Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/324

 BENGAL.

314 This

commenced

as a private enterprise in April 1879, was length of 49 miles in July 1881. During half-year’s working, the line returned a profit of receipts over line,

hill

completed throughout its first

its

expenditure of ^^6737, equal to interest at 4'2g per cent, on its capital, and exceeding the Government guaranteed rate. (5) The Kaunia-Dharla and Mughal Hdt Railway consists of local extensions of the Northern Bengal State Railway from Parbatipur to Dhubri in Goalpara District of Assam, and to a village on the Kuch Behar road. (6) The Tirhut State Railway, on the metre gauge, extends from Barh on the main line of the East Indian Railway to the right bank of the Ganges, which is crossed by a ferry, and the line continues northwards to Darbhangah, with a branch stretching north-westwards to Muzaffarpur. Length open in 1881-82, 85 miles; gross receipts, ;^6i,2i5 expenditure, ^35,155 net surplus, ^26,060, or 4'65 per cent, on the capital expended. (7) The Patna and Gayd State Railway is a broad;



gauge line, running south to Gaya town, a distance of 57 miles. Gross earnings in 1881-82, ^54,819 ; expenditure, ^^34,241, leaving a net surplus of ^^20,578, equal to an interest of 5'34 per cent, on the capital. (8) The Nalhati State Railway, a four-foot gauge line, runs from the Nalhati Station on the loop line of the East Indian for 27 miles to Azimganj. It yielded in 1881-82 a surplus of ;^i28o, or a return of 3^84 The railway works, which were under construcper cent, on its capital. tion at the end of 1881-82, but which have been completed since that year, are

—

(i)

An

extension of the Calcutta and South-Eastern State

Diamond Harbour on the Hugh, 28J Extensions of the Muzaffarpur Branch of the Tirhut State

Railway, from Champdhati to miles.

(2)

Railway to Bettia and Pipra-ghdt, 102 miles. (3) Extension of the Northern Bengal State Railway to Dinajpur, 20 miles. (4) Small branch railway from Baidyandth, on the East Indian chord line, to Deogarh, a celebrated place of Jain pilgrimage, 6 miles. (5) Bengal Central Railway to Jessore and Khulna, 129 miles (just opened, February 1884).

An

extension of the Tirhut Railway

struction to Simuria, opposite

Mokama.

is

under con-

Besides the lines enumerated

above, there were 6 other separate lines, or extensions of existing

lines,

which were under survey at the end of 1881-82, and 11 other projected When the system lines were under the consideration of Government. is complete, the over-peopled Districts of Bengal will be brought into speedy and cheap communication with the uninhabited or sparsely populated tracts of Assam on the one side and of the

The

fertile

Chhatisin

the

Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal at present open (March 1884) be taken at between 1600 and 1700 miles.

may

garh

plateau

Among

on the

other.

other projects in hand

is

total

length

of

railways

the construction of a railway bridge

across the Hugh', connecting the East Indian Railway with the Eastern