907| 73,047 | 22.0 +60,409
+153,238
+1,127,675
Major Works,
Minor Works,
Minor Works for which only
Revenue accounts are kept,
Agricultural Works,
104,711
: :
::
- 18,094
...
• 1 + 104,711 | not given.
- 18,094
Grand Total for Province,
il
5924
...
...
2,349,819 not given. 1,183,637 232,365
+186,977
+1,280,913
532
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX F.-BOMBAY CANALS. 1890-91.
For Year 1890-91.
Head of
Account.
Names of Canal
etc.
Main
Canal
and
Branches.
Of
which
are
Navi.
gable.
buting
Distri.
ñ
Chan-
nels,
Area
Irrigated,
1890-91.
Value of
Irrigated
Crops,
1890-91.
Capital
outlay, up
to end of
1890-91.
Net
Revenue
earned.
Per ct.
on
Сар.
Results,
including
Interest.
Results,
including
| Interest, from
commence-
ment.
Miles.
Miles. Miles.
109
Acres.
16,913
7,106
3,766
2,390
34,731
18,815
11,166
500,244
203,477
51,829
45,607
- 18,396
- 7,214
- 1,893
1,107
21
: :
3781
626
MAJOR
WORKS.
:
2,227
Nira Canal, . .
Mhasvud Tank,
Hathmati Canal,
Lower Panghra,
Kadva River
Works
Pravara (Lakh
Canal),
| Mutha Canal and
Reservoir,
Ekruk Tank, .
Krishna Canal, .
6,553
310
71,895
37,196
2,443
1,640
433
2,621
:
- 235
-
Canals in
operation
only.
: : :
II,201
2,598
3,950
158,646
15,131
45,750
630,713 13,776
133,341 | 1,099
84,031 1,749
- 10,449
- 3,813
- 1,431
Not given.
Total Major Works,
.
.
3854
3431 / 50,584
297,194 | 1,758,333 18,626
| 1'06
- 48,386
...
2201
25,317
|
102,575 / 704, 132
3,494
095
- 22,357
CE
Minor Works Sundry-
AND NAVIGATION 27 Works,
| 220g
MINOR WORKS. 1 1270
Only Revenue | Separate not
Accounts kepi. Works. given
AGRICULTURAL | Drainage and
Protective
Works.
Works.
not
given
145,563
not
given
+
33,111
802
33,111
802
2,559
...
+
1 +
Grand Total for Presidency,
without Scinde.
606
5638 | 221,464
| 399,769 2,465,024 56,033
22 - 36,830
APPENDIX. G
533

APPENDIX G.-GENERAL ABSTRACT FOR ALL INDIA, 1890-91,
Except Scinde, and North-west Provinces, which are for 1889-90.*
Of
For Year 1899-91*.
Main
Distri-
Value of |
which
Capital
Area
Names of
Canal
buting
Irrigated
IrrigatedOutlay up
Net Per ct. Results,
Provinces.
and
Navi.
Chan-
to end of
Crops
1890-91.*
Revenue
including
Branches.
1890-91.*
nels.
1890-91.*
gable.
earned. 1 Cap. Interest.
Head of
Account.
are
Results,
including
Interest, from
I commencement.
on
7204
Madras, . 1,931
Scinde, .
Bombay, •
Miles. Miles. | Acres.
1 432 6,954 1,826,106 6,238,525 | 6,184,773 365,675 5.91 +132,747 +2,116,067
535 6,127 | 1,753,821 6,051,639 | 7,811,794 361,543) 4.63 1 + 71,021 | + 552,301
4961 2,315 | 543,315 | 1,660,484 16,167,323 -7,774 – 12 | – 248,011 – 4,029,596
970 5,363 2,346,732 5,637,385 5,354, 159 372,4401 6.95 1 + 174,269 Not given.
2,349,819 Not given 850,730 72,701 8.54 | + 39,951 + 153,238
3433 50,584 | 297,194 | 1,758,333 118,6261 1.06 1 - 48,386 Not given.
3854
MAJOR
WORKS.
Canals in
operation
only.
Miles.
Punjab, , . 1,450
N.-W. Provinces, 1,445
Bengal, .
5,924
Total Major Works,
.
11,855'
24333 21,102) 8,870,377 19,885,227 28,127,112 1,183,211 4.26
+121,591
No total
available.
Punjab, . .| 2,608
MINOR N.-W. Provinces, 20
WORKS AND | Bengal, . .
1638
NAVIGATION.
Madras, . . 1,158
Do.
with lesser
works and
Scinde, .
Agricultural. | Bombay, · ·|
2204
591 | 1,016,552 | 2,577,252 187,669
519 | 125,582 475,595 1 247,506
1443
1 2,226
4,997 1,032,873
3041 1,264 3,167,452 833,9617|{"
$1,405,532
Included Not given 332,907
1 above
2204 | 170,880
704,132)
102,575
2,559
35,63819.0
9,020 3.27
26,363 2:55
28,902 2.05
349,536 ...
73,047 22:0
86,6171 ...
3,494 0.5
33,913 ...
+++
+ 35,638 + 812,657
1 + 9,020 + 137,316
+ 23,562 +1,275,343
+ 28,902
349,536 S
Not given.
+ 60,409 / +1,127,675
+ 86,617 Not given.
- 22,357 Not given.
+ 33,913 |
Total, all Minor Works, .
.
4, 1701
449
2,5944 4,482,692 3,994,380
3,913,178
646,530 16.5 / +605,240
No total
available.
Grand Total, all India,
16,026 | 28821 23,696 13,353,069 23,879,607 32,040,290 1,829,741 5.74 | +726,831
or 20,864
square miles
No Grand
Total
available.
† Without the lesser Minor Works, value not given.
534
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX H.
Irrigation and Navigation Works for which Capital and Revenue Accounts are kept.
Class of Work.
Direct Capital
of Outlay to end
Works. / of 1890-91.
Percent.
| age Net
Revenue
Gross
Revenue.
Net
Į Revenue.
Working
| Expenses.
| Irrigated
Area.
Remarks.
Outlay.
Acres.
Irrigation.
I. MAJOR WORKS--
(a) Productive,
Add on account of old
Irrigation in Madras,
289,700
34,882
254,818
199,779
-2,393
2,804
38,046
5,197
24,893
1,660,527
13,153 |
146,847
0.79
Navigation.
(a) Productive, . "
(6) Protective,
2. MINOR WORKS-
Irrigation.
(a) Works for which )
Capital and Revenue
Accounts only are kept,
69
2,607;739 | 425,063 | 222,919
202,144
2,102,634
7.75
Navigation, .
.
1,687,254
68,060
50,194
17,866
1.06
Totals, .
.
.
120 | 31,620,310 2,808,714 1,098,578 1,710,136 9,275,102 | 5.40
* These figures should be read as tens of Rupees or Rx.
APPENDIX J
COLOUR-BLINDNESS
The inner lining of the human eyeball is the retina. It is chiefly
composed of nerve-matter whose function is to receive impressions
of external objects focussed upon it, and convey them through the
optic nerve to the brain. The retina is able to perceive not only
the form of objects but also their colour. In mechanical arrange-
ment the eye is very similar to a photographic camera, and the
retina corresponds to the ground-glass focussing screen, on which a
coloured image of the view is thrown.
The nerve fibres of the retina are really the direct prolongation
of those of the optic nerve itself, and the rays of light which are
focussed upon them form the stimulus which excites the sensorium
at the other, or cerebra), extremity of the optic nerve.
There have been many theories expounded to account for
the manner in which the retina performs its functions ; but none
of these hypotheses are quite satisfactory, inasmuch as they all
leave some of the phenomena of vision unexplained. That which
is usually accepted as being nearest to the truth, and which
accounts for the majority of the facts, is known as the “Young-
Helmholtz' theory. It supposes the existence of three separate
and distinct sets of nerve-fibres in close proximity to one another,
and so disposed that the whole surface of the retina is well
supplied by each set. Each of these three kinds of nerve-fibres
is specially sensitive to one of the three primary colours—one set
to violet light, one to red light, and the other to green light. But
in addition to exciting its own special nerve-fibres vividly, each
h
bunite ach of the other sets
primary colour has also the power to excite each of the other sets
of fibres, but to a much less extent. When white light (a blend of
the three primary colours) enters the eye, all three sets of fibres
are, of course, strongly stimulated. Suppose that one of the three
sets of nerve-fibres is absent from the retina, the primary colour
corresponding to that particular set cannot, de facto, be seen ; but
that primary colour will nevertheless slightly stimulate each of the
536
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
other two sets of fibres. In such a case colour-blindness for the
said colour is said to exist.
Let us take as an example of this condition, a person in whose
retina the fibres for red are wanting. This person is incapable of
perceiving red in the sense that a normal eye understands it.
But the fibres for violet, and those for green, will be slightly
stimulated by a red ray, and so he will receive an impression re-
sulting from the stimulation of these two sets only, and conse-
quently a sensation of faint bluish green (a mixture of faint violet
and faint green) will result.
So we see that a person who is colour-blind for any particular
colour, really sees the complement of that colour; and moreover that
the said complementary colour thus produced is much less brilliant,
cæteris paribus, than other colours for which he is not blind.
It has been independently observed by Professor Grossman of
Liverpool, by Dr. Edridge Green, and by Mr. St. Clair Buxton of
London, as well as by a well-known Swiss ophthalmologist, that
there are persons who may be blind for a certain colour when looking
at a luminous object (as for instance a signal-lamp) who are quite able
to see and recognise the same colour reflected from the surface of
an opaque, non-luminous substance (such as a flag). This is an
extremely rare form of colour-blindness, but its existence has been
proved. Its importance is obvious in considering the proper tests
to be employed in weeding out men unfit for railway service.
The usual test recommended for ascertaining if any deficiency
of colour-perception is present, is that known as Holmgren's Wool
Test. It consists of placing before the candidate a heap of forty
or fifty skeins of Berlin wool, of various colours and shades of
colour. The examiner picks out one of the skeins, and directs the
candidate to match it in colour-irrespective of shade, with all the
other skeins which at all resemble it. Should a mistake be made,
the candidate is at once rejected, but should he accomplish the
task satisfactorily another skein differing entirely in colour from
the first is presented to him, with instructions to proceed as before.
A mistake will here again reject the man. A third skein is used
if the second ordeal is passed, on the same terms as the other
two.
Many railway companies have hitherto been singularly lax in
their methods of examining men for colour-defect. They have
often satisfied themselves with directing a foreman to test the
man with a so-called 'test-card. This is merely a stout piece of
APPENDIX J
537
paper divided into a few squares, each of a different colour, and
any man able to name each of the squares is considered fit for
duty. It is quite easy to procure these cards, and the candidates
can readily be instructed beforehand so as to give correct replies.
Obviously the system is useless. Another plan much in vogue, is
to take the men out on the line at night and require them to name
the colour of certain signal-lights indicated. This is quite as easy
a matter as the other, inasmuch as the lamps are fairly equally
illuminated, and a man who is blind for green knows that a green
lamp looks just like a red one, only much fainter. Even if he did
not know this and simply made guesses, the chances would be
equal each time that he named the right colour. Such tests as
these are worse than useless, for not only do they not detect
colour-blindness, but they foster a false feeling of security which
by no means exists.
There is no doubt that the principle of the Holmgren Wool Test
is the best, and this method of examining candidates should always
be used, with, however, the addition of a luminous test to ferret
out any cases of deficiency which may have escaped detection by
means of the wools. No lantern test is of any use unless the
brilliancy of the illumination can be greatly and quickly varied,
however many pieces of coloured glass it may contain. With
lanterns deficient in this feature, the examiner is placed in
very similar conditions to those of the men tested by real signal-
lights; a man who is conscious of his defect may often pass such
tests to the complete satisfaction of the examiner. But place this
man on a locomotive, let the weather be misty, the distance from
the signal uncertain, and that man will be absolutely unable-
perhaps in a moment of imminent peril—to decide whether the
dim light before him is red or green. It has been computed that
about four per cent of the male population is colour-blind from
birth, and not a few more cases are traceable to tobacco-smoking.
It is therefore obvious that not only should all railway servants
whose duties necessitate the recognition of signals be thoroughly
tested, but also that they should be tested frequently.
An instrument named the “Telechrome' has been for some time
in constant use at the Admiralty, which has been found by the naval
medical authorities to work admirably. This instrument, devised
by Mr. St. Clair Buxton, one of the surgeons to the Western
Ophthalmic Hospital, consists essentially of two parts; a lantern,
in which the brilliancy of the illumination can be rapidly varied
538
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
by moving the arm of a lever, and a metal disc placed vertically
in front of the lantern. The disc turns upon its axis at the
pleasure of the examiner, and it carries a number of coloured
glasses set in small apertures near its periphery. Light from the
lantern can only pass through one of the coloured glasses at any
given time, and the candidate (who has previously been tested
with Holmgren's wools) is required to match a skein of Berlin wool
with any similar colours he may be shown in the Telechrome,
irrespective of their brilliancy. A colour-blind man who has
managed to pass the Holmgren wool portion of the examination,
thus finds himself confronted by a far more severe test, and one
which he cannot be “coached up’in. A faint-coloured ray from the
Telechrome is more likely to be confused with its complementary
colour in Berlin wool, than would two skeins of Berlin wool each
complementary to the other. In using the Telechrome, therefore,
the examiner shows each of the coloured rays (not in regular
succession, but in irregular order) several times, and each time
with different degrees of luminosity. If the candidate shows no
hesitation in matching or rejecting colours when given first a red
skein, then a pale green one, and finally a buff one, it may be
safely taken for granted that his vision is normal.
