Hyderabad - Imperial Gazetteer of India (1909)
"Hyderabad" by Mirza Mehdy Khan in the Provincial Series of the Imperial Gazetteer of India, Government Printing Press, Calcutta, 1909
Made available by the Internet Archive.
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/provincialseries00mirzuoft
Source: Library of the University of Toronto
Edited by R Sivaramakrishnan. Posted to IRFCA on: August 18, 2008.
On the subject of the railways in the Nizam's dominion as in 1909, it is quite dry, reading more like a catalogue:
[p. 45] Railways - General
The south-western corner of the State is crossed for 137 miles by the broad-gauge line from Bombay to Madras. About 120 miles of this line belong to the south-eastern section of the Great Indian Peninsula, while the remainder is part of the north-western branch of the Madras Railway, the junction being at Raichur. From Wadi on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway runs east to Warangal and then south-east towards Bezwada on the East Coast section of the Madras Railway. The total length of the main line is 310 miles, while two branches from Husain Sagar to Hyderabad and from Dornakal to the Singareni coalfields add 20 miles. The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway (metre gauge) runs for 391 miles north-west from Hyderabad city to Manmad on the north-eastern section of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The State thus contains 467 miles on the broad gauge, all built before 1891, and 391 miles on the narrow gauge, opened between 1899 and 1901.
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway is owned and worked by a company under a guarantee from the Hyderabad State, and the same company works the metre-gauge line, capital for which was raised by the issue of redeemable mortgage debentures.
The total capital expenditure on the Nizam's State Railway to the end of 1904 was 4.3 crores, and in that year the net earnings were nearly 28 lakhs, or about 6 1/2 per cent, on the outlay. The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway has cost 2.6 crores, and earned 7.7 lakhs net in the same year, or nearly 3 per cent.; but in 1901 and 1902 the earnings had been about 3 1/2 per cent.
[p. 110] Atraf-i-Balda District
The District is well favoured as regards railways. TheNizam's State Railway crosses it from east to west, with six stations, and the Hyderabad-Godavari Valley line starting from Hyderabad has one station within its limits. The total length of railways is about 98 miles.
[p. 127] Nizambad District
The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway traverses the Railways. District from the north-west to the south for 80 miles, with ten railway stations within its limits.
[p. 136] Medak District
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway enters Medak from the west at Gullaguda and passes out at Lingampalli in the east, a distance of 22 miles. The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway runs almost due north and south through Manoharabad, Masaipet, and Mirzapalli on the eastern border of the District.
[p. 146] Mahbubnagar District
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway passes through the south-western portion of the Makhtal taluk, with one station.
[p. 155] Nalgonda Taluk
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway traverses the Bhonglr taluk from west-south-west to east-north-east for a distance of 21 miles, with five stations in the District.
[p. 168] Warangal District
The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway traverses the District from Jangaon in the west, through Kazipett and Warangal, to Yerrupalayam in the east, a distance of 146 miles, with 17 stations within the District, besides the mineral line, 16 miles long, from Dornakal to Yellandlapad, making a total of 162 miles.
[p. 200] Aurangabad District
The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway traverses Aurangabad from west to east, for no miles, with eleven railway stations within the District.
[p. 218] Parbhani District
The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway traverses the District from east to west for a distance of 63 miles, and has 9 stations within its limits.
[p. 227] Nanded District
The Hyderabad-Godavari Valley Railway traverses the District from east to west for 40 miles, with six stations.
[p. 246] Gulbarga District
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway line enters the District at Dudneh in the west and leaves it near Wadi junction, with a length of 50 miles. The Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway, starting from Wadi junction, runs north-east and east for 115 miles.
[p. 258] Lingsugur District
The south-west corner of the District is crossed by the Southern Mahratta Railway.
[p. 264] Osmanabad District
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway line passes through a minute portion of the taluk of Tuljapur. Barsi, in the Bombay District of Sholapur, on the Barsi Light Railway, is the nearest station to the District head-quarters, from which it is 32 miles distant. There are two stations on the same line at the villages of Sendri and Uptai in the Parenda taluk.
[p. 275] Raichur District
The town of Raichur is the junction of the Great Indian Peninsula and the Madras Railways, which cross the District from north to south for 62 miles, with eight stations in the District.
There is no mention of railways under Karimnagar, Adilabad, Bhir and Bidar districts; obviously they had no railways through them as in 1909.
My interest, however, lay on the two bits of "tramways" depicted in many maps of those days, including that of Hyderabad in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909:
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/gaz_atlas_1909/pager.html?object=46
Both, 20-25 km long, one in Adilabad district and the other in Karimnagar and Warangal districts, close to rivers, obviously carried forest produce (timber?) and were closed before/during World War II. As I had stated in my message posted on 07 August 2007, I have long been wanting to learn about them, but I just could not get any information; even the present Provincial Gazetteer leaves me in the cold.