Meghalaya fell off Rly map in 1897

Even as Deputy Chief Minister Mukul Sangma talked about the state Government’s plan to link Meghalaya with Assam through railway

Even as Deputy Chief Minister Mukul Sangma talked about the state Government’s plan to link Meghalaya with Assam through railway, little is it known that the state had railway connectivity some 121 years ago.

In Meghalaya where roadways is the only lifeline, villagers in Tharia, a hamlet near Cherrapunjee, experienced their first train ride to Companyganj in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) on June 16, 1886. Covering a distance of 7.5 miles, the Cherra Companyganj State Railways (CCSR) connected Companyganj and Cherra with a railway line.

Though the state Government had floated a proposal for railway connectivity in the 1990s, it was shelved as the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) opposed bringing railways to the Meghalaya-Assam border saying it would result in influx of outsiders.

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The site of The Indian Railways Fans Club (IRFC) that chronicles history of India Railways devotes just three lines to it. The Northeast Frontier (NF) Railways, however, has maintained some records that show that the CCSR earned Rs 4,734 in its first year of service and the amount went up to Rs 7,490 in 1890. The total cost for laying the track was Rs 8 lakh and was incurred by the erstwhile provincial Government of Assam.

However, efforts to extend the CCSR up to Cherrapunjee failed due to the gradient of the land and was later abandoned.

The Cherra Companyganj State Railways continued to run between Tharia and Companyganj till the great Shillong earthquake of 1897 in which the tracks were completely destroyed. The British government, however, never tried to restore the track.

Today, the only reminder of this railway line is the tracks that are being used as lamp posts in Sohbar village in Cherrapunjee and the railway bridges near the Tharia village that are covered by moss and thick shrubs.

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