Hazaribagh District (1918)

Hazaribagh District Gazetteer, by E. Lister, Government Printing Press, Patna (1918).

Made available by the Internet Archive.
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/hazaribagh00list
Source: Selected and edited with comments by R Sivaramakrishnan. Posted to IRFCA on: December 1, 2008.

The original Hazaribagh district was part of the Southwest Frontier Agency (subsequently named the Chota Nagpur Division) that was administered as a non-regulation province by the Lt. Governor of Bihar and included much of the present Jharkhand state as well as parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal. This essentially hilly district has since 1991 been trifurcated into Hazaribagh, Chatra and Koderma districts, all now in Jharkhand. Even today, the railway passes through only the southern fringe of the district, far from the district headquarters, Hazaribagh.

There is just less than a page in the Gazetteer on the railways in this district.

p.145:

"There are at present (1910) three railway lines in the district, of which the oldest is the branch from Madhupur on the Chord line to Giridih. This was made in 1871, simultaneously with the Chord line, for the sake of the railway's colliery at Giridih. Prior to 1871 the rail-head since 1856 bad been at Barakar on the Grand Trunk Road- Giridih remained the railway station for Hazaribagh for no less than 36 years ; and it was not till February 1907 that the Grand Chord Line was opened for traffic. As the headquarters station is 72 miles from Giridih, the journey, which was ordinarily made in push-pushes was very trying, in spite of two excellent provincial roads, of which the first connected that station with the Grand Trunk Road at Bagodar, and the second connected Dumri on the Grand Trunk Road with Giridih. The latter road was without a bridge at the Barakar river, and the crossing is dangerous when the river is in flood.

The Grand Chord Railway enters the district near Nlmia Ghat (station, close by Parasnath, and leaves it west of Gajhandi by a rather severe pass from the lower plateau to the Gaya plains. The total length in the district is about 60 miles.

There are two important stations, at Hazaribngh Road and Kodarma, each of which is connected with Hazaribagh by metalled roads and they are about equally distant from the district headquarters. Hazaribngh Road is, however, the station ordinarily used, as it is considerably nearer Calcutta, whither both goods and passengers ordinarily proceed, Kodarma is the station for Chatra, from which town a considerable traffic is received.

The third railway runs from Mahuda in Manbhum to Bermo, at the Bokaro Colliery of the joint E. I. and B. N. Railways. Its future extension will depend on the precise determination of the position and value of the coal beds in the Bokaro and Karanpura fields. A reconnaisance survey was made some 20 years ago as far as the Daltonganj line in Palamau.

The question of connecting the town of Hazaribagh with the Grand Chord Railway has received attention, and the routes to Kodarma and Hazaribagh Road have been surveyed, but for financial reasons the project has been temporarily shelved."

"Temporarily"? Since 1910?

Something is moving at last, after nearly a century: See,

http://wikimapia.org/6787444/HAZARIBAGH-RAILWAY-STATION-PROPOSED

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=23.8720368&lon=85.3335652&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2

but the proposed Koderma - Hazaribagh line has been objected to on ecological concerns:

http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/takeaction/detailcampaign.php?cid=19

The original source material used on this page is believed to be out of copyright, and/or these extracts are believed to be fall within the scope of fair use under copyright law. Material selection and editing by R Sivaramakrishnan, 2008.