Porbandar State Railway was a

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

in the Porbandar State in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

during the 19th century.

History

The Porbandar State Railway was owned by the State of Porbandar, which was then ruled by

Vikramatji Khimojiraj Maharaja RanaShri Vikramatji Khimojiraj Sahib (1 April 1819 – 21 April 1900) was the ruler of Princely State of Porbandar belonging to Jethwa Rajput dynasty. He was born at the Darbargadh, Porbandar in 1819 as Bhojirajji and was the only so ...

. Later railways were further developed by

Bhavsinhji Madhavsinhji Maharaja Rana (title), Rana Shri Bhavsinhji Madhavsinhji Sahib Maharaja Bahadur, Bahadur (26 December 1867 – 10 December 1908) was the Maharaja of Porbandar belonging to Jethwa dynasty, who ascended the throne of Porbandar State, princely sta ...

and

Natwarsinhji Bhavsinhji Lieutenant-Colonel Maharaja Rana Shri Sir Natwarsinhji Bhavsinhji Sahib Bahadur, KCSI (30 June 1901 – 4 October 1979) was the last Maharaja of Porbandar belonging to Jethwa dynasty, who ascended the throne of princely state of Porbandar on ...

under their rules. It worked initially with Bhavnagar–Gondal–Junagad–Porbandar Railway until 1911. It was opened to traffic in 1888. Later, from 1919, it worked with Gondal Railway. The Porbandar rail line was extended to Jamjodhpur in 1922, at which time the line was 42 miles long. After that it merged with Saurashtra Railway in April 1948.

Classification

It was labeled as a Class III railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926.

Conversion to broad gauge

The railway lines were converted to

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 ...

in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porbandar State Railway Transport in Porbandar Metre gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India History of rail transport in Gujarat