A story of two buildings

Both Baroda House, headquarters of Northern Railways, and Rail Bhavan, headquarters of Indian Railways, were acquired through adverse possession, indelicately referred to as squatter's rights

There has to be more than one connection between Maharaja of Gaekwad and railways. After all, the then Maharaja (Khanderao) made Baroda the first Princely State to start railways, though initially, in 1862, this narrow gauge line (between Dabhoi and Miyagam Karjan, a distance of 20 miles) had trains pulled by oxen. Eventually, steam locomotives were introduced in 1873 and this led to the evolution of Baroda State Railway and later, Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway. Baroda state merged with India through an accession agreement signed in March 1949. All Baroda state’s property did not automatically become property of