Indus Steam Flotilla

Indus Steam Flotilla
Industry Freight and passenger transportation
Founded 1858
Defunct 1870
Headquarters Kotri, Sindh
Area served
 Indus River and Chenab River

The Indus Steam Flotilla was a freight and passenger steamship company operating during the British Raj initially between Karachi and Multan and later on between Kotri and Multan after the completion of the Karachi-Kotri Railway Line, between 1858 to 1870.[1]

History

The Indus Steam Flotilla provided "the navigation of the Indus, &c, by means of steam vessels [sic], between Kotri and Multan, to be worked in connection with the railways." It came to ply the Indus River and Chenab River all the way from Karachi Port in the south to Makhad in the north, via Jhirk and Mithankot. The journey between Karachi and Multan (Mooltan) alone used to take up to 40 days. The company had its headquarters at Kotri. Its promoters negotiated the same guaranteed rate of return as the original guaranteed railways. It later merged with the Scinde Railway and Punjab Railway to form the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway company. The Scinde Railway had been formed in 1855 and in 1861 succeeded in connecting Karachi to Kotri, a distance of 108 miles. Once this railway was in place, the steamers of the Indus Flotilla could take cargo from Kotri instead of Karachi, saving themselves about 150 miles of circuitous wending through the Indus River delta. The railway, however, bypassed Jhirk/Jherruk completely, reducing its importance. In 1856 the charter of the Scinde Railway was expanded to include the construction of Punjab Railway to connect Multan to Lahore and Amritsar.

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Money Market and City Intelligence", The Times, Wednesday, 15 June 1859, #23333, 7a
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.