It was stated in evidence given before the committee recently
appointed by the Royal Society to inquire into the subject of
colour-blindness and colour tests, that no candidate who had once
failed to pass the Admiralty colour-tests, had ever succeeded in
satisfying the examiners on subsequent occasions.
No test, however good in itself, can be relied on unless the skill
and knowledge of the examiner are beyond question. The time
and care necessary to employ any test adequately is necessarily
long and great; but is of small moment compared with the serious
risks to life and property which must be incurred, when men are
intrusted with the charge of trains, without having been sub-
jected to the most searching examination.
APPENDIX K.
con

APPENDIX K.-PARTICULARS OF SOME OF THE LARGE RAILWAY BRIDGES IN INDIA.
Standard Gauge
Railways.
Name of Bridge.
No. of
Max. | Height
Total cost,
I depth of low water Total length including
Span in lfounds be- to under |
| of Bridge. | Protective
| low low. side of
Works.
water. | Girders.
Clear
Spans.
Remarks.
Feet.
Feet.
Rs.
353
32
For double line, railway above
42
60
Hno w ☆
Scne, . : ;
Jumna-Allahabad,
EAST INDIAN Jumna-Delhi,
RAILWAY.
|| Jubilee-Hooghly, il
Approach viaducts. 141
Kistna, . .
GREAT INDIAN
PENINSULA
RAILWAY.
Nerbudda,
Feet.
150
200
30
2013
5242
106 ) 1
1083-48
Feet.
4726
3235
2640
12134
3719
3855
2556
44,46,300] Single line. Do.
16,60,355 Do.
1{ For double line.
32,51,514" 17 * Includes plant and supervision.
5,44,874 | Brick arches.
12,73,066 | Single line. Piers for double line.
16,27,248 For double line.
100
das
1052
6,69,096 |
Single line. Piers for double line.
40
46877
1875
37,75,759
9,02,082
·.·... •• mooi
Do.
Do.
.
BOMBAY, BARODA, | Nerbudda,
AND CENTRAL | Tapti, .
INDIA RAILWAY. )
Cheyer, .
|| Tungabhadra,
MADRAS
Penner, .
RAILWAY.
1 Chirravati,
34
22
3500
4060
1830
2670
1410
2110
12,45,464
7,55,756
Does not include cost of old
11,32,077 1 bridges renewed.
13.58,194 ||
1,62,354.1
9,29,598*1 * Approximate only.
Papaghni, { Dely
131
EASTERN BENGAL. Gorai,
.
.
1744
| 14,83,750
25
Carry forward,
46,882
295,45,811
540
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

LARGE BRIDGES—Continued.
No.
Standard Gauge
Railways,
5 ft. 6 in.
Name of Bridge.
of
Span in
clear
Мах. | Height
Total cost,
I depth of low-water | Totallength including
founds be | to under
of Bridge. | Protective
| low low. | side of
Works.
water. Girders.
Remarks.
Spans.
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
150
65
7,54,678
243
32
IOO
Fee
Rs.
46,8828 295,45,811
2240 19,44,171 | Railway and roadway on same
level.
1472
| Railway and roadway on same level.
2260 14,92,400 Heavy protective works.
3040 7,98, 199
Do.
2830 17,46,957 | Railway above and roadway below.
2904 27,72,709
Do.
3523 48,91,151 | Roadway on same level as railway.
1760
Do.
10,12,473
40
248
Brought forward,
BHOPAL ITARSI. Nerbudda, . . 14
Gumti, Jaunpore, .' 16
Raneegunge, .
Ganges, Rajghat, .1.33
OUDH AND
Jl Ganges, Cawnpore, .
ROHILKUND
Ganges, Balawali, LII
RAILWAY.
Ganges, Dufferin
Bridge, Benares,
Solani, . .
s6
Kanhan, . . 2
BENGAL NAGPUR, Weingunga, .
9
RAILWAY.
|| Sheonath II., . : 14
Eeb, · · ·
4 Damuda, . . . 2
R10
40
331
104
1489
il II
1701
I 50
I 50
150
IOO
200
1237
1450
2250
1461
2364
6,72,915
Do.
10,03,733 i Converted from metre gauge.
8.83,593
Do.
6,30,425 Approximate only.
10,25,549
Do.
403
Ir 12
1861
136 |
250
1501
1127
763
10
778
60
Chambal, . R
Jumna, Kalpi, .
INDIAN MIDLAND | Betwa, Manikpur, •1 13
RAILWAY.
Ken, · · ·
Betwa, Laltipur, 9
Carry forward,
100
250
150
2714 32,71,035
2640 25,27,545 | Abutments and piers for a double
line.
2166
13,95,181
1558 7,36,008
1446 7,64,672
86,197568,69,205
APPENDIX K
541

LARGE BRIDGES—Continued.
No.
Standard Gauge
Railways,
5 ft. 6 in.
Name of Bridge.
of
Span in
clear,
Max. Height
Total Cost,
1
depth of low-water Total length
founds be-
including
to under
| of Bridge. | Protective
low low- side of
Works.
water. Girders.
Remarks.
Spans.
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
Feet.
Brought forward,
Beas,
99
Jumna, Saharanpur,
99
Kaiser-i-Hind, Fero-
zepore, Sutlej,
1443
Ravi, .
90
Alexandra, Chenab,
1332
Jhelum, . .
90
North WESTERN Attock, Indus, .
(2-308.41
113-257 |
RAILWAY. Empress, Sutlej,
Adamwahan,
Victoria, Jhelum,
150
(Lansdowne,
Sukkur Indus,
FI 790
Rohri Channel,
270
Sukkur Channel,
230
90
Sher Shah, Chenab, º
200
Rs.
86,1974 568,69,205
3820 25,90,166 | Abutments and piers for a double
line.
26633 15,34,600
4293 41,08,266 | Railway below and roadwayabove.
3217 16,02,315 Railway above and footway below.
9088 56,56,433
17,11,872
1655 32,20,516 | Railway above and military road-
way below.
4210 71,02,689 | Railwayand roadway on same level.
2720 19,48,811
4875
250
900
27,89,340
620
5,57,380
| 17
3650
28,34, 101
Total, Standard Gauge
127,9094 925,25,694
...-
.
-
- ---
--
-
247
Miles
£9,252,560 at par of exchange.
542
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

LARGE BRIDGES—continued.
Metre Gauge
Railways.
3 ft. 3} in.
Name of Bridge.
Max. Height
depth of low-
No. of Span in rounds water to Total length
Spans. clear. | below | under
of Bridge.
low- side of
water. Girders.
Total cost
including
Protective
Works.
Remarks.
Feet, 1 Feet. | Feet.
16
RAJPUTANA MALWA
wa Jumna-Agra, .
Nerbudda, .
STATE RAILWAY. ]
| Jumna-Mutra, .
Feet.
2272
2836
1146
Rs.
18,33,877 | Railway below and roadway above.
18,73,925
Railway above and roadway below.
8,49,000
Railway and roadway on same level.
8,30,383
11,39,327
8,29,643
7,63,905
Do.
:
21
SOUTHERN
MAHRATTA
RAILWAY.
Bhima, . .
Kistna-Byapur,
Kistna-Poona, .
Hagari, :
Dorabavi, .
.
2342
3392
23393
2396
com os
Do.
14
:
.
670
7,088,67
Do.
BENGAL AND NORTH-
WESTERN RAILWAY.
Rapti,
:
:
:
1445
Do.
9
14,29,172
TIRHOOT RAILWAY. Gundak, . . .
.
8
2176
13,84,883
Footway on each side.
Total Metre Gauge Railways, .
Total Standard Gauge Railways, .
Grand Total all Railways, . .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
21,0143 | 116,42,982 = 554 Rs. per foot-average.
127,9114 | 925,25,694 = 723) Rs. per foot-average.
148,9258 1041,68,676 | = 6991 Rs. per foot-average.
284 £10,416,867 at par of exchange.
Miles
APPENDIX L
543

APPENDIX L.-PARTICULARS OF ÎMPORTANT TUNNELS ON INDIAN RAILWAYS.
| Proportion lined. I, Total
Railway.
Name of Tunnel.
Single or
double line.
Gauge.
Cost, including
Tools and
Plant.
Material.
Double
5'.6"
Feet.
1625—all
Rs.
3,90,394
Do
GREAT
INDIAN
PENINSULA
RAILWAY.
Thul Ghât No. 2, . . |
Do. No. 7, . ..
Do. No. 8, . .
Bhore Ghât No. 13, .
Do. No. 24, .
Do.
Do.
Do.
Feet.
1625
1461
1247
1305
1023
Loose rock.
Rock.
Rock.
Hard Trap Rock.
Do.
Do.
Do.
1,52,325
1,73,649
1,50,352
Do.
Do.
9,08,615
Loam.
Limestone rock.
SOUTHERN
MAHRATTA
RAILWAY.
| Castle rock, .
| Nandicanama,
. .
..
Do.
Single
1242-all
1527—all
1242
1527
10.
BENGAL
NAGPUR
RAILWAY.
Bhortonk, . .
Saranda,
Do.
Do.
1000-all
1253-4
388 unlined
1000 12,09,715
1641
Do.
7,53,943
Hard rock, no water.
Hard Rock.
*Still unfinished.
Do.
Do,
2034
1233
1092
4,41,963
3,12,679
4,12,344
10.
Karez, . . . . .
NORTH
Do
Iron Gates, : . .
WESTERN Mud Gorge, · · · ·
Do.
RAILWAY.
Khojak, ..... Double
5000-
Do.
| 78704
Combined length and cost of 23 Minor Tunnels on various lines, 300' to
900' long, · · · · ·
·
· · ·
12,870
| 65,24,872
Do.
Do.
Shale, clay, and shingle,
with much water, nearly
all requiring timbering.
| Various.
146121 1 20.06.167
Grand Total,
.
.
.
.
.
.
. 145,431
150,45,991
8
£1,50,460 at par of exchange.
Miles
544
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX M.—MAIN RESULTS OF WORKING ALL INDIAN RAILWAYS FOR THE
YEAR ENDING 31st DECEMBER 1891.
Details.
Standard
Gauge.
Metre
Gauge.
Special
Gauge.
Total of all
Gauges.
6,946.68
6,695'22
5,149,13,408
Open Mileage on 31st December, · · · Miles, / 10,047 73
Mean Mileage worked during year, . . . . 10,055.82
Capital Outlay on open line, including steamboat services and 1,6869, 18,826
suspense-Rs.
No. of Passengers booked, . .
No. 80,335,272
No. of Passengers booked per mean mile worked,
7,989
No. of tons of Goods moved, . . . . Tons, 19,343, 709
No. of tons of Goods moved per mean mile worked,
1,924
Passenger unit miles,
3,561,612,772
Ton mileage of Goods, . . . . Ton miles, 3,589, 116,058
Train Miles,
. . . . . Miles, 42,047,302
41,596,189
6,213
288031 17,282-72
286.59 17,037.63
88,09,682 2,210,641,916
923,876 122,855,337
3,224
7,211
163,231 26,158,953
570
1,535
22,564,548 5,226, 107,973
4,308,847 4,438,992,431
494,940 | 60,800,165
6,652,013
994
1,641,930,653
845,567,526
18,257,923
APPENDIX M.
545

APPENDIX M.—MAIN RESULTS OF WORKING ALL INDIAN RAILWAYS FOR THE YEAR ENDING
31ST DECEMBER 1891.
Details.
Standard
Gauge.
Metre
Gauge.
Special
Gauge.
Total of all
Gauges.
Gross Earnings—Coaching,
· Rs.
Goods,
• 9 1
Steamboat, Telegraph, and Miscellaneous, .
552,25,243
1,240,28,024
48,08,465
216,93,010
313,59,858
19,58,026
6,19,367
6,93,304
1,7,513
775,37,620
1,560,81,166
67,84,004
>
>
Total,
·
·
· ·
1,840,61,732
550,10,874
13,30,184
2,404,02,790
Gross Earnings per mean mile worked,
·
·
·
18,304.00
8,216.44
4641.42
14,110,11
Working Expenses—Maintenance,
Locomotive,
Carriage and Wagon, si
General, .
Steamboat Special and Miscellaneous, .
232,65,868
277,72,861
80,18,041
126,59,477
74,49,011
39,38,543
•
75,30,981
97,83,966
23,11,739.
44,34,979
38,13,184
12,07,401
1,98,783
2,71,849
80,889
1,47,406
309,95632
378,28,676
104, 10,669
172,41,862
113,90,224
51,71,408
Traffic,
:
24,106
Total,
·
· ·
831,03,801 |
290,82,250
8,52,420
1,130,38,471
Working Expenses per mean mile worked,
.
