Mymensingh District (1917)

Mymensingh District Gazetteer, Vol. 1, by Sir F. A. Sachse, I.C.S., Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta, 1917

Made available by the Internet Archive.
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/mymensing01sach
Source: Library of the University of California, San Diego Edited by R Sivaramakrishnan. Posted to IRFCA on: October 8, 2008.

Mymensingh, a district of Bengal during the British era, went to East Pakistan during the Partition in 1947 and is now in Bangladesh. Due to the nature of the land, riven by the Jamuna and its distributaries, the railways were frequently interrupted by ferry crossings. So there is less than a page concerned with the railways, the remaining seven pages under 'communications' being devoted to roads and ferries:

p. 92 et seq.

...... The opening of the Dacca-Mymensingh Railway in 1884 and its extension to Jagannathganj on the Jamuna was of tremendous value in opening out the Sadar and Jamalpur subdivisions. Another branch from Singhjani (Jamalpur) to Bahadurabad, where a steamer ferry crosses the Brahmaputra to Fulchari was opened in 1913. It has already accelerated communications with Calcutta, Darjeeling and Assam. The new line is exceedingly popular with the up-country coolies, who spend the cold weather in Dacca and Mymensingh and return to plough their own fields at the beginning of the rains. Another line in connection with the Assam-Bengal Railway is under construction through Bhairab Bazar, Kishorganj, Iswarganj and Gauripur to Mymensingh ; from Gauripur a line will run to Shamganj, and from Shamganj there will be two branches to Netrakona and Jaria respectively. It is possible that the Jaria line will be extended to Dargapur and the Netrakona line to Mohanganj. This railway will be of great advantage to the northern subdivision, which has no river communication with Mymensingh and has fewer outlets for its jute by country boat than Tangail or Kishorganj.

Not less than three separate surveys have been made for lines between Tangail and Mymensingh direct, or by joining up Tangail and Bausi, or Tangail and Jamalpur. The railway will be expensive to make, as any alignment must cross stretch after stretch of aman paddy lands, which are five or six feet under water in the rains. When the broad gauge line is opened from Ishwardi to Serajganj, an attempt will be made to extend it to Mymensingh, but there is great difficulty in finding a suitable high bank for the steamer ferry on the Mymensingh side anywhere south of Pingna. At present travellers from Mymensingh to Tangail usually go by train to Jagannathganj, steamer to Porabari, and then 12 miles by country boat, bicycle or horse. The chars are broken by shifting channels which must be negotiated in different ways at every season of the year, and a permanent bridged road is impossible...

The 1954 AMS topographic map of Mymensingh can be accessed at:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/india/txu-oclc-6614190-ng46-13.jpg