1 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
2 REVIEW BYSECTIONS: mally large in consequence of the high price of Sambhar salt
3 PACHBADRA, during those years,
4 During both of the past two years the salt carried by the
5 Jodhpur-Bikanir Railway was all consigned to the Bikanir
6 State. A refund of half of the duty on this salt was made to
7 the Bikanir Durbar under existing arrangements. There was
8 an increase of only a few maunds inthis trade during the past
9 year,
10 The traffic with the Bombay, Baroda and Central India
11 Railway was confined to the amalgamated Rajputéna-Malwa
12 line. The part of the line over which Pachbadra salt was
13 carried extended from Erinpura on the main line, up to Ajmere
14 and from Ajmere down the Ajmere-Khandwa section as far as
15 Indore. There was animprovement in the traffic of maunds
16 57,915 during the year under report, The increase was well
17 distributed. Out of 25 stations, 14 took more salt than during
18 1895-96. Beawar imported maunds 57,760 against maunds
19 44,240 in 1895-96; Bhilwara maunds 10,320 against maunds
20 6,627; Neemuch maunds 70,455 against maunds 40,805 ; Indore
21 maunds 11,732 against maunds 7,937; and there was an
22 increase of maunds 6,182 on the Chitorgarh-Udaipur Branch.
23 There was little difference in the traffic of the past two
24 nde on the Indian Midland Railway, maunds 1,68,598 having
25 een-carried during 1896-97 compared with maunds 1,69,807
26 in 1895-96, or a decline of maunds 1,209 only. The trade with
27 the line was fairly well maintained. The trade with Bhopal
28 fell off by maunds 5,317; but the imports into Guna were better
29 by maunds 3,600.
30 On the Great Indian Peninsula Railway the traffic decreased.
31 by maunds 2,043 during the past year compared with that of
32 the year previous. There were transactions with four stations
33 during the two years—Semri, Piparia, Gadarwara, and Sohag-
34 pur, all in the Central Provinces. The decline in the traflic
35 occurred at the Piparia station.
36 During the past two years the trade with the Bengal and
37 North-Western, the East Indian and the North-Western
38 Railways was insignificant. During 1895-96 maunds 370 were
39 sent to the Naipalganj road and Nanpara stations of the Bengal
40 and North-Western Railway in the Bahraich district of Oudh,
41 and maunds 532 to Etawah on the East Indian line in the
42 North-Western Provinces; and during the past year maunds
43 190 were sent to Meerut on the North-Western Railway.
44 Apparently these were all trial consignments.
45 The steadiness of the through traffic trade of this Source
46 during a year of drought and difficulty like the past is a matter
47 for satisfaction. Pachbadra is unfortunately situated, as
48 though it has been tapped by the Jodhpur-Bikanir Railway,
49 yet its salt has to be carried a distance of 104 miles before it
50 reaches the main line of the Rajputéna-Malwa Railway. In
51 consequence of this the freight upon it hecomes heavy by the
52 time it reaches its areas of consumption, which are all far
53 distant from it, and it is thus placed at a disadvantage in its
54 competition with Baragara and Sambhar salts. Jt is satisfac-
55 tory that the trade was steady during the past year, as the salt
56 is of superior quality and the Source is of great value in connec-
57 tion with the salt supply of Upper India,
58 ( 48 )