.
,
8,264.25
4,343.73
2,974.35
.
45.15
52.87
47.02
1,009,57,931
259,28,624
Percentage of Working Expenses to gross earnings, . .
Net Earnings,..
..
Percentage of net earnings on total Capital on open line,
including suspense,
64'08
4,77,764
5.42
1,273,64,319
5.98
5.04
5.76
546
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA

APPENDIX N.
Statement showing the Quantity in Tons of Coal produced in India during the last twelve years.
Vears.
Bengal.
Punjab.
Central
Provinces.
Assam.
Central
India.
Nizam's
Territory.
Madras. Baluchistan.
TOTAL.
Tons.
Tons.
Tons.
Tons.
Tons
Tons.
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
Tons.
988,565
930,203
1,038,872
1,200,957
1,257,392
1,123,700
1,186,802
1,319,090
1,380,594
1,541,356
1,626,245
1,537,175*
1885
Tons.
31,228
67,527
91,370
115,019
121,833
119,116
117,287
128,981
157,768
144,465
137,022
141,736
Tons.
1,019,793
997,730
1,130,242
1,315,976
1,397,818
1,294,221
1,388,487
1,564,063
1,708,903
1,945,354
2,168,521
2,118,680
16,493
43,707
70,859
89,302
101,528
116,676
145,708
154,208
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
: : : : : : : : : : 8
411
2,100
7,698
13,539
15,497
41,580
52,956
77,842
69,741
7,523
11,249
22,835
40,677
60,714
3,259
13,382
59,646
125,486
144,668
2,802
7,420
15,541
10,368
Totals,
15,130,951
142,998
1,373,352
738,481
280,953
346,341
36,542 118,049,688
* All returns not received,
INDEX
INDEX
ADJAI Bridge on East Indian Railway, . Canals, 1890-91, 532; Madras
331.
Canals, 1890-91, 530; North-West
Agra. Canal, the, 165-167, 528; con Provinces Canals, 1889-90, 528;
struction and weir of, 166; total Punjab Canals 1890-91, 527 ; Scinde
length of, 166; trunk road from, Canals, 1889-90, 531; Statement
to Bombay constructed, 85; Agra showing the quantity in tons of coal
ſumna Bridge on · Rajputana produced in India during the last
Malwa State Railway, 406, 542; twelve years, 546; irrigation and
branch of East Indian Railway to, navigation works for which capital
338.
and revenue accounts are kept,
Agriculture. See Works.
534; main results of working all
Ajmere district, storage tanks of, 181, Indian railways for the year ending
182.
31st December 1891, 544 ; particulars
Akbar, Canal Act of the Emperor, 127. of important tunnels on Indian
Alepy, lighthouse at, 521.
railways, 543. See also Tables.
Alexandra-Chenab bridge on North-Aqueduct, general description of an, 151;
Western Railway, 541.
aqueduct over the Solani River, 151-
Alguarda Reef, Lighthouse at, 520, . . 157; the Negumbod, 128; on Lower
Allahabad-Jumna Bridge on East Indian Ganges Canal at Nadrai, 162-165.
Railway, details of, 336-338, 539. Arcot, position of, misplaced in early
Allees' or roads of Assam, 71.
surveys, 41; Kaveri Pauk Tank in
Allport, Sir James, on coal traffic in North, 118.
England, 14.
Arrah branch of the Sone Canal, 177.
Ali Murdan Khan, 136; constructs Artesian wells, 434, 490.
branch of canal to Delhi, 127, 128 ; | Assam, ancient native road works in,
canal on left bank of Jumna con | 70-72; quantity of coal produced in
structed by, 128, 146.
during 1884-91, 546.
Ambajhari, native reservoir at, 463, Attock a base for the survey, 53, 54,
464, 471.
56, 57; town and fort of, 87;
Amritsar, Husli Canal extended to, 128. difficulty of crossing the Indus at, 87,
Anicuts, earth - embankments with 88; Attock-Indus Bridge, on the
masonry sluices, 114, 115, 116; on North-Western Railway, 382-389,
the Godavery, 189, 190; on the Kal 541 ; site selected for, 384; design
erun river, 187, 188; on Kaveri of, 385; girders and spans of, 385,
river, 186; on the Kistna river at 386; divers employed at, 386; pier
Bezvada, 1914; Palar and Lower columns of, 387; erection of girders
Kalerun, 198, 199; on Pennair river of, 388, 389; total cost of, 389;
near Nellore, 192; Srivaikuntham, tunnel under the Indus at, 88, 89;
192, 193, 530; on the Tambrapurni, bridge constructed instead of, 89.
193.
Azimgurh, roads constructed in district
Anderson, Dr. proposes rails on tạrn of, 85,
pike roads, 224.
Appendices : Particulars of some of the BAHAR, early survey of, 35.,.
large Railway Bridges of India, 539- | Bahawalpar, inundation canals in State
542; General Abstract of Canals for of, 112.
all India, 1889-91, 533; Bengal | Balawali-Ganges Bridge on Oudh and
Canals, 1890-91, 529; Bombay! Rohilkund Railway, 371, 540.
550
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Ballast on railways, 264, 265.
the, 80, 315; proposed railway by,
Baluchistan, quantity of coal produced 300, 314, 315, 316; incline of Great
in, during 1887-91, 546.
Indian Peninsula Railway through,
Bangalore, base of verification measured 353-358; tunnels of, 543; rainfall
near, 39, 40; a base for the survey,
55, 56.
| Bhortonk, tunnel of, 543.
Bareilly district, roads constructed in Bigari Canal, Scinde, 205, 531 ; on
the, 1839-44, 85.
the Indus below Sukkur, ancient,
Bari Doab Canal, 138-140, 527 ; head- III.
works, weir, etc. of, 139 ; total length | Bignor Canals in the Moradabad
of, 140; constructed under Shah District, 168.
Jehan, 128; inundation canals for- Bijayaangar, Rajahs of, 115.
merly numerous in, III.
Blane, Captain, Feroze Shah's Hissar
Barur Tank Canal, 1890-91, 530.
· Canal restored by, 136.
Base-line' in land surveying, 26, 49- Blenkinsop, Mr., invention of, 228.
51, 53-56.
Block-system of signalling on railways,
Base-lines established during progress 286, 287.
of Great Trigonometrical Survey, | Board of Trade requirements anent
38, 39, 40, 42, 44, 46, 47, 48.
railways, 245-249.
Beas river, connected with inundation Bolan Pass, construction of railway to,
canals, III, 112 ; bridge on the 398, 399.
North-Western Railway, 541. Bombay, annual rainfall in, 108, 447 ;
Beder, a base of the survey, 48, 49, 56. trunk road between, and Agra,
Behar, rainfall in, 107; Artificial irri constructed, 85; Presidency, roads
gation in, 169.
in, 91; a port and railway centre,
Behea Canal, branch of the Sone, 177. 299 ; experimental railway from, to
Bembo, Cardinal, 497.
Callian, 309; station of Great Indian
Bengal Presidency, early survey of, 35; Peninsula Railway in, 347, 348 ;
remains of ancient roads in, 70; commercial harbour of, 509, 510 ;
water-carriage system of eastern, 86 ; 'Prongs' Lighthouse at, 520, 521;
rainfall in eastern districts of, 107; population of, 445, 446, 447 ; Presi-
quantity of coal produced in, during dency, bhandaras or ancient weirs in,
1880-91, 546; canal system in, 169 116; canals, general results, 212-
171, 529, 533; irrigation works of, 215; Proper, canals of, 206 ; Presi-
169-182; general results of irriga dency, irrigation works of, 204-215;
tion works of, 180, 181.
Presidency, canals and public works
Bentinck, Lord William, road construc- | of, 1890-91, 532, 533; deficiency
tion inaugurated by, 73, 81.
and impurity of water in, 446 ;
Bcosi, bridge over the, near Saugor, waterworks, 1856-1892, 445-454.
93, 94.
Booking-office on railways, 278.
Berars, Roads in the, 90.
'Bor Allee' of Assam, 71, 72.
Berkeley, James, railway engineer, Brahmani Delta, Irrigation of, 171,
surveys of, 314, 315.
172; bridge on East Indian Railway,
Berm, á horizontal bench of earthwork, 331.
467.
| Braithwaite and Ericson, locomotive
Beropa river, weir on Orissa canal at, of, 234.
174.
Bramhope Tunnel, near Leeds, 261.
Betwa Canal near Paricha, 167, 168, Breakwater at Manora, Bombay, con-
528.
struction of, 511, 512.
Bezvada, anicut on Kistna river at, Bridges :-
191 ; bridge on East Coast Railway Bridges and roads, annual expen-
at, 409.
diture on, 5; on Indian roads,
Bhandaras, ancient weirs, 116.
types of, 92 ; built in Bareilly dis-
Bhasavul, junction station on Great trict, 1839-44, 85; on line of Grand
Indian Peninsula Railway, 351, 352. Trunk Road, 82, 83; in Mysore,
Bhatghar Reservoir, 210, 211.
remains of ancient, 70; constructed
Bheema river, bridge over, 359.
by Mogul Emperors, 68; in India,
Bhima Bridge on Southern Mahratta conditions affecting site and form
· Railway, 542.
of, 362-364; method of founding
Bhore Ghất, 418; military road through piers of, in sandy beds, 328, 329;
INDEX
551
large railway, 539-542; list of the
largest, in the world, 261; Alex-
andra-Chenab, on the North-
Western Railway, 382, 541; Alla-
habad-Tumna on East Indian
on North-Western Railway, 382-
389, 541; Balawali, on Oudh
and Rohilkund Railway, 371,
540; Beas, on North-Western
Railway, 541 ; over the Beosi near
Saugor, 93, 94; Betwa-Lalti-
pur, on Indian Midland Railway,
408, 540; Betwa-Manikpur, on
Indian Midland Railway, 408, 540;
over Bheema river, 359; Bhima,
on Southern Mahratta Railway,
542; in Bhore Ghât on Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, 356;
Britannia tubular, 261; Cawnpore,
on Oudh and Rohilkund Railway,
370, 371; Chambul, on Indian
Midland Railway, 408, 540 ; Che-
nab-Alexandra, on North-Western
Railway, 382; Cheyer, on Madras
Railway, 361, 539; Chitravati, on
Madras Railway, 360, 539; Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, 261; Damuda, on
Bengal-Nagpur Railway, 407, 540 ;
Delhi-Jumna, on East Indian Rail-
way, 338, 339 ; Dorabavi, on
Southern Mahratta Railway, 542 ;
Dufferin, at Benares, on Oudh
and Rohilkund Railway, 371-380,
540; on East Indian Railway,
along low-lying portions of Gan-
ges valley, 331; Eeb, on Bengal-
Nagpur Railway, 540; Empress-
Sutlej, Adamwahan, on North-
Western Railway, 382, 541 ; the
Forth, 261; Ganges-Balawali, on
Oudh and Rohilkund Railway, 540;
Ganges-Cawnpore, on Oudh and
Rohilkund Railway, 540 ; Ganges-
Rajghat, on Oudh and Rohilkund
Railway, 540; Gorai, on Eastern
Bengal Railway, 365-370, 539 ;
Gumti - Jaunpore, on Oudh and
Rohilkund Railway, 68-70, 540 ;
over the Gumti at Lucknow, 94,
95; Gundak, on Tirhoot Rail-
way, 542; Hagari, on Southern
Mahratta Railway, 542; Hawkes-
bury, 261; Hulohar, on East Indian
Railway, 332; minor, on Indian
Midland Railway, 408; Jhelum-
Victoria, on North-Western Rail-
way, 382, 541; Jubilee-Hooghly,
on East Indian Railway, 338-346, |
539; Jumna-Agra, on Rajputana-
Malwa State Railway, 406, 542;
Jumna-Allahabad, on East Indian
Railway, 539; Jumna-Delhi, on
East Indian Railway, 539; Jumna-
Kalpi, on Indian Midland Railway,
408, 540; Jumna-Mutra, on Raj-
putana-Malwa State Railway, 408,
542; Jumna-Saharanpur, on North-
Western Railway, 541 ; Kaiser-i-
Hind, at Ferozepore, on North-
Western Railway, 382, 541 ;
Kanhan, on Bengal-Nagpur Rail-
way, 91, 96-104, 540; over the
Kaveri near Seringapatam, Native,
70; Keeul, on East Indian Railway,
332; Ken-Banda, on Indian Mid-
land Railway, 408, 540; Kistna,
on Great Indian Peninsula Railway,
359, 539; Kistna-Bezvada, on East
Coast Railway, 409 ; Kistna-
Byapur, on Southern Mahratta
Railway, 542; Kistna-Poona, on
Southern Mahratta Railway, 542;
Lansdowne, Sukkur - Indus, on
North-Western Railway, 261, 390-
395, 541; Lelajaum, on Grand
Trunk Road, 82, 84 ; across Manda
Sheyt ravines, 350; Nerbud da, on
Bhopal-Itarsi Railway, 540; Ner-
budda, on Bombay, Baroda, and
Central India Railway, 405, 539;
Nerbudda, on Great Indian Penin-
sula Railway, 352, 353, 539; Ner-
budda, on Rajputana-Malwa State
Railway, 406, 542 ; Niagara River,
261; Papaghni, on Madras Rail-
Railway, 360, 539; Rajghat, on
Oudh and Rohilkund Railway, 371,
540; minor, on Rajputana-Malwa
State Railway, 406; Rancegunge,
on Oudh and Rohilkund Railway,
540; Rapli, on Bengal and North-
Western Railway, 542; Ravi, on
North - Western Railway, 541 ;
across Rotunda nulla, 350; the
Saltash, over the Tamar, 261;
over Seena river, 359 ; Sheonath,
on Bengal-Nagpur Railway, 407,
540 ; Sher-Shah Chenab, on North-
Western Railway, 382, 541 ; across
Sion marsh on Great Indian Pen-
insula Railway, 348 ; over the
Sohan on Lahore and Peshawur
road, 95, 96; Solani, on Oudh and
Rohilkund Railway, 156, 157, 540;
Sone, on East Indian Railway, 333-
336, 539; Sone, on Grand Trunk
552
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
North-Western Railway 389, 390, 1
541; Sutlej, on North-Western Rail. |
way, 382; over the Tambrapurni in
Tinnevelly, Palamcotta, 95 ; Tapti,
on Bombay, Baroda, and Cen-
tral India Railway, 405, 539 ;
Tapti, on Great Indian Peninsula
Railway, 352, 539; over Tonse
river on East Indian Railway, 336; 1
Tungabhadra, on Madras Railway,
360, 539 ; over Firth of Tay, 261;
Weingunga, on Bengal - Nagpur
Railway, 91, 540.
