Berhampur: Naupada-Paralakhemundi gauge line of ‘Parlakimidi Light Railway’ (PLR), the first privately managed Railway in Odisha connected by the Maharaja of ‘Parlakimedi’ Goura Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, marked a significant milestone as it celebrated 125 years of its existence on April 1, 2025.

The first train was flagged off on Naupada-Paralakhemundi gauge line on April 1, 1900 after the East Coast Railway brought a rail line to Naupada in 1894. With the government giving its sanction in 1898, work began in full swing and this railway line was completed at a cost of Rs 7 lakh.

To commemorate this momentous occasion, the Waltair Division of Railways organised a special meeting jointly with Naupada-Paralakhemundi-Gunupur Rail Users’ Group at Paralakhemundi railway station on Tuesday. The Rail Users’ Group donated a huge photograph of Maharaja Goura Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, considered as the ‘Father of Odisha Railways,’ and his visionary son Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb, who extended the PLR line from Paralakhemundi to Gunupur in two phases in 1929 and 1931. This 4X6 feet vibrant photograph is a blend of historical insights and has been placed in the station building to enlighten the public.

Senior officers of the Railways including K Pavan Kumar, Senior DCM II of Waltair Division; A Venketeswara Rao, APO; J B Kiro, ACM III, and B V S Murty, ADEN Srikakulam, who participated as guests, described the traffic in the PLR narrow gauge line as a milestone in India. “Paralakhemundi was the first railway station and Naupada-Paralakhemundi is the first railway line of Odisha”, they said. It was announced through the public address system on the platform.

An essay, debate and painting competition on PLR was organised by the Railways in which more than 100 school students from Satya Narayan Rajguru UP School, Saraswati Sishu Mandir andAurobindo Purnanga Sikhya Kendra of Paralakhemundi participated. A leaflet depicting the history of PLR was provided to all the train passengers who bought tickets for different destinations at Paralakhemundi railway station.

Bishnu Mohan Adhikari of Naupada-Paralakhemundi-Gunupur Rail Users’ Group suggested preserving the heritage of PLR, setting up an Art Gallery at Paralakhemundi railway station based on PLR and giving a vintage look to the old heritage station building.

The PLR has played a pivotal role in shaping the rail network. The working of the PLR was taken over by Bengal-Nagpur-Railway (BNR) in 1902. In the first few years, the PLR had incurred losses but after 1910, it started making marginal profits and after 1924-25, the profits increased. This motivated Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deb to extend the line to Gunupur in two phases in 1929 and 1931.

The management of BNR was taken over by the government of India in October 1944. On April 14, 1952, at the time of the re-grouping of the Indian Railways, it became part of Eastern Railway.

The merger of BNR with Eastern Railway, however, did not last long and on August 1, 1955 it was merged with newly constituted Southeastern Railway.

Diesel took over from steam on April 23, 1992. Railways decided to introduce a rail bus service in this section. The buses reached Naupada but were never used by the then government which had decided in favour of broad-gauge conversion though surveys were undertaken for broad gauge conversion in 1950, 1964 and again in 1967.

Bowing to public demand, the foundation stone was finally laid for Naupada-Gunupur gauge conversion work at Naupada on September 27, 2002. With effect from April 1, 2003 PLR became a part of the newly formed East Coast Railway. The line was finally closed for gauge conversion on June 9, 2004.

After conversion to broad gauge, the Gunupur-Paralakhemundi-Naupada rail line was opened to the public after 7 years from August 21, 2011 with a regular train starting from Gunupur to Puri via Paralakhemundi.