The Western Railway will open a Heritage Park of narrow gauge trains at central Gujarat’s Dabhoi on Wednesday. The park will have a detailed display of the archive and the history of the heritage. The park has been developed at a cost of Rs. 3 lakh and it is spread in 1500 sq ft area.

Dabhoi is one of the few places in India where Narrow guage railway track is still in existence and also operational. Before 150 years, during then Gaekwad rule, Dabhoi was the first Narrow gauge railway junction from where 42 trains were operated in six sections( Dabhoi-Timba, Dabhoi-Miyagam Karjan, Dabhoi-Moti Kormal connecting Pratapnagar, Jambusar, Chhota Udaipur, Tanakhla, Chandod).

Though some railway tracks connecting Dabhoi railway station are converted into Broad guage, the tracks to Chandod and Miyagam are still narrow gauge, even today. The Dabhoi- Miyagam line is the oldest two-and-a-half feet gauge railway track in the world, which is still operational.

For digging into its glorious history, the Western Railways tied up with the M S University’s Departments of History, Architecture and and Museology.

Dabhoi was an important market area then and the narrow gauge helped expedite business. The farmers used to export cotton to Mumbai where the textile industry was booming in that period.

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