Bridgewater, Duke of, on beginning of
railways, 226.
Buckingham Canal, the, 199-201.
Bukkur, island of, 390, 395.
* Bunds' or embankments, roads in
Assam built as, 71, 119.
Bungalows, Staging, provided on public
roads, 78, 79.
Burma, extension of survey to, 55 ;
railways of, 410.
Buxar Canal, branch of the Sone, 177.
Byapur - Kistna Bridge on Southern
Mahratta Railway, 542.
Byculla, locomotive workshops, etc. of
Great Indian Peninsula Railway at,
347.
CAILLE, Abbé de la, 44.
Calcutta a base for the survey, 46, 50,
51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57; Calcutta
longitudinal series of triangulations,
46, Calcutta-Darjeeling Road, 86;
Calcutta and Eastern Canals, 179;
a port and railway centre, 299 ; its
position as a railway terminus, 317,
318; experimental railway from, to
Pandua, 309; Port of, 508; pro-
vision of dock accommodation at or
near, 518, 519.
Calingulas, waste weirs,' description
of native, 123, 124.
Callian, junction - station on Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, 349.
Canals :
“Canal Act' (Sanad) of the Emperor
Akbar, 127; financial results of
outlay on, 16, 17; in times of
famine, importance of the, 17, 18;
water for irrigation obtained by
means of, 109; inundation, as
sources of water-supply, 110, 113 ;
sources of supply of, 132 ; position,
width, depth, etc. of, 132, 133;
heaviest works in connection with,
133, 142; two primary classes of,
131, 132; steps, falls, etc. on,
134, 135 ; carrying of, over other
watercourses, 134; dams, weirs,
and scouring-sluices on, 133, 142;
list of projected, 214; aqueduct.
See Aqueduct,
Agra, the, 165-167, 528 ; Arrah,
branch of the Sone, 177; Bari
Doab, construction of the, 138-
140, 527 ; in the Bari Doab con-
structed under Shah Jehan, 128;
Barur Tank, 1890-91, 530 ; Behea,
branch of the Sone, 177 ; system
in Bengal Presidency, general out-
line of, 169-171, 529, 533 ; Betwa,
near Paricha, 167, 168, 528 ;
Bigari, Scinde, 205, 531; ancient
Bigari, on the Indus below Suk-
kur, 111; Bignor, in the Morada-
bad district, 168; in Bombay
Presidency, 532, 533 ; of Bombay
proper, 206 ; Buckingham, in
Madras, 199-201; Buxar, branch
of the Sone, 177 ; Calcutta and
Eastern, 179; Chenab, 142, 143,
527 ; Chowsa, branch of the Sone,
177 ; Cochrane's 199, 200; the
Desert, 205; Dumaon, branch of
the Sone, 177 ; Dun, between the
Jumna and Ganges 168 ; the Eden,
180; Ekruk Tank near Sholapur,
455-457, 532; Fuleli, from Hyder-
abad, III, 531 ; Gaja Guni, fed by
a dam, III'; from the Ganges,
detailed account of, 147-159 ;
Lower Ganges, 161-165, 528;
Upper Ganges, 528; Ghar, 1889-
90, 531 ; of Godavery Delta, 189-
191,530 ; the Hathmati, 211,
212, 532; Hidgellee tidal, 178,
179, 529 ; Hissar, restoration of,
136; Husli, 138; Hyderabad,
1889-90, 531 ; inundation, in the
Indus basin, 204 ; Jajepore, the,
174 ; Jamda, in the Deccan, 207 ;
Shah Jehan's, restoration of, 136;
Jumna, 17 ; the Eastern Jumna,
146, 147, 168, 528 ; Western
Jumna, development and con-
struction of the, 136-138, 527 ;
from Jumna to Hissar constructed
by Feroze Shah, 126; on leſt bank
of Jumna constructed by Ali Mur-
dan Khan, 128; Kadva River
Works, 1890-91, 532; Kanwah, on
the Sutlej, 112; Karachi, in 1889-
90, 531 ; Kaveri Delta, 186-189,
530; the Kendrapurni, 174; of
Kistna delta, 191, 192, 530 ; the
Krishna, 207, 532; Kurnool-
Cuddapah, 194 - 199, 530 ; the
Madhuban, 180; in Madras Pre-
INDEX
553
sidency, 17, 530, 533; near Meerut, i Chenab-Alexandra Bridge on North-
remains of old native, 129; Mhas- Western Railway, 382.
vud Tank, 532; in Midnapore, Chayer Bridge on Madras Railway,
175, 529; the Mutha, 208-210, 361, 539.
532; Eastern Nara, 205, 531; the Chinna Creek, Bombay, blocking of,
Nira, 210, 532; of the North-West 1 511.
Provinces, 528; Orissa system of, Chitravati Bridge on Madras Railway,
171, 173-175, 179, 529; Lower 360, 539.
Panghra, 532; Patna Branch, 176; Choady, the river, 119.
of Pennair delta, 192, 530; in Cholaveram Tank, near Madras. 461,
Peshawur, remains of ancient, 130; 462.
Pravara (Lakh Canal), 1890-91, Chowsá Canal, branch of the Sone,
532; in the Punjab system of pro 177.
vincial, 136, 527; inundation in Chuli ravine, dam across the, 181.
the Punjab, 143, 144 ; of Punjab, Chupar Rift, Hurnai Valley, 400.
general results of construction of, Cincinnati Bridge, the, 261.
145; Rohilkund, in the Bareilly Clark, G. T., railway routes of, 300,
district, 168; Sangam irrigation, 314; appointed engineer, 301.
192, 530; the Sarun, 179, 180; | Coal in India, 426; quantity of, pro-
Scinde inundation, 204, 205, 531, duced in India, during 1880-91,546:
533; Shikapur, 531; Sidhnai, coal-fields, Hyderabad, 201. ?
143, 144, 527 ; Sirhind (British) | Cocas Island, lighthouse at, 520.
140 - 142, 527 ; Sirhind, old Cochrane, Mr. Basil, canal of, 199,
native, 129, 527 ; Sohag, on the 200.
Sutlej, 112; Lower Sohag and Cofferdams, 99-101.
Para, 143, 527; the Sone, 175- Colaba Island, lighthouse on, 520.
178, 529; Main Western Branch Colby, Colonel, compensation bars in-
of Sone, 177; Soonkesala, the, | vented by, 45, 46; used in the
194-199; Srivaikuntham Anicut, Great Trigonometrical Survey, 46,
192, 193, 530; Swat river, 142, 47, 48, 49.
527 ; Unharwah, Scinde, 205. Colebrook Dale, price of iron at, in
Caravansaries on public roads, 72.
1760, 223.
Carnatic, Water tanks in the, 117. Colour-blindness, tests for, 287, 535-
Caste in India, influence of railways on, 538.
221.
Colours used in railway signalling, 285.
Castle rock, tunnel of, 543.
Compensation bars' used in the Great
Cautley, Sir Proby, on the Ganges Trigonometrical Survey, 45, 46, 47,
Canal, 129, 148, 160.
48, 49.
Cawnpore-Ganges Bridge on Oudh and Cotton, Col. Sir Arthur, engineer of
Rohilkund Railway, 370, 371, 540. I division, 187; irrigation of Mahanadi
Central India. See India.
and Brahmani deltas suggested by,
- Provinces, roads of the, 90, 91, |. 172.
104; quantity of coal produced in, Crawford, Captain, Bombay water-
during 1880-91, 546.
supply scheme of, 447.
Ceylon, large water reservoir in, 117. Crops in Madras Presidency, principal,
Chain used in surveying, 27, 48; used | 184.
in the Great Indian Trigonometrical Culverts in connection with public
Survey of India, 38, 39.
roads, 76.
Chairs' on railways, 270, 271. Cummun, Guntoor, tank at, 118, 198.
Chambul Bridge on Indian Midland Cuttack, weirs on the Orissa Canals
Railway, 408, 540.
near, 173, 174.
Chandni Chowk, silver street, 128.
Chapman, Mr., railway schieme of, DADUPUR, dam on Western Jumna
301.
Canal at, 137...
Chapri, dam across the, 181.
| Dalhousie, Lord, Minute of, on Indian
Chattisgarh, railway' between the railways, 313 ; Ganges Canal opened
grain districts of, and Nagpur, 104. I by, 158.
Chembrambaukam Tank near Madras, Dam on Khandari nulla, 485, 486 ;
I18.
of Tansa reservoir, 452 ; across
Chenab Canal, 142, 143, 214, 527.. | Mutha river, 208, 209 ; on the Periar
554
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
river, 202 ; across the Chapri, 181 ; | Eeb Bridge on Bengal-Nagpur Railway,
across the Chuli ravine, 181; 1 540.
'needle system of, 144; and weirs Ekruk Canal, near Sholapur, 455, 456,
on canals, 133.
457, 532 ; Tank, near Sholapur,
Damuda Bridge on Bengal-Nagpur: 208, 455, 457.,
Railway, 407, 540.
Electric telegraph. See Telegraph.
Dehra Doon, northern base of the Elphinstone, Lord, construction of roads
Great Trigonometrical Survey fixed proposed by, 73.
at, 47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57. Embankments on Railways, 258, 259.
Dehree, weir across the Sone at, 176, Empress-Sutlej Bridge, Adamwahan,
177, 178.
on North-Western Railway, 382, 541.
Delhi to Jaganathi, native road from Eratosthenes of Alexandria, 58.
70; water-supply scheme for, 491; | Everest, Colonel, succeeds Colonel
Delhi-Jumna Bridge on East Indian Lambton on the Great Indian Trigo-
Railway, 539; details of, 338, 339. nometrical Survey, 42, 44 ; his work
Delta irrigation schemes, 183; forma on the Great Trigonometrical Survey,
tion of a river, 171, 172.
41-51.
Desert Canal, the, 205.
Everest Mountain named after Colonel
Dharwar, road constructed to, from Everest, 51.
Karwar, 513.
* Experiment,' coach called the, 232.
Dhodur Allee' of Assam, 71.
Diameter of the earth, determination FAMINE, expenditure on railways for
of the, 59.
relief of, 12, 13; of 1837-38, Western
Diamond Harbour, Calcutta, docks! Jumna Canal and the, 138 ; of
proposed at, 519.-
1876-77, relief works during, 200.
Divers employed at Attock Bridge, Fares, passenger, on Indian railways,
. 386.
422.
Dixon, Colonel, storage tanks of Raj- | Fernel, Jean, attempts to ascertain the
putana initiated by, 181.
size of the earth, 58.
Doab' or interfluvial tract, 132, 143 ; | Feroze Shah, irrigation works of, 126,
perennial canals of the, 130, 134, 127; canal of, at Hissar, 136.
142. See also Bari Doab.
| Ffrench, Captain, political officer of
Dock, dry, at Bombay, 510.
Nimar, 181.
Dorabavi Bridge on Southern Mah- | Fiſe, Colonel, reservoir scheme of, 208.
ratta Railway, 542.
- Reservoir near Poona, 208. -
Double Island, Lighthouse at, 520. Fog-signals on railways, 288.
Dowlaishweram, weir oranicut on Forth Bridge, the, 261.
Godavery at, 189, 190.
Foundation-wells for bridge-piers, 329.
Drivers, native, numbers of, in 1881- Fuleli canals, Hyderabad, 111, 531.
1890, 425.
