East Indian Railway: 1906 History of the EIR - Chapter XXV
Note: This is a sub-section of the East Indian Railway
The History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston. Published 1906 by Tracker, Spins and Co
CHAPTER XXV. VARIOUS PROJECTS FOR DEALING WITH THE EXPORT COAL TRADE AND OTHER MATTERS.
MENTION has been made of a scheme to provide coal jetties and loading appliances at a point on the River Hooghly adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. The locality was considered eminently suitable and convenient for the purpose and the approach to it, from the vicinity of Bally Station, a short distance above Howrah, could, at the time it was mooted, have been constructed without interfering with valuable property, so that the expense was not likely to be unusually great. There was therefore some reason to hope that the Government would sanction the work, which, in the words of General Sir Richard Strachey, would "supply the coal owners of Bengal, the means of giving to the export trade a development commensurate with the almost inexhaustible supplies of the mineral which is within their reach and which it will be the endeavour of the undertaking to carry to the place of shipment at the lowest possible cost."
It was far from the object of the East Indian Railway, either in connection with this scheme, or other proposals put forward to assist the trade of Calcutta, to obtain any exclusive advantage for the Company, or to go in any way beyond the proper functions of a railway which, according to Sir Richard Strachey's policy, were "to extend to the utmost the means of transport for the commercial community generally, and to support, within the sphere of their legitimate action, all efforts made with this object, however they may originate." The scheme, if it had been adopted, would have assisted all railways bringing coal into Calcutta for export, but unfortunately differences of opinion arose as to the expediency of carrying out the proposal, and the idea was abandoned.
Later on another scheme was put forward, which may in fact be said to have been the revival, in another form, of a very old project. Colonel Gardiner, the Company's Agent in Calcutta, recommended the construction of a subsidiary port on the Mutlah River, at a place called Port Canning, to which a line of rail had already been constructed, and where it was thought that the export coal traffic could better be dealt with than at the Kidderpore Docks, which, it will be remembered, were originally intended for the export of grain and seeds but not of coal.
Surveys were made, and it was then found that the Mutlah had ceased to be a river in the ordinary sense of the term; it had in fact become a tidal estuary or arm of the sea, with a very deteriorated channel, difficult to navigate. The conclusion come to was that the idea of establishing a coal export depot at such a place failed to offer any prospects of success. This scheme also was abandoned.
Time went on, and the great growth of the coal export trade proved how necessary it was to afford some relief to the pressure on the resources of the docks. The Bengal-Nagpur Railway had not only gained access to the Jherriah field, but had extended their line via Midnapur to a point on the right bank of the Hooghly opposite Calcutta, immediately below the East Indian Railway Station of Howrah. Here they had established a wagon ferry, to get into direct communication with the Kidderpore Docks; in other words, a wagon loaded at any station on their system could be passed by their own route to the Kidderpore Docks without break of bulk. They also had access to the docks via Asansol and the Jubilee Bridge at Hooghly, but neither of these routes gave them all they wanted. They appeared to desire to wrest from the East Indian Railway the bulk of the coal export trade, by constructing a line to a point on the Hooghly some miles below Calcutta, where they proposed to establish docks, provided with mechanical loading appliances and to divert the coal export trade to this point. The place where it was proposed to place this coal export depot was known as Luff Point, but in the opinion of those best acquainted with the river it was not possible to take ships in and out of docks at Luff Point with any degree of safety or without obstructing the navigation of the river. The Government, however, appointed a Commission to consider the scheme which involved many issues, as, for instance, the ability of the Kidderpore Docks to deal with the trade; the possible expansion of the coal export business of the port in the future; the cost of constructing new docks and the difficulties of dealing with coal exports at a place distant from Calcutta, to which only one railway would have the means of approach.
The Commission met in Calcutta in the cold season of 1900-1 and went very fully into the subject, with the result that the scheme, as put forward by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, was not accepted. Public opinion in Calcutta was divided, but in the main it was opposed to the idea. The "Englishman," in common with other papers, published articles and correspondence containing different views. The first of these, being a fair sample of the feeling at the time, is partly reproduced, and it will be noted that the policy suggested in this article is the solution ultimately come to, viz., equal rates, by both the East Indian and Bengal-Nagpur Railways, from the Jherriah coalfield to Calcutta.
