At 2 p.m. on October 8, 1874, a three-coach train pulled by a steam engine chugged out of Secunderabad Railway station and reached the military station of Trimulgherry in present-day Telangana. Exactly 150 years ago, the train had covered a grand distance of six kilometres. The same station proved to be a lifeline at the height of COVID-19 pandemic when five oxygen tanks were loaded and despatched to Odisha.
“The two Nizam-era facilities — Begumpet Airport and the military siding — were used by the Army to bring much-needed oxygen to Telangana and the surrounding States. It gave the breath of life to thousands when, Sanathnagar siding, and the Begumpet airport were used to transport it,” says Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage convenor Anuradha Reddy, when asked about the role of railways in Hyderabad. The railway project was finance by the Nizam’s administration and executed by the British government.
Now 150 years later, just off the Gough Road in the Secunderabad Cantonment area is an asbestos and tin gabled-roof structure with No. 1 marked on it. Called a military siding, it is used by the Army to transport men and material. “We know this is an old railway station, nothing more. Nothing of that era remains. All this is new infrastructure. The track, the signalling, the shunting yard — everything is of a much later period. Perhaps the platform is old,” says Victor, a long-time railway employee.
But the train that travelled six kilometres on a cold October Thursday launched a revolution that transformed and integrated a princely kingdom into colonial British empire. The train connected Hyderabad to Wadi on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), covering a distance of 185 km.
On the three-coach train were some 70 persons with the co-regents Sir Salar Jung and Shams ul Umara among the noblemen who travelled from Secunderabad to Trimulgherry. The noblemen played a key role in planning and executing the project, as the Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, was an eight-year-old child. Once the train reached Trimulgherry, a royal salute was fired by a battery of the Royal Artillery. This train then travelled back to Hussainsagar Junction where coaches brought from Bombay and Madras on the GIPR line were attached. Then, this 40-coach train reached Hyderabad station at 4 p.m. Here, the royal salute was fired by the Nizam’s Artillery.
Public Gardens, from which 35 acres were parcelled out for the Hyderabad Station, hosted a state banquet, with tents and food for the guests in the garden.
But the after-party continued for three days with elephant processions, firecrackers and open-air parties. “The Resident, accompanied by the guests, mounted on 27 elephants, were escorted through the city to the Nizam’s palace. A grand dinner was given on the 10th by the Nizam’s uncle, and splendid fireworks followed,” a news report of the day states.
The party did not end well. A rocket mortar burst, and three Indians were killed and five others were injured with wounds requiring amputation. Major Bell, Judicial Commissioner of Berar, was among the wounded. “One native’s head was blown clean off. Captain Dobbs and some ladies escaped miraculously,” reported a newspaper about the ill-fated party. But the railways played a key role in transforming Hyderabad even though it reached the kingdom 21 years after the first train steamed out of Bori Bunder to Thane in 1853.
Published – October 08, 2024 12:57 am IST
