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TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS |
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RAILWAYS
Miraj-Kolhapur railway.
The meter gauge railway line between Miraj and
Kolhapur was opened for traffic on 21st April 1891. This line, about
30 miles long, belonged to the Kolhapur Durbar, but was managed by
the ex-Southern Mahratta Railway. On account of the merger of the
State in the Indian Union and the nationalisation and regrouping of
the railways, this railway line is now part of the Southern Railway.
It runs south-west from Miraj to Kolhapur. The
following are the stations with their distance, in miles, from
Miraj:-
|
Jaisingpur |
8 |
|
Nimshirgaon-Khalsa |
-- |
|
Hatkanangale |
17 |
|
Rukadi |
21 |
|
Kolhapur |
30 |
The main items of export from the district are
jaggery and sugar. Moreover during the rainy season when country
craft cannot ply, the railhead at Kolhapur serves admirably for
passenger as well as for goods traffic between Ratnagiri and Bombay.
The following table gives the number of passengers
and tons of goods booked at each station during 1953-54:-
TABLE No. 10.
NUMBER OF PASSENGERS
BOOKED AND TONNAGE OF GOODS CLEARED FOR THE YEAR 1953-54.
|
Name of the Station. |
Number of passengers booked. |
Tonnage of goods cleared (principal commodities).
|
|
Coal and Coke. |
Cotton. |
Dyes and Tans. |
Grains and Pulses. |
Hides, skins and leather. |
Ground-nuts. |
Metals and manga-nese. |
|
Raw. |
Manufac-tured. |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
Jaisingpur |
2,84,999 |
-- |
-- |
59 |
-- |
1,265 |
-- |
2 |
126 |
|
Hatkanangale |
1,94,488 |
-- |
-- |
906 |
-- |
6.471 |
-- |
5 |
102 |
|
Rukadi |
1,50,893 |
-- |
-- |
10 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
44,679 |
9 |
|
Kolhapur |
5,21,935 |
1.034 |
1.071 |
10,444 |
3,391 |
17,400 |
9,575 |
55,469 |
7,077 |
|
Kolhapur Town B.O. |
43,069 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
TABLE No.
10-contd.
|
Name of the Station. |
Tonnage of goods clearned (principal
commodities). |
|
Provi-sions. |
Oils. |
Oil Seeds. |
Spices. |
Sugar. |
Wood (unwrought). |
Other commo-dities. |
Total. |
|
1 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
10 |
17 |
18 |
|
Jaisingpur |
25 |
73 |
-- |
35 |
18 |
213 |
32,244 |
34,060 |
|
Hatkanangale |
-- |
66 |
109 |
-- |
34,851 |
-- |
6,734 |
49,244 |
|
Rukadi |
-- |
103 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
805 |
45,606 |
|
Kolhapur |
583 |
2,956 |
105 |
147 |
5,11,276 |
10 |
53,649 |
6,74,187 |
|
Kolhapur Town B.O. |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
It will be seen from the table that the largest
number of passengers were booked from Kolhapur; next comes
Jaisingpur. As regards the total tonnage of goods booked during the
same year, the first place goes to Kolhapur and the second to
Hatkanangale. Of the total tons of goods booked on this section,
sugar forms the largest proportion viz., 67.4 per cent.
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