There is one railway line in Maharashtra that is still under a British company and not the Indian government.
Information:
The Indian Railways has grown leaps and bounds over the last few decades, adding various rail lines along with trains.
Indian railway is also proud of running one of the biggest railroad systems in the world. However, there is one little-known railway line in Maharashtra that is still under a British company and not the Indian government.
The Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR), which ran throughout Central India during the colonial period, operated trains on this track. Surprisingly, this specific route was ignored when the railways was nationalised after independence in 1952. The foreign company that installed the rails in the 19th century still owns them.
And, to add to your more surprise, India still pays the Britishers around 1 crore for operating trains here.
In 1910, Killick-Nixon, a private British company is responsible for Shakuntala Railways inauguration.
Till today, Shakuntala Railways operates only one round trip per day on narrow gauge routes. Presently, the 190 km journey by railway between Yavatmal and Achalpur in the Amravati district takes approximately 20 hours.
For the underprivileged people commuting between these two villages in Maharashtra, the train act as a lifeline, costing only Rs 150. A ZD-steam engine manufactured in Manchester in 1921 powered the train.
Developed in Manchester in 1921, Shakuntala Railways was became functional on 1923. Over 70 years, it has been running.
On April 15, 1994, a diesel motor was installed to replace the original engine. The Central Province Railway Company (CPRC) was established as the result of the company’s joint endeavour with the British colonial administration in India.
In earlier days, the reason behind this narrow gauge railway was to transport cotton from Yavatmal to Mumbai (then Bombay), where it was then shipped to Manchester. The railway was eventually used to transport people also.
