Ganga Ram’s rural tram lies in ruins
Encroachers and drug addicts infest the abandoned site of the transport system. photo: express
The district administration appears disinterested in reviving a horse-drawn tram service launched by the philanthropist Ganga Ram in 1903 in Buchiana village of Jaranwala tehsil.
The Gangapur village was named after the great architect, philanthropist and creator of the Clock Tower in Faisalabad as well as founder of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore in the 19th century.
He had designed the horse train for transporting goods and commuters from Buchiana to Ganga Pur. Rai Bahadar Ganga Ram was born in 1851 at Mangatanwala in District Sheikhupura and passed away in 1927 in London.
He was invited by the then government to prepare the plan of Ganga Pur village. Lack of transport facilities had forced people to walk between Gangapur and Buchiana.
In view of the transport problem, he laid a two feet wide rail track over two miles, on which a trolley pulled by horses made its first journey from Buchiana to Gangapur in 1903.
However, the facility was discontinued in 1993.
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A local social activist, Rao Munawar Ahmad, persuaded the then Jaranwala town Nazim Muhammad Akram to provide funds amounting to Rs5.4 million with the help of the Faisalabad district government for launching he restoration work of the service in 2009, which was completed in 2010.
The DCO of Faisalabad inaugurated the restored facility whose management was handed over to a local cooperative society, which set a Rs5 fare per passenger between the villages.
Local residents say the tram service continued for some years but its slow pace forced passengers to travel on motorcycle rickshaws, while the cooperative society could not bear the financial burden of repair and maintenance of the facility.
As the tram service was abandoned in a deteriorating condition, drug addicts got an opportunity to steal iron girders of the rail tracks and some encroachers heaped soil over it to sow crops.
A local journalist, Muhammad Abid, said the local municipality and district administration should offer subsidy to revive the historic horse-drawn train to promote tourism.
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He pointed out that it takes hardly 20 minutes to travel from Buchiana to Nankana Sahib where Sikh pilgrims visit their holy sites every year.
If the government declares the tram service a tourist spot, the visitors can bring huge revenue and the initiative would also serve as a tribute to the common hero of the communities, Ganga Ram, he added.
He said the Punjab Local Government Act of 2022 binds the municipal and district councils to undertake strategies to restore and preserve heritage and historic assets in their areas.
He suggested that the government hand over the historic transport service to the Lahore Walled City Authority for preservation of the legacy of local history.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 28th, 2023.