Dufferin Bridge, Benares, on the Oudh | GAJA GUNI Canal fed by a dam, III.
and Rohilkund Railway, 371, 540 ; Ganges, enormous flood-spill of, 330,
- preliminary considerations, 372, 373; | 331, 332, 372; canal, upper, 528 ;
commencement of operations, 374 ; lower, 160, 528; lower, weir of,
piers of, 373, description of, 375 161 ; scouring sluices, 162; aque-
378; superstructure of, 373, 374, rlucts on, at Nadrai, 162-165; for
378, 380; total cost of, 380.
irrigation of the Jumna Doab, 147-
Dumaon Canal, branch of the Sone, 159, 165 ; head works of, 148;
177.
sluice-gates of, 148, 149 ; branches
Dun canals between the Jumna and into two, 149 ; carried under the
Ganges, 168.
Ramipore torrent, 149; carried under
Dwarka Bridge on East Indian Rail the Patri river, 150; joins Rutmoo
way, 331.
torrent, 150 ; aqueduct over the
Dyar, H. G., electrician, 497.
Solani valley, 151-157 ; opening of
the, 158.
EARTH, attempts to ascertain the curv- | 'Gauge of a railway, 266 ; adopted on
ature of the, 58-60.
East Indian Railway, 318.
Earthquake shock in Khojak Tunnel, Gauges of earlier Indian Railways,
403.
412-414.
Eden Canal, the, 180.
Gates on roads across railways, 262.
INDEX.
555
Ģhaggar (anciently 'Saraswati '), con- | Horse-tramway, first construction of
necied with numerous inundation 224.
canals, 112, 140.
Hulohar river, Bridge on East Indian
Ghar Canals, 1889-90, 531.
Railway over, 332.
Ghâts, Eastern and Western, 296, 297, Hurnai Valley, bridging and tunnelling
300, 311, 314-316; Great Indian of, 399.
: Peninsula Railway through Western, Husli Canal in the Bari Doab, 128,
· 349-358.
138; extension of, to Amritsař, 128.
Ghurra, a liquid measure, 483.
Hyderabad, canals of, in 1889-90, 531;
Godavery Delta Canals, 189-191, 530; rainfall in, 108; coalfields of, 201;
weir, on the river, 189, 190; total | position of, misplaced in early sur-
length of irrigation canals of, 191. veys, 41.
Gold, absorption of, in India, 21.
Goper valley, capability of, for a reser- | INDIA, introduction of railways in,
voir, 447.
292, 309 ; scarcity of harbours in,
Gorai Bridge on Eastern Bengal Rail 508; influence of British culture on,
. way, 365, 539; details of construc 293, 294 ; condition of, at period of
tion of, 366-370. .
English occupation, 293 ; soil of,
Gradients on railways, 248.
297 ; physical features of, 294-297 ;
Grand Trunk Road. See Road.
principal rivers of, 295, 297 ; coast-
Grant, Colonel, his ideas on Indian line and seaports of, 298, 299 ; annual
railways, 312, 313.
rainfall in different parts of, 107,
Gray, Thomas, first proposer of system 108; survey of (sce Trigonometrical
of railway transit, 226, 227,
Survey); coal produced in, quantity
Great Basses Lighthouse, Ceylon, 520. of, during 1880-91, 546 ; periodicity
Gridiron system of land measurement, of rainfall in, 436, 437 ; water-supply
31, 32, 49, 53.
of towns in, 431-491.
Gud dia, reservoir constructed near - Central, roads in, 90; irrigation
village of, 409.
works of, 169-182 ; quantity of coal
Gumti, bridge over the, at Lucknow, produced in, during 1884-9:1, 546.
94, 95; Gumti-Jaunpore Bridge, on Indus, increase of the, during the sum-
Oudh and Rohilkund Railway, 68-70, mer months, 110; difficulty of cross-
540.
ing the, at Attock, 87, 88; proposed
Gundak Bridge on Tirhoot Railway, tunnel under the, 88, 89.; bridge in
542.
Guntoor district, irrigation works in,
IIS.
the, 204 ; severe floods of, 383, 390 ;
Sukkur-Rohri Bridges on the, 389-
395.
HACKWORTH, T., locomotive of, 234. Iron Gates, tunnel of, 543.
Hagari Bridge on Southern Mahratta Irrigation, methods of obtaining water
Railway, 542.
for, 109; Works, see under Works.
Hamirpur Lake, Works at, 528.
Harbours in India, scarcity of, 508 ; of JAGANATH to Delhi, native road from,
Bombay, 509, 510; of Karachi, 510-1. 70.
513.
| Jajepore Canal, the, 174.
views on Indian Railways, 306. Jamda canals in the Deccan, 207.
Hastings, Warren, commencement of Jaunpore, bridge over the Gumti at,
68-70.
Hathmati Canal, 211, 212, 532. Jhansi, principal centre of Indian Mid-
Hawkesbury Bridge, the, 261.
land Railway, 408 ; rainfall in dis-
Hidgellee Tidal Canal, 178, 179, 529. trict of, 408 ; Lake, works at, 528.
Hingunghat, death of Colonel Lambton Jhelum Bridge on North - Western
at, 42.
Railway, 382, 541.
Hissar, hunting-ground of Emperor Jubbulpore, water-rate in 1874 in, 483 ;
Feroze Shah, canal to, 126, 127; water-works of, 483-489 ; commence-
restoration of, 136.
ment of water-works at, 484, 485;
Holmgren wool-test for colour blind- flood-escape on dam, 486; water-
ness, 288, 536-538. ,
· tower of, 487 ; inlet-pipes of reser-
556
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
voir, 487, 488; total cost of, 488, stage and lighthouse built at, 513,
489; Khandari, dam at, 486; popu- 521.
Py3i.
lation of, 483 ; Great Deccan Road | Kater, Lieutenant, assistant to Colonel
to, from Mirzapore, 85; road Lambton, 38, 40.
between, and Nagpur, 91, 96. Kaveri Pauk Tank in North Arcot, 118;
Jubilee Bridge over the Hooghly, near native bridge over the river near
Calcutta, 340, 539 ; total length of, Seringapatam, 70; anicut, across
342 ; superstructure of, 342, 343 ; bed of, 114, 186; delta canals, 186-
piers and pier caissons of, 343, 344;
189, 530; irrigation works in the
steel standards and girders of, 344, delta, 114, 183; total length of irri-
345.
gation canals in the delta, 188.
Juhaz, a ship, 127.
Keamari, island of, 510, 511 ; landing-
Jumna, canals from the, 17; the Agra pier and wharſage constructed at,
Canal from the, at Okla, 165-167 ;
513.
canal on leſt bank of the, constructed Keeul river, bridge on East Indian
by Ali Murdan Khan, 128; Eastern | Railway, 332.
canal, 146, 147, 168, 528; Western | Ken bridge on Indian Midland Rail.
canals, development and construc way, 408, 540.
tion of, 136-138, 527.
Kendrapurni canal, the, 174.
Junctions on railways, 248.
Kennedy, Colonel, theories of, on
Indian railways, 310-312, 315.
KAISER-I-HIND Bridge at Ferozepore, | Khadir,' low valley land of the
on the North-Western Railway, 382, | Ganges, 149, 151.
541.
Khalif Al Mamun, 58.
Kabra Tank in Mairwarra, 181, 182. Khandari nulla, Jubbulpore, reservoir
Kadva, river works, 1890-91, 532. on, 484, 485.
Kalerun river, irrigation works in delta Khandesh, bhandaras in, 116.
of, 183; anicut on the, 187, 188. | Khojak tunnel on North-Western Raila'
Kaliana, observatory established at, 48. | way, details of, 261, 399, 401-404,
Kalianpur, observatory established at, 543.
48.
| Khwaja, Amran range, earthquake
Kali Nadi river, the Nadrai aqueducts shock in, 402.
over the, 162-165.
Kidderpore, construction of docks at,
Kalpi-Jumna Bridge on Indian Mid-' 519, 520; difficulty in raising funds
land Railway, 408, 540.
for, 519.
Kanhan, bridge over the river, at Killingworth colliery, first locomotive
Kamthi, 91, 540 ; description of, 96; at, 229.
construction of, 98, 99; foundations Kistna Bridge on Great Indian Pen-
and cofferdams of, 99, 100; piers insula Railway, 359, 539; weir
and abutments of, 101; timber on the river, 191, 192; total length
centres and arches of, 102, 103; of irrigation canals of, 192; canals
upper line of, 103 ; temporarily used on the delta of, 191, 192, 530.
to carry a narrow-gauge railway, | Kortalayar river, Madras waterworks
104.
fed from, 461.
Kanwah Canal on the Sutlej, 112. I Krishna canal, 207, 532.
Karachi, waterworks of, 477-482 ; — Shoal lighthouse in the Gulf of
water-supply obtained from Malir Martaban, 520.
river, 478, 479; total cost of and Kunka, gravel used in road building,
amount of supply, 481, 482; masonry 74, 77, 78, 82, 95, 297.
conduit of, 480 ; inlet pipe of, 481 ; | Kurnool-Cuddapah canal, 194-199, 530.
manner of distributing the water,
481 ; canals, 1889-90, 531 ; a base | LACHMA lake tank in Nimar district,
for the survey, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57; 181.
a port and railway centre, 299 ; | Lahore, situation and population of,
Manora light at, 520 ; details of 472; peculiar aspects of streets of,
harbour of, 510-513.
473; waterworks of, 472-477 ; water-
Karampallam, tank at, 193.
supply in the city, 476 ; accident to
Karez, tunnel of, 543.
service reservoir, 477 ; rate charged
Karwar, port of, its capabilities as a Sor water in, 477; formation of
harbour of refuge, 513; landing- water-works of, 475; service reser-
INDEX
557
520.
voir of, 476 ; and Peshawur road, I inflow into tanks in, 126; Presidency,
bridge over the Sohan on the, 95, 96. canals of, 17; early survey work in,
Shah Jehan's garden at, 138.
36; rainfall in, 108, 184 ; principal
Laltipur-Betwa, bridge on Indian Mid crops in, 184; quantity of coal
land Railway, 408, 540.
produced in during 1891, 546; roads
Lambton, Colonel William, his work in, 91; lighthouses on coast of, 521;
on the Great Indian Trigonometrical agricultural works of, 1890-91, 530,
Survey of India, 37-43 ; referred to, 533 ; water reservoirs constructed in,
45, 49, 52, 55.
113, 114; general principles of
Lansdowne bridge, Sukkur-Rohri, on construction of tanks in, 121, 122;
North-Western Railway, details of, embankments of, 122, 123; principal
261, 390-395, 541.
systems of irrigation works in, 185,
Lelajaum, Grand Trunk Road bridge 186, 530, 533 ; irrigation works of,
over the, 82, 84.
183-203 ; irrigation, general results
Lesage constructs electric telegraph,
of, 203.
497.
Mahanadi Delta, irrigation of, 171,
Lighthouses, Alepy, 521; Tuticorin, 172.
521; Karwar, 521; Double Island, Mahomed Aboo Khan, canal near
520; Cocos Island, 520; Colaba Meerut constructed by, 129.
Island, 520; Manora, Karachi, 520; Mairs, turbulence of the, 181.
on coast of Madras Presidency, 521 ; Mairwarra, storage tanks of, 181, 182.
Prongs,' at Bombay, 520, 521; at | Malir river, Karachi supplied with
port of Karwar, 513; Krishna Shoal water from wells in, 478, 479.
in the Gulf of Martaban, 520; Algu Malsej Ghất, proposed railway by,
arda Reef, 520; Great Basses, Ceylon, 301, 314.
Manda Sheyt ravines, bridges across,
Liverpool and Manchester, proposed
350.
railway between, 233, 234.
Manikpur-Betwa Bridge on the Indian
Locomotives, built by George Stephen- ! Midland Railway, 408, 540.
son at Killingworth, 229; premium | Manora light at Karachi, 520; Bombay,
offered for the best, 234 ; Stephen construction of breakwater at, 511,
son's 'No. 1,' 231, 232; 'Rocket,' 512.
"Novelty' and Sans Pareil,' 334- | Map of India, early French, 35.
237; in colliery districts, 225. Martin, General, 94.
Lokain, embankment on river, 118. Masulah boats, 514, 515.
Lomond, electrical discoveries of, 497. | Martaban, the Krishna shoal lighthouse
Lucknow, bridge over the Gumti at, in the Gulf of, 520.
94, 95 ; waterworks ať, 490. Mazagon, Bombay, dry-dock at, 510.
Meerut, remains of old canal near, 129.
MACLAGAN, Lieutenant, on the Bigari Menai Straits, bridge over, 261.
Canal, III.
Mergui, Tenasserim, base line at, 56.
Madduk Masur Tank, description of, Mhasvad tank, in Satara district, 211 ;
I18-120.
tank canal, 532.
Madhopur, head of Bari Doab Canal | Midnapore Canal, and branches, the,
helise at, 139; workshops at, 527.
175; 529.
Madhuban Canal, 18o.