"The Luff Point Scheme is likely to develop into one of the most momentous economic problems ever placed before the Calcutta public, and it is well that its true issue and effect on the trade of the port be considered, before the Commission, which will shortly sit, begins to take evidence. A little more than two years have passed since the Government decided to give the Bengal-Nagpur Railway access to the Jherriah coalfields. The coal trade had pressed for the admission of this line, because it was felt that there would then arise a competition between the East Indian and Bengal-Nagpur Railways, and that as a result the freight on coal would be reduced, and beyond this it was thought that collieries would be put in a more favourable position in regard to wagon supply. The actual effect has been that the advent of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway has opened out a large additional area of supply, and this has helped materially to bring down the sale price of coal; whether colliery proprietors have really benefited is an open question, but at any rate they have attained their object. In giving the Bengal-Nagpur Railway access to the Jherriah field, the Government laid down as a principle that the collieries in the field, wherever situated, might call for the wagons of whichever of the two railways they desired, to consign their coal by, and the railways decided that rates should be equal by both routes.
Recently the Government held that neither of the two railways, competing for the traffic under these conditions, should be allowed to go below the prescribed minimum rate of nth pie per maund per mile, and consequent on this decision the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, which, in some instances, had gone below the minimum, in order to equalize charges with the shorter route, via the East Indian Railway, enhanced its rates to the public, not as might have been expected to the minimum allowed, but in some cases to a great deal beyond. The effect has temporarily been to put the Bengal-Nagpur Railway out of competition for the carriage of the export trade, but we cannot think that the Government intended that this should be the sequence of their decision, and undoubtedly the position is capable of a simple solution, which neither the East Indian nor Bengal-Nagpur Railways could object to. And we should say that a solution is possible which would also be acceptable to the trade, who cannot expect more than that both railways should be placed on equal terms for their custom, and that, as a consequence, freight to Calcutta should not be higher, from any point by the longer route, than it is by the shorter.
We hold in fact that the position prior to the recent ruling of Government was a satisfactory one, both to the railways and to the trade. Now if this is accepted, the question to consider is, what the result would be if the Luff Point Scheme was adopted and the export trade was taken from the Kidderpur Docks to Luff Point. First of all we may assume that the Government would be bound to give the East Indian Railway access to Luff Point, on the same terms as the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. In other words, the East Indian Railway would be empowered to run coal to Luff Point at the same rate of freight as the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, and, so far as can be seen, over the same route as the Bengal-Nagpur Railway for most of the way. Were this not so, or, in other words, were the East Indian Railway put out of competition for the carriage of export coal, the trade would revert to much the same position as before the Bengal-Nagpur Railway was admitted to the Jherriah coal-field, that is to say, coal owners would again become dependent upon one line of railway for the carriage of their coal instead of two. Does the trade consider that they would be any better served by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway alone than they were previously served by the East Indian Railway alone? The Chairman of the Indian Mining Association proved beyond question, at a recent meeting, that the Kidderpur Docks were capable of dealing with any likely expansion of the coal trade for many years to come, and that Luff Point was not wanted. Why then saddle the port with costly facilities which are not required and which in the end the public must pay for?
Luff Point is not wanted; what is wanted is already available, viz., two railways between the coal-fields and the port of Calcutta. Beyond this, equal rates and facilities should be given by both railways, and no more money should be wasted on additional lines or docks; in saying this we include the costly Bankura-Bishenpur Chord Line Scheme. The accident that one railway happens to have a somewhat shorter route than the other should not, in a case of this kind, be allowed to influence the question of rates, so long as the percentage of difference in mileage is only nominal; and where the interests of both railways are identical with those of the trade, we may be confident that in no case would they charge anything beyond the lowest possible freight. If, however, one railway ran to Luff Point and the other to the docks and both charged, as they undoubtedly would, equal rates to either place, the trade would go to the point from which shipping charges were lowest, and in this case either Luff Point or the docks would be bound to become a white elephant, with which the port of Calcutta would be eternally saddled."
To go back a few years earlier than the Luff Point controversy. In 1898, in order to relieve the pressure on the East Indian Railway below Burdwan, where, whenever traffic was at all brisk, there was constant congestion, the Company proposed to construct a short chord to Howrah. The route was surveyed, but before sanctioning construction the Government appointed a Committee to consider its necessity This Committee sat in 1901, Mr. James Douglas, the Agent, representing the Railway Company, the rest of the Committee being composed of Public Works officers, the majority of whom were opposed to the scheme. Besides considering the measures necessary for the relief of congestion of traffic on the lower section of the East Indian Railway the Committee also dealt with the following questions:—
1) The entrance of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway into the Jherriah coal-fields.
(2) The provision of an independent access to Calcutta from the North-Western Provinces.
As a result the short chord line proposed by the East Indian Railway was abandoned, and the Bengal-Nagpur Railway were allowed into Jherriah.
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