[Railways in British India.] Printed account of ‘Proceedings at the Fortieth Ordinary General Meeting of the Proprietors in the Bengal-Nagpur Railway Company, Limited, [...] Sir Samuel Hoare, Bart., in the Chair’.

The Bengal Nagpur Railway Company was formed in 1887 and continued until 1952, when it merged with the East Indian Railway Company to form the Eastern Railway. The present item is 4pp, 4to. Bifolium. Printed in small type, in double column. In good condition, lightly aged, with one central vertical fold. Excessively scarce: no other copy traced, either on WorldCat, JISC, or ViaLibri.. The business of the meeting includes ‘receiving the Directors’ Report and Audited Statements of Accounts and Balance Sheet to 30th June, 1906, and the Auditors’ Report thereon’. The chairman Sir Samuel Hoare gives details of ‘new lines now under construction’: ‘On the Gondia-Chanda line the portion from Gondia to Nagbeer and from Nagbeer to Nagpur, a distance of 157 miles, is almost complete, and platelaying is about to commence. Earthwork has recently been started on the Nagbeer-Chanda section, length of 66 miles. It is hoped that a considerable portion of the line will be opened for traffic by March, 1908. / The work on the Purulia-Ranchi line is well advanced, [...] The construction work on the first 50 miles from Vizianagram of the Rajpur-Vizianagram line’. Other topics include ‘the ghats on the Neinpur-Bilaspur Line’, revenue, working expenses, gross earnings, the ‘increase in coaching traffic’, the ‘recent opening by the Viceroy, on 6th December, of the Grand Chord Line of the East Indian Railway’, the ‘increase in first and second-class passenger traffic’, goods traffic, the price of coal, new machinery. Hoare’s ‘long and interesting speech’ is responded to by Martin Wood.