THE TRAIN TO SHILLONG

SOHBAR (CHERRAPUNJEE) INDIA – For the first time, on June 16, 1886, people from this quaint hill-station, undertook a memorable journey aboard one of the most romantic Mountain Railways of the World – the Cherra Companyganj State Railways (CCSR.)

CCSR was a contemporary to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), which opened for traffic in 1881. DHR is now inscribed on the World Heritage list.

The CCSR after opening for traffic chugged over gurgling streams and through thick forests, for at least 10 years. Passengers and goods were ferried to and fro between Tharia – a sleepy hamlet near Cherrapunjee – and Companyganj (now in Bangladesh) during those sojourns. The distance of this journey was 7.5 miles.

CSSR at the end of its first year of service in 1887, chugged away to earn Rs. 4,734. It doggedly toiled on to increase its earnings to Rs. 17,490 by 1890, thus reducing its total loss to about Rs 2000!

CSSR’s main objective was to connect Sylhet province with Cherrapunjee a distance of 15 odd miles and later Sylhet with Shillong.

The total cost of building this romantic mountain railway project covering a total distance of 15 miles was just about 8 lakh – about the price of a mid-segment car these days!

There were three sections to the CCSR. Tharia to Companyganj was the first section. The second section, from Tharia to Mawsmai covered a distance of about 5 miles. The third lag was from Mawsmai to Cherrapunjee, a distance of about 4 miles, atop the Shillong plateau.

Building of the second section proved the most arduous. It was a treacherous climb of 3,616 feet from Tharia to Mawsmai through the heart of thick jungle and over babbling waterfalls.

Although the Tharia to Companyganj section was opened for the public, the work to connect Tharai to Mawsmai was completed only by November 1887.

But, owing to the difficult inclines of the second section, attempts to run carriages failed. The numbers of derailment were far greater then successful runs. Builders did try to realign the lines and futilely tried for months to run carriages.

At last, after much hesitation, the provincial government of Assam inked the closure of CCSR in 1891. It did however allow the Tharia to Companyganj section to run.
But, the Earthquake of 1897 had other plans and destroyed this section too consigning the CCSR, also called the Cherrapunjee Mountain Railways, to the pages of history.