Borghat
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Borghat
Pass across the Western Ghats in Poona District, Bom- bay, 40 miles south-east of Bombay, and about the same distance north- west of Poona, situated in 18° 47' N, and 73° 21' E. The summit is 1,831 feet above the level at its base, or 2,027 feet above the sea. The south-east line of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway here climbs the Ghats from the Konkan to the Deccan. The average gradient is I in 48. The total length of tunnelling is 2,535 yards. There are 8 viaducts, varying from 52 to 168 yards in length, and from 45 to 139 feet in height. The total quantity of cuttings was 1,623,102 cubic yards, and of embankments 1,849,934 cubic yards. The maximum height of the embankments is 74 feet. There are 18 bridges of various spans from 7 to 30 feet, and 58 culverts of from 2 to 6 feet span. The estimated cost of the work was 60 lakhs, or an average of 4 lakhs per mile. It was completed in February, 1861, within five years from the date of its commencement.
In former times the Borghat was considered the key of the Deccan. In 1804 General Wellesley gave Bombay greater facilities of access to the Deccan by making the Borghat practicable for artillery, and con- structed a good road from the top of the ghat to Poona. A good carriage road up the ghat was not, however, completed until 1830, when it was opened by Sir John Malcolm, then Governor of Bombay. ' On the loth of November, 1830,' he wrote, ' I opened the Borghat, which, though not quite completed, was sufficiently advanced to enable me to drive down with a party of gentlemen in several carriages. It is impossible for me to give a correct idea of this splendid work, which may be said to break down the wall between the Konkan and the Deccan.
It will give facility to commerce, be of the greatest con- venience to troops and travellers, and lessen the expense of European and other articles to all who reside in the Deccan.' Thirty years after- wards another Governor of Bombay, Sir Bartle Frere, at the opening of the Borghat railway incline, which reaches by one long lift of 15-2 miles the height of 1,831 feet, recalled Sir John Malcolm's words and said : ' When I first saw the ghat some years later, we were very proud in Bombay of our mail-cart to Poona, the first, and at that time, I believe, the only one running in India ; but it was some years later before the road was generally used for wheeled carriages. I remember that we met hardly a single cart between Khandala and Poona ; long droves of pack-bullocks had still exclusive possession of the road, and probably more carts now pass up and down the ghat in a week than were then to be seen on it in a whole year. But the days of mail and bullock-carts, as well as of pack-bullocks, are now drawing to a close.' Bullock-carts, however, still continue to do a fair business in spite of the completion of the railway.
