Railway Station Chaman c.1920's
Sanzala Railway Station
Quetta Chaman line Baluchistan c.1895
Courtesy : Yasir
Kan Mehtarzai Railway Station in late 1970's
Kan Mehtarzai railway station is a disused railway station located in the Balochistan . It is on Zhob Valley Railway, the former narrow-gauge line between Bostan and Zhob, 16 miles west of Muslim Bagh. At 2224 meters above sea level, it was the highest railway station in Pakistan until service was discontinued in 1986.
Kan Mehtarzai; The place in present time is just another unknown small towns and villages scattered in some of the most remotely located places in Pakistan. But in the beginning of the 20th century, Kan Mehtarzai figured out very high for the British when Chromate deposits were discovered in an area located between the Muslim Bagh and Kan Mehtarzai in the district of Kila Saifullah as far back as in 1901.
The discovery made the British to lay a railway line between Quetta and Muslimbagh (then called Hindubagh). The work on the railway line commenced in 1916 from a place called Khanai, located some 30 kilometres north of Quetta, and completed in 1921 for train traffic up to Muslim Bagh. In 1927, the Muslim Bagh to Qila Saifullah section was opened and finally the section up to Zhob was opened in 1929. The total length of the railway section was around 294 kilometres and had eleven railways stations including the Kan Mehtarzai.
The place between Kuchlag and Muslim Bagh became the highest railway station of Asia of its time, located at a height of 2,224 metres (7,295 feet). The railway station was part of the the Zhob Valley Railway (ZVR). This once the longest narrow gauge railway system of the Indian Subcontinent, served the British and the Balochistan Chrome Ore Company, which incidentally laid this railway line, well for years as it help extract millions of tons of raw chromate and subsequently ship to England through Karachi port. These mines still continue to produce some 300-500 tons of raw chromite daily, which is being exported to many countries, China being its biggest importer.
Today, the dilapidated mud plastered Kan Mehtarzai railway station is a desolate and a rather quiet place, as no longer those small narrow gauge engine hauls passenger and good bogies on this once very active railways of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. No more is there the hustle and bustle of miners, British soldiers and traders and the locals. Nor there is the aroma of typical Balochi cuisines like sajji that once may have been sold here.
The last goods train that honked its horn and halted at this one of the highest railway stations of Asia was way back in 1986, the passenger section of the train was done away with a year earlier in 1985. Thereafter, finally the days of narrow gauge came to an end due to wearing out of the narrow gauge engines and bogies. There is nothing much left of the narrow gauge railway tracks as most of it had succumbed to pilferage and theft.
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