The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-01 00:00:00

CONSTRUCTION of RAILWAYS in _INDIA.

The following report of the select committee
appointed to inquire into the causes that have led
to the delay in the construction of railways in India,
has just been issued :
" Your committee have taken evidence from many of the
best authorities on the subject, viz., gentlemen connected
with the Indian Government at home, officers of high stand-
ing and long experience of public works in India, as well as
managing directors, secretaries, and engineers belonging to
the different railway companies.
" There are seven distinct companies at present engaged
in constructing lines of railway in India, under the guaran-
tee of the Indian Government, viz. :
"1. The East Indian Railway Company engaged to con-
struct a line from Calcutta via Raimahal and Alla-
hahad, to Delhi or Meerut, with a branch from Mir-
zapoor, to meet the East Indian Peninsula line at
Jubbulpoor.
"2. The Great Indian Peninsula Company, from Bom-
bay in a north-easterly direction to Jubbulpoor, and
in a south-easterly direction, via Poonah and Sito-
lahpore, to meet the Madras line in the neighbour-
hood of Bellary.
"3. The Madras Railway Company, from Madras via
Cuddapab to Bellary, to join the line from Bombay,
and in a western direction to the Malabar coast, at
er near Beypoor.
" 4. The Bombay and Baroda Company, from Bombay
via Surat, to Baroda and Ahmedabad.
" 5. The Scinde and Punjaub Railway Company, from
Kurrachee to Kotree on the Indus, and from Moultan
to Lahore in the Punjaub, with a connection by steam
navigation between Kotree and Moultan.
"6. The Eastern Bengal Company, from Calcutta to
Dacca, with a branch to Jessore.
"7. The Great Southern of India Company from Salem
via Trichinopoly to Negapatam, and southward to
Madura and Tinnevelly.
"The first Indian railway project was broached in the

latter end of 1844 by Mr. M'Denald Stephenson, who sub-
mitted to the India House a scheme for a line from Calcutta
to the north-west of India, based upon minute information
and statistics collected by himself on the spot; and, almost
simultaneously, Mr. Chapman submitted a scheme for a
railway frem Bambay towards the interior; a company was
also formed in 1845 for the construction of a railway from
3Tr•lr-s tc

" The delays attendant upon railway construction in
India may be classified under four distinct heads:—
" I. Delays arising from Government supervision at home
and in India.
" 2. Delays incidental to the execution of extensive and
complicated public works under novel circumstances
in a distant country.
"3. Delays produced by political causes, suck as insur-
rection and mutiny,
"4. Delays arising from the natural difficulties which
the face of the country presents.

"Your committee will proceed to notice each class of
delay in the order thus given, but it is necessary before
doing so to describe shortly the system of railway construc-
tion pursued in India. Indian railways are constructed by
companies formed in this country, and incorporated by Acts
of Parliament. In all their proceedings, operations, and
expenditure they are subjected to the control of the Govern-
ment, who engage to grant for 99 years all the land re-
quired, free of expense, to the companies, and to guarantee
interest, generally at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, for
the same term, upon the capital employed.
" The following conditions are attached to the guarantee
and the granting of the land :
" The railway company have the power of surrendering
the works at any time after the line is opened, upon
giving six months' notice to the Government, and
the East India Company undertake to pay the whole
amount that has been expended by the railway com-
pany.
"The East India Company have the power, within six
months after the expiration of 25 or 50 years, of pur-
chasing the railway at the mean market value in London
of the shares during the three previous years. Incase
the railway company fail to complete the line or to
work it satMactorily, the Government is entitled to
take possession, and repay within six months the
sums expended.
" The railway company to repay the guaranteed inte-
rests from the profits of the railway."
" The supervision of the Government over the proceedings
of the railway companies is of two distinct kinds, viz., that
exercised in the person of the official director over the rail-
way boards in London, and that exercised by consulting
engineers in India, to whom is committed the charge of
superintending on behalf of Government all railway opera-
tions in that country.