Mirab, superintendent of the canal,
Madras, position of, 508; a port and 127.
railway centre, 299 ; observatory, | Mirzapore, Great Deccan Road from,
38; railway, account of, 360, 361; to Jubbulpore, 85.
roadstead, construction of harbour Moguls, roads and bridges under the
works in, 514-518; screw-pile pier rule of the, 68.
constructed in, 515; proposed con- | Mohpani, coalfields of, 352.
struction of closed harbour at, 515, / Monghyr tunnel on East Indian Rail-
516; description and construction of
the harbour works, 517, 518; ſoun-Moorum, decomposed material used in
dations undermined by sea, 518; pro- ' construction of roads, 77.
posals for reconstruction of harbour Mor Bridge on East Indian Railway,
works, 518; city waterworks, 459-463; | 331.
waterworks, commencement of, 460 ; Morse, Professor, electric telegraph of,
construction of, 461; regulation of l 499.

558
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Mount Cenis Tunnel, 260.
| Novelty,' locomotive called the, 234,
Mountains and highlands of India, / 235, 236.
295-297.
Nuggar in Mysore, tank and embank-
Mud Gorge, tunnel of, 543.
ment at, 118.
Mutha canals and reservoir, the, 208. Nullas or water-courses, 298, 350..
210, 532.
Mutiny, destruction of Sone Bridge OERSTED, Professor, magnetic dis-
during the, 334.
coveries of, 498.
Mutra-Jumna Bridge on Rajputana- Okla, Agra Canal from the Jumna at,
Malwa State Railway, 406, 542.
Muzaffargarh, inundation canals in, Orissa, rainfall in, 107, 170; new as-
III.
sessment of land-tax in, 170; canals,
Mysore, roads in, 91; remains of system of, 171, 529; headworks of
ancient bridges in, 70; water tanks the, 173; weirs on the, 173, 174;
in, 117; Nuggar tank in, 118; chain Coast Canal, 179.
system of storage reservoirs in,. 122. O'Shaughnessy, W. B., first electric
telegraph in India constructed by,
NADRAI, aqueducts on Lower Ganges | 500, 501.
Canal at, 162-165.
Nag river, embankment across, 464. PAHOOJ RIVER, weir across, 409.
Nagpur, tomb of Colonel Lambton at, | Palamcotta Bridge over the Tambra-
42; roads from, 90, 91, 96; railway purni, in Tinnevelly, 95.
between, and the grain districts of Panghra, Lower, canal, 1890-91, 532.
Chattisgarh, 104 ; waterworks of, Panir Tunnel on North-Western Rail-
463-471 ; waste-weir and regulation way, 397.
tower of, 468; new works, syphon- | Papaghni bridges on Madras Railway,
pipe of, 468, 469; total supply of, 361, 539.
470; pumping cistern, 471; popula Para. See Sohag.
tion of, 463.
Paricha, Betwa Canal near, 167, 168.
Nalas or streams, 480.
Parsees of Bombay Presidency, 22.
Nandicanama, tunnel of, 543.
Passenger traffic of Indian railways,
Nara Canal, Eastern, 205, 531.
422.
Naraje, weir on Orissa Canal at, 173. Patna branch canal, 176.
Narora, Lower Ganges canal system Patri river crosses the Ganges canal,
at, 161.
150.
Nasik, bhandaras in, 116.
Pease, Quaker family of, assist Stephen-
Navigation works. See Works.'
son, 231.
Mawabbin, channel called the, 112. Pendulum vibrations, determination of
Negumbod aqueduct, the, 128.
| the earth's figure by, 59, 60.
Nellore, weir on River Pennair near, Pennair Delta, canals of, 192, 530;
192.
weir on the river at Sangam, 192,
Nerbudda bridges on Bombay, Baroda, 197 ; drainage system, 197.
and Central India Railway, 405, 539; | Penner Bridge on Madras Railway,
on Great Indian Peninsula Railway, | 360, 539.
352, 353, 539; on Rajputana-Malwa | Pepul putta ka Seran,' road called, 70.
State Railway, 406, 542; on Bhopal- Periar river irrigation project, 201-203;
Itarsi Railway, 540.
dam on the, 202; works, 214.
Network system of land-measurement, Peshawur, remains of ancient canal in,
31, 49.
130.
Niagara river bridge, 261.
Platforms at railway stations, 279, 280,
Nira Canal, the, 210, 532.
281.
Nizam's Territory, quantity of coal pro- | ' Plotting' of surveys, 29, 30.
duced in, during 1887-91, 546. Picard attempts to ascertain the size of
North, Roger, mentions way-leaves, the earth, 59.
222.
Piers of bridges, method of founding in
North-West Provinces, network of roads/ sandy beds, 328, 329.
in, 86; canals and irrigation works Points or switches on railways, 275,
of, 160-168, 528; minor canals of, 276, 290.
168; general results of canal systems Ponairy Tank in Trichinopoli, 117.
of, 168.
Pont du Gard, France, 434, 435.
INDEX
559
Poona-Kistna Bridge on Southern Mah-|
ratta Railway, 542.
Population of Jubbulpore, 483 ; of
Lahore, 472 ; of Nagpur, 463.
Ports of India, the principal, 298, 299,
508, 509; Karwar, 513.
Posidonius, Athenian philosopher, 58.
Postal-service between Agra and Bom-
bay, 85.
Pravara (Lakh Canal), 1890-1891, 532.
Profits on railway working, 10.
• Prongs' Lighthouse, Bombay, 520,
521.
Pugla Bridge on East Indian Railway,
331.
Punjab, system of provincial canals in
the, 136; irrigation canals of the,
136-145, 527 ; general results of con-
struction of canals of the, 145 ;
annual rainfall in the, 108; minor
inundation canals of the,'144 ; inun-
dation canals in the, 110, 111, 113,
143; quantity of coal produced in,
during 1887-91, 546; roads in the,
86, 87, 104.
Put' or desert, 398.
Puttiala, Maharajah of, 141.
QUETTA loop-line of North-Western
Railway, 397.
RAILS for railways, varieties of, 269,
270, 272-274 ; on Bengal-Nagpur
Railway, 407; used on Bombay,
Baroda and Central Indian Railway,
405; on Burmese railways, 410; on
East Indian Railway 346; on Great
Indian Peninsula Railway, 359 ; on
Indian Midland Railway, 408; on
Madras Railway, 361 ; on Rajputana-
Malwa State Railway, 406.
Railways:
Introductory :-origin of, 219; germs
of, in stone tracks of old Italian
cities, 222 ; first solid iron rails
used, 223, 224 ; Thomas Gray,
first proposer of system of railway
transit, 226, 227; conception of
locomotive engine, 222; locomo-
tives in colliery districts, 225; Mr.
Blenkinsop's invention, 228 ; first
locomotive of George Stephenson,
229 ; the locomotives Novelty,'
'Sans Pareil,' and 'Rocket,' 234-
237 ; Surrey Iron Railway Com-
pany, 224 ; line between London
and Birmingham, 237 ; construc-
tion and opening of Stockton-
Darlington railway, 229-232 ; pro-
posed railway between Liverpool
and Manchester, 233; principles
of construction of, 239-241 ; selec-
tion of route, 241, 242 ; acquisi-
tion of land for, 243 244 ; grading,
243; formation of the line, 250,
251 ; commencement of construc-
tion, 251-253; gradients and curves,
252-255 ; construction of cuttings,
255, 256; drainage of cuttings,
257 ; difficulties met with in heavy
cuttings, 257 ; embankments of,
258, 259 ; permanent way and
ballast, 264, 265; tunnels on, 258 ;
bridging of gorges, rivers, etc.,
260; principal bridges of the world,
261; principal tunnels of the world,
260, 261; gauge of, 266; varieties
of rails used on, 269, 270, 272-274;
use of check-rail, 274 ; manner of
bolting the rails, 273, 274 ; Board
of Trade requirements, 245-249.
India :-
Railways in India, 219-427 ; intro-
duction of, 292; importance of
the, 5, 7; total length of, open for
traffic in 1892, 8; profits on work-
ing of, 10; property, increasing
value of, 12; income and expen-
diture on, 8, 9; influence of, in
regenerating India, 220, 221; caste-
barriers broken by, 221; reduction
of distances by, in, 221 ; wheels of
vehicles, 266, 267 ; sleepers used
on, 267-269;' chairs' on, 270, 271;
points or switches, 275, 276, 290 ;
stations, offices, and platforms,
277-283 ; sidings on, 274, 275 ;
gates on roads across, 262; water-
supply for locomotives, 283; work-
shops on, 284; signalling appara-
tus on, 284 - 291 ; regulations
adopted, 246-249 ; proposed con-
struction of by private companies,
305 ; suggested Government guar-
antee for first, 302 ; Government
encouragement of, 306, 307, 308;
difficulties to be contended against
at introduction, 310 ; Government
ownership and control of, 9, 319.
320; principal features of Govern.
ment control of, 321, 322 ; value
of central control of Indian, 426,
427; results of 30 years central
administration of Indian, 426, 427;
friction between consultingen-
gineers and Government officers,
320 ; Parliamentary committee to
inquire into delays in prosecution
of railway construction, 321 ;
theories of Colonel Kennedy, 310-
560
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
sleepers used on, 346; Monghyr
tunnel on, 331; bridges on the,
539; bridges on first section of,
331 ; bridge over Hooghly on, 338-
346; Allahabad- Jumna Bridge on,
336-338.; Delhi-Jumna Bridge on,
338-339 ; Sone bridge on, 333-335;
Tonse bridge on, 336.
Great Eastern Railway, proposed
route of, 300, 302.
Great Indian Peninsula Railway,
311, 314, 418; inception of, 301,
302 ; preliminary agreement with,
307 ; experimental line of, 309;
main routes of, 316, 317; sections
of, to Juhbulpore and Mohpani,
352; Bhore Ghât incline of, 353-
358; total length of, 359; station
of, in Bombay, 347, 348; rails and
sleepers used on, 359 ; principal
tunnels on the 543 ; tunnels on the
Thul Ghât incline, 351; bridges
on the, 539; bridge across Sion
Marsh on, 348; bridges across
Rotunda nulla and Manda Sheyt
ravines on, 350 ; the Bheema,
Seena, and Kistna bridges on, 359.
Indian Branch Railway Company,
gauge of, 412; passenger classes
of, 423.
Indian-Midland Railway, details of,
407-409 ; bridges on the, 540.
Madras Railway, 360, 361; forma-
tion of, 324; extension of, 325;
bridges on the, 361, 539.
North-Western Railway, section of, to
Karachi, 389; Sind-Pishin section
of, 396, 397, 401, 418; . Quetta
loop-line of, 397 ; branch of, to
Bolan Pass, 398, 399; total length
and cost of, 404, 405; Khojak
tunnel on, 399, 401-404; tunnels
on Quetta loop-line, 397 ; princi-
pal tunnels on the, 543 ; bridges
on, over Punjab rivers, 381, 382,
541 ; Attock Bridge on, 382-389;
bridge over the Sukkur on, 389,
390 ; Lansdowne Bridge, Sukkur-
Rohri, on, 390-395.
Oudh and Rohilkund, formerly Indian
Branch Railway Company, 370,
417; bridges on, 370-380, 540;
passenger classes of, 423.
Rajputana - Malwa State Railway,
406, 414, 418; bridges on the,
542.
Southern Mahratta, bridges on the,
312 ; peculiarities of construction
in, 326-328 ; method of founding
piers in sandy beds, 328, 329;
principal standard dimensions
adopted, 318, 319 ; gauges of
earlier Indian, 412-414 ; iron
largely used for sleepers in, 328;.|
total mileage of, 412; length of
lines open during quinquennial
periods, 1853-1892, 415; classifi-
cation and mileage of Indian, 416;
capital, outlay, and cost per mile
of, 417 ; gross earnings of, 420,
545 ; net earnings of, 421, 545;
distribution of persons employed
on, 424; numbers of native drivers
and shunters, 1881-1890, 425 ;
passenger traffic of, 422; passenger
classes on, 422, 423; passenger
fares on, 422 ; safety of travel on,
425 ; passenger and goods rolling
stock at end of year 1891 of, 423;
423 ; ſuel supply of 425, 426 ;
working expenses of, 420, 545;
percentage of working expenses on
gross earnings on, 420, 545; general
results, including steamboat ser.
vices and suspense accounts of, |
421, 545 ; main results of working |
all, for the year ending 31st Decem-
ber 1891, 544, 545; particulars of |
important tunnels on, 543.
Principal Lines :-
Bengal-Nagpur railway, details of,
406, 407, 470; principal tunnels
on the, 543 ; bridges on the, 540.
Bengal and North-Western railway,
415 ; bridge on the, 542.
Bhopal-Itarsi State Line, 407 ; bridge
on the, 540.
Bombay, Baroda and Central India,
405; bridges on the, 539.
Burmese railways, 410.
Eastern Bengal, interest charges for,
8; bridges on the, 539.
East Coast Railway, 409.
East Indian Railway, 311, 314; in-
terest charges for, 8; successful
working of, 12; originally between
Nagpur and grain districts of
Chattisgarh, 104; preliminary a-
greement with, 307 ; experimental
line of 309; gauge adopted on,
318; construction of experimental |
line, 317, 322, 323; difficulties |
encountered on first section of, |
330, 331; extension of system of, |
323, 324; routes followed by, 333;
losses of, during the mutiny, 334 ; |
total length of, 346; rails and !
