Porbandar State Railway was a

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

in the

Porbandar State Porbandar State was a princely state during the British Raj ruled by Jethwa dynasty. It was one of the few princely states with a coastline.It was a first class Princely State with 13 Gun Slaute, standing fourth in rank among the Principalit ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, 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 List of states and union territories ...

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 s ...

. Later railways were further developed by

Bhavsinhji Madhavsinhji Maharaja Rana Shri Bhavsinhji Madhavsinhji Sahib Bahadur (26 December 1867 – 10 December 1908) was the Maharaja of Porbandar belonging to Jethwa dynasty, who ascended the throne of princely state of Porbandar on 15 September 1900 and ruled ...

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 o ...

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 Saurashtra Railway came into being in April, 1948 with the amalgamation of state railways like Bhavnagar State Railway, Gondal Railway, Porbandar Railway, Jamnagar & Dwarka Railway, Morvi Railway, Dhrangadhra Railway, Okhamandal State Rai ...

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 , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

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