British Company Still Gets Royalty For Shakuntala Railway

Killick Nixon and Company, a British-owned company still gets an annual royalty of Rs 1.20 crore from the Indian Railways for running a passenger train known as the Shakuntala Express on its narrow gauge route.

Shakuntala Express runs in the remote cotton-growing area of Achalpur (formerly Ellichpur) under Amravati division, the birthplace of President Pratibha Patil.

The four hour, 189km trip from the towns of Yavatmal to Murtijapur costed Rs 22 several years back.The tracks are still owned by the British company that laid them in the nineteenth century.

It's like chugging a century back into the Edwardian era of the British Raj. The Shakuntala Express does just one return journey a day. That is all its operators, the Central Railways, can afford.

From: http://ping.fm/R6gfa