542; principal tunnels on the, 543.
Tirhoot, bridge on the, 542.
Umaria-Katni State Line, 407.
INDEX
561
Rainfall less than in former times, 125; L stone, 73; construction of, inaugu-
in Behar, 107; in Bengal, 107; in rated by Lord William Bentinck, 73,
Bhore and Thul Ghâts, 358; of Bom 81; development of village, 16;
bay, annual, 108, 447 ; in Hyderabad, points to be observed in laying out
108; in India, 107, 108; periodicity and constructing, 74, 75; materials
of, in, 436-7; in Jhansi district, 408; available for construction of, 74, 76-
in Madras Presidency, average | 78; 'borrow' pits alongside of the
annual, 108, 184; in Orissa, 107, roads, 75; caravansaries on the
170; in the Punjab, 108; in Scinde, public, 72; trees, wells, and rest-
204; over Vehar basin, 448.
houses on the public, 78, 79 ; types
Rajghat-Ganges Bridge on Oudh and of bridges on Indian, 92 ; openings
Rohilkund Railway, 371, 540.
for culverts and small bridges on, 76;
Rajputana, storage tanks of, 181, 182. trunk, designed from Agra to Bom-
Ramipore torrent, 149, 150.
bay, 85; in Assam, ancient, 70-72 ;
Raneegunge Bridge on the Oudh and constructed in Azimgurh district,
Rohilkund Railway, 540.
85; constructed in Bareilly district,
Rankin, Captain Charles, part of Grand 1839-44, 85; in the Berars, 90 ; for
Trunk Road made by, 81.
military purposes through the Bhore
Rapti Bridge on the Bengal and North Ghât, 80; in Bombay Presidency,
Western Railway, 542.
91; Calcutta-Darjeeling, 86; in
Ravi Bridge on the North-Western Central India, 90; in the Central
Railway, 541; river, Sidhnai canal Provinces, 90, 91, 104 ; Grand Trunk
from the, 143, 144 ; Lahore water from Calcutta to Peshawur, I, 5, 74;
supply obtained from, 474.
route of, 81; rest-houses and trees on
Rechna Doab, irrigation of the, 142, line of, 82; bridges on line of, 82,
143.
83; commenced by Captain Rankin
Red Hills Tank, Madras, 461, 462. under government of Warren Hast-
Rennell, Major James, survey work of, ings, 81; general construction of, 82;
35.
cost of the, 83, 84; Great Deccan,
Rennie, John, said to have designed the from Mirzapore vii Rewah to Jub-
Gumti Bridge at Lucknow, 94.
bulpore, 85; constructed from Kar-
Reservoirs, remains of old, numerous, war to Dharwar, 513; bridge over
125; chain system of storage in the Sohan on the Lahore and Pesh-
Mysore, 122; native, at Ambajhari, awur, 95, 96; in Madras Presidency,
463, 464 ; the Bhatghar, 210, 211; 91; in Mysore, 91 ; from Nagpur to
in Ceylon, large, 117; at Delhi, Jubbulpore, 91, 96; in North-West
491; the Fife, 208, 209; constructed Provinces, network of, 86; called
near village of Guddia, 409; on 'Pepul putta ka Seran,' 70'; in the
Khandari nulla, Jubbulpore, 485- Punjab, 86, 87, 104 ; the Saugur, 90;
489; service, of Lahore, 476; at in the upper parts of Scinde, 86, 87.
Lucknow, 490; Mutha canal and, / 'Rocket, Stephenson's locomotive
1890-91, 532; Tansa, construction called the, 234, 235, 236.
of, 451, 452-454; at Tulsi, construc- | Rohilkund, canals in the Bareilly dis-
tion of, 451; Vehar, construction of trict, 168.
448, 449. See also Tanks.
Romans, water-works of the, 434, 435.
Rest-houses provided on Grand Trunk Rotunda nulla, bridge across, 350.
Road, 82.
Rudru Singh, Rajah, road building in
Rivers in India, flood-phenomena of, Assam by, 71.
84; the principal, 295, 297 ; diffi- Rutmoo torrent joins Ganges canal,
culties met with in bridging, 363, | 150, 152.
364.
Roads in India, 65-104 ; under the SAHARANPUR - JUMNA Bridge on
Mogul Emperors, 68; constructed | North-Western Railway, 541.
in 1540 by Shir Shah, 70 ; in Bengal, St. Gotthard Tunnel, 260.
remains of ancient, 70; diversity of St. Thomas Mount, Madras, base-line
character of, 66, 67; and bridges, measured near, 38.
annual expenditure on, 5, 104 ; Salsette, island of, 450, 451.
neglect of road communication by Saltash bridge over the Tamar, 261.
early East India Company, 73; con- Sanad or Canal Act of Emperor Akbar,
struction of, proposed by Lord Elphin-1 127.
2 N
562
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
Sangam, irrigation canals in, 192, 214, India, 328; used on East Indian
530.
Railway, 346; used on Great Indian
Sans Pareil,' locomotive called the, Peninsula Railway, 359; used on
234-237.
Madras Railway, 361.
Saranda tunnel on Bengal - Nagpur Sohag Canal on the Sutlej, 112; and
Railway, 407, 543.
Para Canal, 143, 527.
Saraswati. See Ghaggar.
Sohan, bridge over the, on the Lahore
Sarun Canal, the, 179, 180.
and Peshawur road, 95, 96.
Saugor, bridge over the Beosi near, 93, Solani Bridge, on the Oudh and Rohil-
94; roads, 90. .
kund Railway, 540; valley and river,
Schilling, Baron, constructs electric 151 ; aqueduct over the, 151-157 ;
telegraph, 498.
general description of, 152; com-
Schweiger, improver of electric tele mencement of work on, 153; em-
graph, 498.
bankments and revetment-walls of,
Scinde Province, agricultural works 153-156; aqueduct bridge over the
in, 1889-90, 531, 533; canals and | river, 156; piers and abutments of,
public works, 1889-90, 531, 533; 157 ; foundations of, 157.
irrigation works of, 204-215; roads | Sömmering, maker of first electro-
in the upper parts of, 86, 87.
dynamic telegraph, 498.
Seena river, bridge over, 359.
Sonakoda a base for the survey, 50, 53,
Seoni plateau, 91.
56.
Seringapatam, native bridge over the Sone, bridge over the, on East Indian
Kaveri near, 70.
Railway, 333, 539; destroyed during
Seven Wells Waterworks, Madras, 459, the Mutiny, 334, 335; reconstruction
460.
of, 335; Grand Trunk Road bridge
Severn Tunnel at Bristol, 260.
over the, 83; canals, 175-178, 529;
Shah Jehan, canal constructed in the inception of the, 176; weir across
Bari Doab under, 128; restoration the, at Dehree, 176-178; canals, total
of, 136.
length of system of, 177; Canal,
Sheonath Bridge on Bengal-Nagpur Main Eastern, 176; Canal, Main
Railway, 407, 540.
Western branch, 177.
Sher Shah Bridge on North-Western Soonkesala Canal, Madras, the, 194-
Railway, 382, 541.
199.
Shikapur canals, 1889-90, 531. Souba of Sirhind, canal excavated by
Shir Shah, road constructed by, in 1540, the, 129.
70.
Srivaikuntham irrigation canals, 192,
Sholapur Waterworks, 455; Ekrukl 193, 530.
Tank of, 455, 456 ; Ekruk Canal, Stand Edge Tunnel, England, 261.
456, 457 ; reservoir and supply-pipe, Station of Great Indian Peninsula Rail-
458.
way in Bombay, 347, 348.
Shunters, numbers of native, 1881 Stations on Railways, 277-283.
1890, 425.
Steinthal, M., electric telegraph of, 499.
Sidhnai Canal from the Ravi, 143, 144, Stephenson, George, locomotive en-
527.
gineer, his early struggles, 228; his
Signals used on railways, 247, 284 inventive genius, 229; his engine
291.
'No. 1,' 231, 232; appointed to build
Silver, absorption of, in India, 21. engines for Liverpool and Manchester
Simms, Mr., railway engineer, pro Railway, 236 ; extract from speech
posals of, 303-305, 318.
of, 237, 238.
Sion marsh, bridge across, on Great - Sir Donald, railway promoter,
Indian Peninsula Railway, 348. 302.
Sirhind canals, system of the, 140 - Robert, 229, 238.
142; canal (British), 527 ; old native Stewart, Lieut. - Col. Patrick, telegraph-
canal in, 129, 527.
cable scheme of, 501.
Sironj a basis for measurements, 47, 48, | Stockton to Darlington, proposed tram-
51, 53, 55, 56, 57 ; astronomical ob- way from, 229; construction and
servations undertaken at, 44; base- opening of, 230-232.
line measured at, 44, 48.
Sukkur Bridge on North-Western Rail-
Sleepers' used in railway construction, way, details of, 389, 390, 541. See
267-269 ; of various materials used in / alsó Lansdowne.
INDEX
563
Surrey Iron Railway Company, 224. 1 ciples of construction, 121, 122;
Survey of India. See Trigonometrical embankments of 122, 123; in Madras,
Survey.
regulation of inflow into, 126;
Sutlej, inundation canals in the valley Mhasvad, in the Satara district, 211;
of, 111, 112; Empress Bridge over, in Mysore and the Carnatic, 117;
on North-Western Railway, 382, 541. at Nuggar in Mysore, 118; Ponairy
Swâl River Canal, 142, 527.
in Trichinopoli, 117; storage of
Switches or points on railways, 275, Rajputana, 181, 182; Red Hills,
276, 290.
Madras, 461, 462; Viranum, 117,
Sykes, Colonel, Bombay water-supply 118. See also Reservoir.
scheme of, 447.
Tansa reservoir, construction of, 451 ;
dam of, 452; total cost of, 453 ;
TABLES :-
opening of, 453, 454.
Length of lines open during quin- | Tapti bridges, on Bombay, Baroda
quennial periods—1853 to 1892, and Central Indian Railway, 405,
415; classification and mileage of 539; on Great Indian Peninsula
Indian railways, 416; capital out Railway, 352, 539.
lay and cost per mile of Indian Tay, bridge over the Firth of, 261.
railways, 417; gross earnings of Telechrome for testing colour-blindness,
Indian railways, 420 ; percentage 537, 538.
of working expenses on gross earn- Telegraph in India, the electric, 495-
ings of Indian railways, 420 ; 504 ; apparatus of ordinary, 496 ;
working expenses of Indian rail invention of, 496 ; inventors and
ways, 420 ; net earnings of Indian improvers of, 497, 498 ; first con-
railways, 421; general results of struction of, in India, 500 ; rapid
Indian railways, including steam extension of, in India, 501 ; number
boat services and suspense ac of persons employed on Indian, 503;
counts, 421 ; fares on Indian number of messages booked in 1891-
railways, 422; passenger and goods 92, 503 ; classes of telegrams in
rolling stock at end of year 1891, India, 503, 504; total length of,
423; distribution of persons em- | and capital expenditure on, 502 ;
ployed on Indian railways, 424 ; total mileage of, in India, 504; to
numbers of native drivers and India, Turkish line of, 501; Red
shunters, 1881 to 1890 inclusive, Sea cable, 501, 502; Anglo-Persian
425. See also Appendices.
line, 502.
Takal Khera, 'Great Arc Series' ex- |
tended to, 42.
Tests for colour-blindness, 288, 535-
Tambrapurni river, Palamcotta Bridge | 538.
over the, in Tinnevelly, 95 ; irrigates | Theodolites, instruments for measuring
Tinnevelly district, 114; anicuts on triangles, 26.
the, 193.
| Thul Ghât, 418; proposed railway by,
Tanks for water-supply in India, early 300, 314, 315, 316; description of
adoption of, 432; storage, water for railway incline in, 349, 350, 353 1.,
irrigation obtained by means of, 109; 358 ; tunnels of, 543.
for water supply of locomotives on Tibet trade-routes, 85, 86.
railways, 283 ; defects in the old Timber-tracks or tram-roads, 222.
native, 123, 126 ; bottoms of old, Tinnevelly, the Palamcotta Bridge
utilised for cultivation, 125; Chem over the Tambrapurni in, 95;
brambaukam, near Madras, 118, watered by the Trambrapurni by
198 ; Cholaveram, near Madras, 461, means of anicuts, 114.
462; at Cummun, Guntoor, 118, | Tonse river, bridge over, on East
198; Ekruk, near Sholapur, 208, Indian Railway, 336.
455, 457 ; Jama Talao, near Nagpur, Towns in India, water-supply of, 431-
463; Kabra, in Mairwarra, 181, 491.
182; at Karampallam, 193; Kaveri Trees planted on roads for shelter, 78;
Pauk, in North Arcot, 118; Lachma on Grand Trunk Road, 82.
Lake, in district of Nimar, 181 ; Trichinopoli, Ponairy Tank at, 117.
Madduk Masur, description of, 118- | Trigonometry, meaning of, 26.