" SUPERVISION AT HOME.—The duties of official di-
rector at the various railway boards have hitherto been per-
formed by the same person, and he has, under the terms of
the contract, a power of veto over all the proceedings of the
board, but it does not appear that this power has ever been
exercised; indeed, until a comparatively recent period, his
functions appear to have been confined to giving information
to the Court of Directors upon points on which they might
require it, and to co-operating in the promotion of the
various undertakings ; but authority has been lately given
to him to sanction all indents (or requisitions) for stores and
materials approved by the local Governments in India, and
the acceptance of tenders for the supply of the same.
" Previous to this important extension of the powers of
the official director, every indent was submitted for the
direct sanction of the home authorities, by a process thus
described by Sir James Melva!, the official director The
indent came from the railway authorities in India to the
railway board in this conntry ; the railway board then came
to their decision upon it; and if they proposed to comply
with it, they stint a resolution to that effect to the Court of
Directors; the Court of Directors came to an opinion upon
it, and their opinion was submitted for the concurrence of
the Board of Control, and when the indent was returned
with the opinion of both authorities, the decision was com-
municated to the railway board.' Such a system necessarily
entailed a very considerable amount of delay and corre-
spondence, and the best results may be anticipated from the
judicious changes lately effected in this respect.
" The process of forwarding instructions from the railway
boards to their agents in India also seem to your committee
to require improvement. Sir James Melvin thus describes
it :---‘ The railway board prepares a draft of the instructions
to its agent in India, and every such draft, without excep-
tion, is submitted to the Court of Directors; the court, ex-
pressing an opinion upon it, submit it to the Board of
Control, and when both authorities are agreed, the letter is
returned to the railway board, with an intimation that the
Court of Directors offers no objection to it.' Considerable
delays have not unfrequently resulted from this cause; and
though it is, no doubt, important that instructions to their
agents in India ehould go out backed by the whole weight
and authority of the approval of the Home Government,
your committee would confidently expect that the contem-
plated consolidation of the departments of the India House
and the Board of Control will materially expedite the future
transaction of railway business. Before leaving this branch
of the subject, your committee would remark that the har-
mony which has prevailed at the railway board seems to be
in no small degree attributable to the j'idgment and discre-
tion exercised on all occasions by the official director, and
to the respect shown to his opinion.
"SUPERVISION IN INDIA.— Under the terms of the
contract the Government have an almost unlimited power
of control over the acts and operations of the railway com-
panies, the inspection and supervision of the works being
in every case delegated to a military engineer, whose duty,
as described by Col. Baker, is, in the first instance, to ex-
amine the line of country over which it is proposed to con-
struct a railway, to examine all the designs and estimates,
to audit all expenditure, to report upon completed works,
and to maintain a real check over all the acts of railway
officers.

" Your committee hesitate to express any opinion as to
the policy of employing military men in the inspection of
railway works anti the control of civil engineers, but it is
quite clear that to ensure cordial co-operation no small
amount of forbearance and discretion must be exercised on
both sides. Too minute an interference in details, while
unnecessary for practical economy, involves constant con-
troversy, lengthy correspondence, and consequent delay,
besides engendering irritation and discord where friendly
and united action ought to subsist. Your committee are de-
cidedly of opinion that to ensure the speedy and efficient
completion of railways in India the utmost freedom of
action ought to be allowed to the efforts of the different
companies, consistent with the control necessary to protect
from endue expenditure the Indian Exchequer, upon which
the payment of the guaranteed interest must for some time
remain a heavy charge.

—"Complaints of too minute an interference on the part
of the Government consulting engineer have been strongly
urged from the Madras Presidency, for the further details
of which your committee would refer to the evidence,
which complaints appear to be in part well founded ; on
the other hand, your committee cannot think that the
proceedings of the chief engineer of the railway company
have been wholly free from blame. Directions have
been sent out from the Home Authorities to the Madras
Government to relax the extent of supervision in force
there ; but it does not appear in evidence that those
instructions have as yet taken effect. Your committee,
however, have had no opportunity of hearing an explana-
tion from the Madras Government on the subject.
" Other complaints, but in a minor degree, have arisen,
both in Bengal and Bombay, though in the latter Presi-
dency the relations between the Government and the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway officials appear to have been, for
the must part, of a harmonious and cTti,factc.ry character.
d,l , ji., idental to the construction of railways
in so distant a country as India are of various kinds and
degrees of magnitude. The cost and means of obtaining
freight must always be regulated, and, in the opinion of
many competent authorities, actually limited by the home
demand for Indian produce ; hence the transport across
the sea of the vast mass of dead weight] neceisary for
the construction of thousands of miles of iron way, besides
locomotives, iron work for bridges, and other materials,
forms a cause of delay second only in importance to the
difficulties which impede the conveyance of these ma-
terials up the country, where the means of internal
communication are in many places very imperfect,
where river navigation during the dry season is ilable to