Mari Indus railway station is located in Mari Indus, Pakistan. It was opened in 1918. Wikipedia
Address: Mari Indus, Mianwali, Punjab
Opened: 1918
Preceding station Mari Indus railway station Following station Daud Khel Junction Line Daud Khel–Lakki Marwat Branch Line Kalabagh
The famous Trans-Indus Railway line was constructed by the British in 1913 to provide safe and quicker transport to their military personnel beyond the natural boundary of River Indus and deep inside the unpredictable terrain of the formidable Pakhtuns. Initially owned by the North Western Railway (NWR) of Britain, it was locally known as the Mari Indus Railway and its initial run from Daud Khel in Mianwali district, Punjab till Lakki Marwat in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 92 kilometres. It was the first-ever narrow-gauge track — two feet and six inches — in the region.
This “chhoti rail” [small rail] as it was called, started from the outskirts of a big military depot near Mari Indus Station and halted at Lakki Marwat Junction and was soon extended up to the important garrison towns of Bannu and Tank.
This engineering spectacle was, however, unceremoniously done away with by Pakistan Railways in 1995. Many whistle-blowing steam locomotives had negotiated its curved lines for 82 years. These aesthetically beautiful engines were either manufactured at Glasgow or in Germany and were meticulously maintained by the railway engineers for almost a century.
Many youngsters today don’t know as to why the British laid such extensive railway lines in far-flung areas of the Subcontinent and, that too, at a time when even common bitumen roads were nonexistent in this area. The colonial masters of undivided India not only had grand ambitions to expand their empire deep into the Afghan territories, but also wanted to stem a constant threat from the north-western tribesmen. So, they used their technological superiority in putting together ambitious railway projects to connect their frontier strongholds via rail to safer military hubs in the mainland.
