Shahabad District (1906)

"Shahabad" by L. S. S. O'Malley, I. C. S., in Bengal District Gazetteers Series, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta (1906)

Made available by the Internet Archive.
Link: http://www.archive.org/details/shahabadbylssoma00omal
Source: Library of the University of California, San Diego Selected and edited with comments by R Sivaramakrishnan. Posted to IRFCA on: August 19, 2008.

Shahabad was a district in the Patna Division of Bengal up to 1912 when it went to Bihar on the latter's formation as a separate province; the old Shahabad district was bifurcated in 1972 into Bhojpur (or Arrah) and Rohtas district, which latter was bifurcated in 1991 into Rohtas (or Sasaram) and Bhabua (or Kaimur) districts.

There is not much about the railways:

[p. 98]

Shahabad is well provided with means of communication by roads, railways, rivers and canals. The Ganges bounds it on the north, the main line of the East Indian Railway runs along its northern boundary for 60 miles, and the Mughalsarai-Gaya line crosses the southern portion......

[p. 100]

Shahabad is fairly well served by railways. The main line of the East Indian Railway runs through the north of the district, which it enters at Koelwar, where a fine lattice-girder bridge has been built across the Son. This great work was commenced for a single line of rails in 1855, and after many interruptions during the Mutiny, was completed in 1862 ; the second line was begun in 1868, and finished in 1870. The total length of the bridge from back to back of the abutments is 4,199 feet, divided among 28 spans of 150 feet each. Underneath each line of rail is a sub-way for foot-passengers and beasts of burden. The line as far as Benares was completed in 1862, and in 1869 the large importations of grain it brought into the district saved it from famine.

The south of the district is tapped by the Mughalsarai Gaya line, opened in 1900, running from Dehri-on-Son to the Karimnasa, with a total length in this district of 53 miles. It Is carried over the Son by one of the longest bridges in the world, which was constructed in three years at a cost of 35 lakhs ; the total length is 10,044 feet, and it comprises 93 spans of 108 feet each.