The Eastern Bengal Railway Company was formed to give accommodation to the densely populated and prolific districts lying north and east of Calcutta. Its length is 114 miles; but in August, 1865, it was determined to extend the line forty-five miles farther, to Goalundo, at the confluence of the Bramapootra and the Ganges, with the view of intercepting the traffic from Assam, Bhotan, and the more distant north-eastern countries.
The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway Company was established in 1857 for the construction of a line, twenty-nine miles long, in a south-eastern direction, to a town and harbour which it was determined to establish on the Mutlah estuary, the object being to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Hooghly. The necessary wharves and jetties required at “Canning Town” have been constructed; but unfortunately, just as the traffic was beginning to make progress, the bed of the river shifted, in consequence, it is supposed, of certain operations on the shore close by, and it was partly carried away. The “Port Canning Company,” which has already expended £600,000 at the place, is re-establishing the jetty. A new town is now gradually rising at the place; “so that,” says Mr. Juland Danvers, “when the dangers and difficulties of its infancy are passed, the whole scheme of establishing a port on the Mutlah will be in a more promising condition. Upon the whole, we may look with hope, if not with confidence, to the future.”[98] The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway exhibits a deficit in its revenue accounts.
The Great Southern of India Railway was constituted in 1857, its objects being to construct railways in the southern provinces of India. The line runs from the east coast of the Great Indian Continent, by Tanjore to Trichinopoly, through a country extensively cultivated with rice and cotton crops. Seventy-nine miles were opened in 1862. An extension of eighty-seven miles has been since authorised, by which a junction will be effected with the Madras Railway at Errode.
With the exception of the Indus Valley and the Rajpootana Railways, all the lines above enumerated are entitled to the payment of interest from the Government of India, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, on all capital, the expenditure of which is duly sanctioned by the Government. At the close of 1865, the number of miles thus guaranteed was 4,944, and the amount of the guarantee would be about £81,000,000, when all lines are completed. This year, the guarantee has been extended to 700 more miles, making the total now sanctioned for guarantee 5,644 miles, and the total capital £88,000,000. By means of it, the Indian Branch Railway undertakes to construct a system of railways through Oude and Rohilcund, with branches to various places on the East Indian Railway. These districts are populous, and highly productive, and have obtained the name of the Garden of India. There are no engineering difficulties on the lines, and very few works of great magnitude, except some bridges over the Ganges, which will have to be made, if the full benefits of the lines are to be secured. The form of guarantee to the Indian Branch Railways differs in some details from the form originally adopted, but in the main the terms are the same. In the old contracts, the guarantee is given for ninety-nine years, and at the end of that period the railway lapses to the Government; but these provisions are practically annulled by the power which each company has of surrendering the railway to the Government at any time before the expiration of the ninety-ninth year (at the ninety-eight year for example), and receiving back from the Government the capital expended. In the new arrangements, no period is fixed for the termination of the guarantee, but the Government has the power of taking possession of the line after the first twenty years, or at the expiration of any ten years afterwards. If it exercise this power within a hundred years, it will have to pay a sum equivalent to the average value of the stock during the three preceding years. If the power be not exercised until after a hundred years, it then has only to pay back the capital expended. _Per contra_, the company has the power of surrendering the railway to the Government any time after the line has been opened six months. In this event, the Government is not to pay back more than the capital actually expended.