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Journalism of Courage
For over a century, metre-gauge trains slowly chugged through Bhoyani railway station carrying thousands of passengers on their way to Ahmedabad, Sabarmati and Mehsana in Gujarat.
From 1912 till 2017, this station in Ahmedabad district served as a link between smaller towns and big cities. Eight years later, in August this year, the old station and its metre-gauge track became a part of history.
Once part of the railway network of the princely state of Baroda, at the newly rebuilt Bhoyani station, the shiny concrete platform, the broad-gauge track lined with ballast and overhead electric wires running into the distance mark the beginning of faster and heavier trains on the route.
Bhoyani station lies on the 37-km Kalol-Kadi-Katosan Road broad-gauge line, which, along with the 40-km Becharaji-Ranuj rail line, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 25.
The two lines were once part of the erstwhile princely state of Baroda.
To bring its entire network, barring some heritage lines, on a single gauge for efficient operations, the Indian Railways has been pushing for the conversion of all remaining metre-gauge tracks in former princely states to broad-gauge.
According to the 2023-24 Indian Railways year book, of its total network of 69,181 route kilometres, 66,820 route kilometres or 96.58% is made up of broad-gauge lines. The rest comprises metre-gauge lines (1.67% of the network) and narrow-gauge lines (1.73% of the network). Broad-gauge was first adopted for the main lines in India under the Railway Plan floated by Governor-General Lord Dalhousie in the 1850s.
Rail for the royals
The princely state of Baroda had a 495.67-km-long railway network that came up between 1902 and 1928. Baroda’s railway lines were meant to service the princely state and were mostly branch or feeder lines of the main Jaipur-Ahmedabad line. While Baroda owned the railway line, it was managed by the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) company, a British firm established in 1855 to build rail lines in western India.
After Independence, most of Baroda’s rail network was converted to broad gauge. But a few, including Kalol-Kadi-Katosan and Becharaji-Ranuj – the two lines that were converted to broad gauge and inaugurated by the Prime Minister in August – remained as relics of the region’s princely past, along with a few other stretches.
According to data shared by the Western Railway, until 2017 (before discontinuation of the train), nearly 15,000 passengers travelled by the metre-gauge train from Katosan station every month, earning the Railways an average revenue of Rs 2 lakh per month.
Officials said gauge conversion of these sections was important for the transportation of freight since they traverse through the industrial towns of Gandhinagar, Mahesana, Patan and Ahmedabad districts, and connect to the main line, which leads to the port city of Mumbai.
Besides the two sections that underwent gauge conversion, PM Modi had flagged off an electric train that will run on the Katosan Road-Kadi-Kalol-Sabarmati route. It’s this train that will now run in place of the popular metre-gauge train, departing from Sabarmati station at 6.45 am and reaching Katosan Road at 8.05 am, before heading back. The maximum fare from Katosan to Sabarmati has been fixed at Rs 20.
The ‘chhoti si’ train
At the station to see the new train, Kirti Bhai Patel, 68, says with a chuckle, “The history of this metre-gauge line (in Kadi) is older than even me.”
Recalling the stories he had heard from his grandfather about the first time a train rattled into Kadi town, he says, “Logon ko laga ki Mataji ka rath aaya hai (residents thought the chariot of the local deity, Bahuchara Mata, had arrived in town). For a long time, they called the train a rath (chariot). When the old train was still running, I remember buying a ticket to Kalol Junction. It cost just Rs 5 then,” says Patel, who worked at a local edible oil factory before retirement.
Nostalgia grips Shambhuji Thakur, 65, who worked as trolleyman on the Kadi-Kalol section for 24 years before his retirement, as he waits for a glimpse of the new train at Kadi station.
“Twelve pairs of trains (up and down) ran on that section when I was working. Their speed always remained below 40 km per hour. Sometimes, I would run alongside the train, tightening the bolts on the track, ensuring that nothing went wrong. Woh ekdum apni train lagati thi. Bahut chhoti si thi, dheere-dheere chalati thi, lekin ab vo itihaas hai (I used to think of it as my train. It was small and moved slowly. But now, it is a part of history),” says Thakur.
For Bhoyani village’s Dharmendra Singh, 29, the new train means cheaper travel to bigger cities like Kadi, Kalol, Mehsana and Ahmedabad for better job opportunities.
“I worked in Kadi earlier, but quit after the old train was discontinued (in August 2017). I used to pay Rs 10 for train travel to Kadi from Bhoyani but bus travel cost Rs 100 daily. The new train will be helpful for people like me, who wish to work in big cities,” says Singh, an employee at a wafer factory that’s 4 km from his village.
Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Ahmedabad Ved Prakash says the Railways is contemplating introducing direct trains to Ahmedabad and Mahesana on these two sections.
He adds, “There is a big Suzuki Motors unit in Hansalpur, near Bechraji. With bigger freight trains on the line now, the automobile traffic share of the Railways will increase. It will also help the automobile industry in speedy transportation of bulk quantities of goods over long distances.”
