The Jand–Thal Railway ( ur, ) is one of several

railway lines in Pakistan This is a list of Railway lines in Pakistan. The lines and the stations are owned and operated by Pakistan Railways. Rail lines in Pakistan are divided into main lines and branch lines. Main lines Branch lines * Hyderabad–Badin Branch Line * ...

, operated and maintained by

Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways ( ur, ) is the national, state-owned railway company of Pakistan. Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of track across Pakistan, stretching from Torkham to Karachi, offering both freight and passenger servi ...

. The line originally begins from Jand Junction railway station to Kohat Cantonment station and onward to Thal station, however the line now ends at Kohat Cantonment station. The total length of this railway line is to Thal railway station and to Kohat Cantonment railway station. There are 18 railway stations from Jand Junction to Thal and 4 railway stations from Jand Junction to Kohat. In 1991, the Kohat-Thal section was made abandoned by

because it was narrow gauge.

History

The original line was a mixed gauge strategic military railway built in 1902 by the

North Western State Railway The North Western State Railway (NWR) was formed in January 1886 from the merger of the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway, the Indus Valley State Railway, the Punjab Northern State Railway, the eastern section of the Sind–Sagar Railway and the ...

. The

Khushalgarh Khushalgarh is an administrative unit known as “Union Council” of Kohat District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. District Kohat has 2 Tehsils i.e. Kohat and Lachi. Each Tehsil comprises certain numbers of Union council. Ther ...

–

Kohat Kohat ( ps, کوهاټ; ur, ) is a city that serves as the capital of the Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is regarded as a centre of the Bangash tribe of Pashtuns, who have lived in the region since the late 15th century ...

section consisted of

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

track while the

–

Thall Thall ( ps, ټل, ''Ṭəl'') is a town in Thall Tehsil of Hangu District in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is ...

section consisted of

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

track.

had been connected in 1881 by a short broad gauge spur line to Jand Junction on the North Western State Railway mainline (now called the Kotri–Attock Railway Line)."Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 107
Retrieved 9 Mar 2017 In April 1889, the ''Khushalgarh–Kohat section'' was first surveyed as a broad gauge line and in March 1901, a decision was made that no bridge would be built over the

Indus river The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

at Khushalgarh. Instead a

ropeway Ropeway may refer to: Cable transport * Cableway, or cable transport, a broad class of transport modes that have cables * Aerial lift, a means of cable transport in which cabins, cars, gondolas, or open chairs are hauled above the ground by mean ...

would be built over the river and as a consequence, the broad gauge line idea was abandoned in favour of a 762mm narrow gauge line. The line was constructed from the right bank of the Indus facing Khushalgarh to

, a distance of about and opened in May 1902 The ''Kohat-Thal extension'' of from Kohat through the

Kohat Pass Kohat Pass ( ur, ) is a mountain pass in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, between the cities of Kohat and Peshawar. The pass traverses the Khigana Mountains, which stretch from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas towards Attock. ...

up the

Miranzai Valley The Miranzai Valley, also Hangu, is a mountainous valley situated in the Kohat and Hangu districts in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It is made up of two valleys, draining from the southwest into the Kurram and northeast into the K ...

was opened in stages between March 1901 and reached Thall in April 1903."Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 128
Retrieved 9 Mar 2017 In 1903, an accident closed the ropeway over the Indus river and a boat bridge replaced it. Eventually the decision was made to construct the Khushal Garh Bridge crossing the Indus river and at the same time converting the Khushalgarh–Kohat section from narrow gauge to broad gauge. This section was reopened in 1908."Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia" compiled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. . Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry IA03 page .... In 1947, the railway line was transferred to

Pakistan Western Railways The Pakistan Western Railway ( ur, ) was one of two divisions of Pakistan Railways which operated between 1947 and 1971. The company was headquartered in Lahore.https://www.pakrail.gov.pk/AboutUs.aspx In 1971, Pakistan Western Railway renamed ...

. In June 1991, the Kohat–Thal section was abandoned. In 2017, proposals were made to rebuild the Kohat–Thal section and upgrade the Khushalgarh–Kohat section.

Stations

''Broad gauge section'' * Jand Junction * Faqir Hussain Shaheed * Tilkan (Abandoned) * Seni Gambat (Abandoned) * Babari Banda * Kohat Cantonment ''Narrow gauge section'' *

Kohat Tehsil Kohat is a tehsil located in Kohat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The population is 850,336 according to the 2017 census. See also * List of tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa In Pakistan, a tehsil is an administrative sub-division of a ...

* ''Nasrat Khel'' * ''Chikarkot'' * ''Ustarzai'' * ''Raisan'' * ''Ibrahimzai'' * ''Hangu'' * ''Doaba'' * ''Togh'' * ''Darsmand'' * ''Thal''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khushalgarh-Kohat-Thal Railway 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in Pakistan 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in Pakistan