120; for water storage in Madras Trigonometrical Survey of India, ac-
Presidency, 113, 114; general prin- ! count of the, 4, 25-61; commenced
564
PUBLIC WORKS OF INDIA
by Colonel Lambton, 36, 37; instru- 1 incline of Great Indian Peninsula
ments used in the, 38, 39; base-line Railway, 351, 543..
measured at Madras for, 38; error Tuticorin, lighthouse at, 521.
of distance between Madras and
Malabar coast corrected by, 39, 40; | UNHARWAH Canal, Scinde, 205.
base of verification measured near
Bangalore, 39 ; made a basis for VAIGA, the river, 201.
further series of measurements, 40 ; | Vehar basin, rainfall and area draining
interruptions of the survey, 40 ; great i into, 448; reservoir, commencement
theodolite damaged, 41; Colonel of, 448; embankment and waste-
Everest succeeds Colonel Lambton on weir of, 449 ; suitable for a reservoir,
the, 42, 44; work of, on the survey, 447, 448; reservoir, supply main of,
44-51; the Great Arc Series' of 449; sluice-house of, 450.
triangulations, 40, 41, 47 ; extension Viaducts. See Bridges.
of Beder base-line to Bombay, 44 ; Victoria-Jhelum Bridge, on the North-
longitudinal series between Beder Western Railway, 382, 541.
and Bombay completed, 49; base-line Viranum Tank, 117, 118.
measured at Sironj, 44, 48; new in Volta, Alessandra, discoverer of voltaic
struments provided for the, 45, 46; pile, 497.
the Calcutta longitudinal series of Vizagapatam, a base for survey, 54, 55,
triangulations, 45, 46,.50; the ‘Cal 56.
cutta meridional series,' 50; 'East
Coast series of surveys, 51, 54, 55; | WALLICH, Dr., superintendent Botanic
the 'North-Eastern Himalayan' series, | Gardens, Calcutta, 500.
50; the 'North-Western Himalayan Wandsworth to Croydon, horse-tram-
series,' 53, 54; 'South Konkan way from, 224.
series' completed, 51; formation of Warora, coal-field at, 359.
'North - West quadrilateral,' 53; Warren, Lieutenant, assistant to Colone.
carried into the mountain ranges, 55, Lambton, 38, 40.
56; use of the spirit-level in, 57; Water for irrigation, methods of obtain-
review of work done between 1802- ing, 109.
1848, 52, 53.
- carriage system of Eastern Bengal,
Tumbuddra river, anicuts across the, Way-leaves, 222, 223.
115.
Weingunga Bridge on Bengal-Nagpur
Tungabhadra, bridge over the, on the Railway, 91, 540.
Madras Railway, 360, 539; irriga Weirs on canals, 133; of the Agra
tion works of, 195; weir on the, 196. Canal, 166; on the Betwa Canal,
Tunnels, formation of, 258; list of 167 ; across the Ganges at Narora,
largest, in the world, 260, 261 ; under 161; on Hathmati river, 211; on
the Indus at Attock, 88, 89; on Krishna river, 207 ; on the Midna-
Bhore Ghât incline of Great Indian pore Canal, 175; on the Orissa
Peninsula Railway, 356, 357, 543 ; Canal system, 173, 174; across
Bhortonk, on Bengal-Nagpur Rail Pahooj river, 409 ; on the Pennair
way, 407, 543; Bramhope, near river at Sangam, 192, 197 ; over
Leeds, 261; Castle rock, Southern Sone at Dehree, 176-178; across the
Mahratta Railway, 543 ; Iron Gates,
North-Western Railway, 543 ; Karez, Anicut.
North-Western Railway, 543; Kho- | Wellesley, Marquis of, supports Col.
jak, on North-Western Railway, Lambton's proposals, 38.
261, 399, 401-404, 543; Monghyr, | Wells, Artesian, 434, 490; in Malir
on East Indian Railway, 331 ; Mount ! river, Karachi water-supply obtained
Cenis, 260; Mud Gorge, North from, 479; provided on lines of
Western Railway, 543; Nandica public roads, 78; water for irrigation
nama, Southern Mahratta Railway, obtained by means of, 109.
543 ; Panir, on North-Western Rail- Wheatstone and Cooke, electrical dis-
way, 397; St. Gotthard, 260; Saranda, , coveries of, 499.
on Bengal-Nagpur Railway, 407, Wheels of railway vehicles, 266, 267.
543; Severn, at Bristol, 260 ; Stand Wool-test for colour-blindness, 288,
Edge, England, 261; on Thul Ghât! 536.
On
INDEX
565
Works, Public, of India :-
delta, 192; Periar, 201-203 ; in
Agricultural works, 215 12 ; of Bom the Punjab, 136-145; minor in-
bay Presidency, 1890-91, 532, 533; undation canals of the Punjab, 142;
of Madras Presidency, 1890-91, between Ravi and Beas rivers, 138;
530, 533 ; of Province of Scinde, of Scinde and Bombay, 204-215;
531, 533.
of Scinde Province, 1889-90, 531,
Harbour works proposed construc 533 ; at Srivaikuntham, 192, 193.
tion of docks at Diamond Harbour, Navigation works, major and minor,
Calcutta, 519; landing stage con 215 n. ; for which capital and
structed at Karwar, 513 ; landing revenue accounts are kept, 534 :
pier and wharfage constructed at of Bengal, 1890-91, 529, 533 ; of
Keamari, 513 ; construction of Madras Presidency, 1890-91, 530,
docks and tidal basin at Kidder 533 ; of North-West Provinces,
pore, 519, 520 ; closed harbour 528; of the Punjab, 527.
and other works constructed in Water-supply works, 18, 19; ancient
Madras roadstead, 514-518.
schemes of, all gravitation works,
Irrigation works, Calingulas, or waste 433 ; system in England, 437 ;
weirs, 123, 124 ; numerous re ancient Roman, 434, 435; con-
mains of ancient native, 129, 130 ; veyance of, to towns, 443 ; con-
major and minor, 215 12. ; for which stant and intermittent systems of,
capital and revenue accounts are 437, 438 ; designing of works for,
kept, 534 ; of Emperor Feroze 439; straining of, 442; filtering
Shah, 126; chain-system of reser of, 444 ; obtained by inundation
voirs, 122 ; early introduction of, canals, 110-113; for locomotives
107; in Bengal Presidency, general on railways, 283; construction of
results of, 180, 181; of Bengal and reservoirs for, 439-442; of towns
Central India, 169-182; in Bombay in India, 431-491 ; of Bombay,
Presidency, 116; in connection 1856-1892, 445-454; scheme for
with Ganges Canal, 147-159 ; of Delhi, 491; at Jubbulpore, 483-
Godavery delta, 189-191; in 489; of Karachi, 477-482 ; of
Guntoor district, 118; Hamirpur Lahore, 472-477 ; at Lucknow,
lake, 528 ; Jhansi lake, 528 ; 490 ; of Madras, details of, 459-
Kadva river, 1890-91, 532; in 463; Nagpur, details of, 463-471 ;
deltas of Kaveri and Kalerun rivers, for Sholapur, 455-458.
183; on Kistna delta, 191, 192; See also under Bridges, Canals,
description of : Madduk Masur Railways and Telegraph.
Tank, 118-120 ; of Madras Presi- Workshops at Madhopur, 527.
dency, 114-116, 183-203; water- | Wynaad coffee districts, 85.
tanks in Mysore and the Carnatic,
117; of North-West Provinces, ZABITHA KHAN partially restores
146, 147, 160-168; on Pennair | Eastern Jumna Canal, 146.
THE END
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Plate 3
Rangapura
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Plate 4.
269
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SHOWING COLONEL LAMBTON'S NET WORK OF TRIANGULATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
THE MERIDIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL CHAINS OF PRINCIPAL TRIANGLES,
THE BASE LINES MEASURED WITH THE COLBY APPARATUS.
THE LINES OF THE SPIRIT LEVELLING OPERATIONS,
THE ASTRONOMICAL. PENDULUM & TIDAL STATIONS,
THE LONGITUDINAL ARCS,
AND THE SECONDARY TRIANGULATION TO FIX THE PEAKS OF
THE HIMALAYAN & THE SOOLIMANI RANGES.
AND THE POSITIONS OF BANGKOK AND KANDAHAR.
Completed to 1"! October 1892.
Ika-Neobar
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Naal Station
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Longitude determina
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CEYLON
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REYERENCES
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The Longdina re are shows the
The Mbon whethe Latin A m erved woman by a * do do dokonaldo de
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68
72
769
80
84
88
92
96
Some Books on India and the East published by Archibald Constable & Co.
CONSTABLE'S .
HAND ATLAS OF INDIA
A NEW SERIES OF SIXTY MAPS AND PLANS PREPARED FROM
ORDNANCE AND OTHER SURVEYS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
J. G. BARTHLOMEW,
F.R.G.S., F.R.S.E., ETC.
In half morocco, or full bound cloth, gilt top. 145.
This Atlas is the first publication of its kind, and for tourists and travellers
generally it will be found particularly useful. There are twenty-two plans of the
principal towns of our Indian Empire, based on the most recent surveys, and
officially revised to date in India.
The Topographical Section Maps are an accurate reduction of the Survey of
India, and contain all the places described in Sir W. W. Hunter's 'Gazetteer
of India,' according to his spelling.
The Military, Railway, Telegraph, and Mission Station Maps are designed
to meet the requirements of the Military and Civil Service, also missionaries and
business men who at present have no means of obtaining the information they
require in a handy form.
* The index contains upwards of ten thousand names, and will be found more
complete than any yet attempted. on a similar scale.
Further to increase the utility of the work as a reference volume, an abstract
of the 1891 Census has been added.
Ways and Works in India
By G. W. MACGEORGE
This volume gives a concise account of the Native and European Engineer-
ing Works in India from the earliest times, with special reference to Canals,
Railways, and Bridges. Of these there are numerous illustrations taken from
photographs and from original drawings. Two Maps and an Index. Demy Svo,
about 600 pp.
The Mohammadan Dynasties
By STANLEY LANE-POOLE
Containing Chronological Tables of all the 118 Dynasties of the Mohamma-
dan Empire, from the Foundation of the Caliphate to the present day. With
brief Historical Notices of each, Pedigrees and Tables of their connexion, two
coloured Synoptic Charts showing their relative positions in History and Geo-
graphy, and an Index of all the Rulers. Crown Svo pp. xxii. and 362. Price
I2s. net.
WORKS BY J. W. M‘CRINDLE
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great
Being translations of the classical authors who describe Alexander's cam.
paigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania. With a Life
of Alexander, and numerous Maps and Illustrations. Demy Svo, cloth gilt.
18s. net.
Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes
and Arrian
With an Introduction, Notes, and a Map of Ancient India. 8vo. 55. net.
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythraean Sea
Being a Translation of the “Periplus Maris Erythraei,' and of Arrian's
Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos. Svo. 55. net.
Ancient India as Described by Ktesias the Knidian
8v0. 45. 6d. net.
Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy
With an Introduction and a Map of India according to Ptolemy. 8vo. 55. net.
The Rival Powers in Central Asia
Translated from the German of JOSEPH POPOWSKI by ARTHUR BARING
BRABANT, and edited by CHAS. E. D. BLACK. With a large Map of the
Pamir Region. Demy Svo, Map in Pocket. 125. 6d.
TYTY
The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times in India
By J. F. HEWITT. With a Map. Demy Svo.
** This work traces all forms of National Government to the primaval
Village Communities of the forest races of Southern India ; and shows how
these Southern farmers and the Northern hunting and pastoral tribes and fire-
worshipping handicraftsmen met in Asia Minor, the second cradle of the civilised
races. It derives their history up to their union, and afterwards, when they
dispersed through Europe and Asia as corn and fruit growers, from tribal and
local customs and institutions, religious and historical myths, ritualistic obser-
vances and symbols and linguistic changes, and shows the great historical
importance of local botany and zoology in indicating the story of the rise to
power and rule of the imperial races of the early world, the Kushika and
Maghadas of India and the Semite Kushites who made Assyria and Egypt the
centres of civilisation.
The Original Inhabitants of India
By GUSTAV OPPERT, PH.D., Professor of Sanscrit in the
University of Madras.
*,* The main object of the work is to prove from existing sources that the
original inhabitants of India, with the exception of a small minority of foreign
immigrants, belong all to one and the same race, branches of which are spread
over the Continents of Europe and Asia, and which is also known as Finnish-
Ugrian or Turanian. Demy Svo, cloth, 20s. A few copies on large paper, £2.
Burma a Hundred Years Ago
As described by FATHER SANGERMANO. Edited with Notes and Introduc-
tion by the Hon. Mr. JUSTICE JARDINE. With a Map. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d.
A Monograph on the Coins of the Hindu States
of Rajputana
By SURGEON-CAPTAIN W. W. WEBB.
With twelve Plates and a Map in colours showing the Mint towns in Rajpu-
tana. Royal Svo, cloth gilt, 16s. net.
"The drawings are well reproduced, and are admirably illustrative of the book.'--Saturday
Review.
So far as we know, this is the first book that has been published about the coins of the
Native Ştales in India.'-Academy.
Dr. Wilfrid Webb has written a scholarly and admirably illustrated monograph.'—Speaker.
-.-
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