Bibek Debroy: Feroze Gandhi and the Ajmer workshop

A significant titbit about the railways finds mention in Bertil Falk's biography of the politician

Bertil Falk has recently published (Roli Books) a biography of Feroze Gandhi. In fairness, I shouldn’t call it a biography. Falk calls it a personal narrative, since there are too many missing bits for a proper biography to be attempted. In this book, I found a titbit about the railways. In 1957, the deputy minister of railways, Shahnawaz Khan, admitted in Parliament that purchasing boilers and locomotives from TELCO was more expensive than buying them from other manufacturers, domestic or foreign.  “Between 1896 and 1950, the Ajmer Locomotive Works had manufactured 450 locomotives. Feroze shared with the House that in 1930, the cost per ton of an imported locomotive was Rs 1,170 as compared to only Rs 1,000 for locomotives produced by the Ajmer workshop. But in 1950, the government closed the Ajmer workshop and began heaping considerable sums into TELCO.” This is what Falk writes. Subsequently, there was a skirmish in Parliament between the railway minister, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Gandhi. The railway minister claimed Ajmer workshop was closed in 1940, not 1950. Gandhi claimed the railway’s own records showed it had been closed in 1950, not 1940. The Speaker added the information that Ajmer workshop produced 12 locomotives during World War II.

I don’t understand why there should have been a controversy. The history of the Ajmer workshop goes back to Rajputana Malwa Railway and its predecessor, Rajputana State Railway. There were metre gauge lines from Delhi to Ajmer and lines to Indore, Ahmedabad and Jodhpur. Eventually, in 1900, this network became part of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (BBCI). In 1876/1877, Rajputana Malwa Railway established a workshop in Ajmer for manufacture of steam locomotives, carriages and wagons. The first indigenous locomotive, as opposed to imported ones, was built in 1895 by Ajmer Workshop (now part of North Western Railway). (This is the standard claim, though parts may still have been assembled.) It was the metre gauge F1-734, “F” signifying mixed traffic. But in its heyday, the Ajmer workshop built several different classes of locomotives, including those with larger wheels for faster express trains. It is a pity that not too many of the steam locomotives built there survive. There is a 1924 one, on a pedestal in the DRM’s office in Bikaner. There are three (1895, 1923, 1924) at the National Railway Museum. In case you didn’t know, the museum doesn’t keep more than one of the same type of locomotive, or other kind of rolling stock or exhibit. Of the three, two are metre gauge and the third has a gauge of one feet and three inches. Of the four Ajmer locomotives, only one has a name. One of the two metre gauge ones in the Museum is named “Duchess of York”.

On February 27, 1947, the Transport Member introduced the Railway Budget and stated: “The Ajmer workshops of the B B & C I Railway have continued to manufacture locomotives so far as their capacity permitted. The first batch of 10 XT/I class locomotives was completed last February and handed over to the North Western Railway. Work on another batch of 10 is now in hand and an order for 58 YB passenger locomotives was placed on these shops last August. The boilers for the latter will be manufactured in Tata’s Singhbhum shops.” Subsequently, the chief commissioner of railways, presented the Railway Budget for 1947-48 in the Council of State and stated: “For many years the Ajmer workshops of the B B & C I Railway have manufactured locomotives in a small way. One batch of 10 XT/1 class locomotives was completed in February 1946, and are now in service on the North Western Railway. Work on another batch of the same class is now in hand, and another order for metre gauge locomotives has recently been placed on these workshops, the boilers for which will be manufactured in the TELCO works at Singhbhum. It has, however, been decided that the continued manufacture of locomotives at Ajmer is uneconomical. There is no room to expand the manufacturing capacity economically or the existing repair capacity to the extent necessary to meet the needs of the Railway.” As I said, there was no reason for any controversy. Ajmer Workshop couldn’t have been closed in 1940. Remember, it used to manufacture metre gauge locomotives. Closure may also be the wrong word to use.

Ajmer Workshop, under North Western Railway now, is actually a cluster of workshops and the diesel locomotive and wagon workshop is one of these. For instance, there is a separate carriage workshop. Other than carriages and wagons, in 1876/77, it was set up to manufacture and repair steam locomotives, metre gauge, not broad gauge.  Between 1896 and 1949, it produced 467 steam locomotives and 20 of these were broad gauge. Workshops also do repairs and periodic overhaul. That’s what the Ajmer workshop does now — no manufacture, but repairs and periodic overhaul. With repairs and periodic overhaul of steam locomotives having stopped in 1995, there was a switch to diesel alone, explaining the change in nomenclature. For instance, for maintenance Palace on Wheels goes to the Ajmer Workshop. Don’t get the wrong impression, though. The diesel locomotive and wagon workshop, as it is today, does few locomotives, even for repairs and periodic overhaul. It’s mostly about wagons and DEMUs. At a pinch, I would guess no more than 50 diesel locomotives for overhaul a year.

The writer is a member of the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog. The views are personal