Parlakimedi Light Railway
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Parlakimedi Light Railway (PLR) was a narrow gauge railway line between Naupada and Gunupur in states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.[1]
History
Paralakhemedi Light Railway was established by Gajpati Rajas of Paralakhemundi, the erstwhile Rajas of Paralakhemedi. The Raja of Paralakhemedi decided to connect his capital with Naupada, which was only 40 km away. With the then British Government giving sanction in 1898, work began in full earnest. The line was opened to traffic in 1900. This railway line was built at a cost of Rs 7 lakh. The operations of the PLR was taken over by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway (BNR) in 1902. In the first few years, the PLR had incurred losses but after 1910, it started making marginal profits and after 1924-25, the profits increased. This motivated the Raja to extend the line to Gunupur in two phases in 1929 and 1931. The standard type of locomotive on PLR was the 20 ton 0-6-4 tank locomotive with small (27 inch diameter) coupled wheels and an axle load of only 4.75 tons. During the SER centenary celebrations in 1987, set of four postage stamps were released. One of the stamps featured the PL 691 locomotive.
Conversion to broad gauge
The line was finally closed for gauge conversion on June 9, 2004. After conversion to broad gauge the Gunpur-Paralakhemundi-Naupada rail line was opened to public and from August 21,2011 [2]