MAYURBHANJ or Mourbhanj was founded by a Rajput Chief in the seventh century. The family title ‘Bhanja’ or breaker was assumed after the overthrow of a chieftain named Mayur or Mour. The state was a prosperous one in the past. It came under the British influence with the conquest of Orissa in 1803 and in 1829; a treaty engagement was entered into between the British and the Raja. The principal town and Headquarters of the State is Baripada.
Mayurbhanj State Railway was owned by the Mayurbhanj State. The line was constructed by the Government from funds supplied by the Mayurbhanj State. The Bengal Nagpur Railway Company effected the construction. The line takes off from Rupsa on the BNR’s coastal line. Its first section 32.5 mile long Rupsa to Baripada was opened for traffic on 20.01.1905.
By an agreement dated 2nd December 1918, between the Mayurbhanj State and the ‘Mayurbhanj Railway Company’, the Company was authorised to construct an extension Baripada-Talband, 38.25 mile long. This section was opened on 15.07.1920. From that date the Company also acquired the Rupsa-Baripada section. The Company managed this line through the managing agents, Hoare Miller & Co., of Calcutta who in turn worked this line through Bengal Nagpur Railway. This line was taken over by the Government of India from 1st April 1950.
Mayurbhanj State Railway and Parlakimedi Light Railway standardised their locos and chose a 20 ton 0-6-4 T design. Mayurbhanj engines were designated as ‘ML’ class. These locos were later transferred to Naupada and heavier ‘CC’ class locos of Satpura lines worked Rupsa-Bangriposi section till 1990s. The loco shed was at Baripada and homed 6 ‘CC’ and 2 ‘ZE’ classes of locomotives in 1987. Trains are now worked by diesel locomotives borrowed from Satpura lines.
Though not connected in any way with the Mayurbhanj State Railway, a small mine tramway in the neighbouring area of Mayurbhanj needs mention here. To quote from Edward Harran’s writing of 1910:
"It is permissible to make what might almost be termed a political observation, it might be said that the Balasore-Nilgiri Light Railway is one of the best examples of efficient and well directed Swadeshism that India can boast of. Messrs. K. M. Dey & Co., a wealthy Bengali firm of Calcutta, being proprietors of extensive granite quarries at Nilgiri in Orissa, found that the great demand that has arisen for the stone necessitated a large increase in their staff of miners to enable them to meet it, but with the primitive means then at their disposal it was impossible to transport this increased output to the nearest point of the railway sufficiently quickly.
The firm therefore, decided to construct a short 2’6" gauge railway from the mines to Balasore Station on the Bengal Nagpur Railway, a distance of some 13 miles through a country that is largely flat. For the present the only commodity transported is granite, but it is probable that sanction will be sought in time to the carriage of passengers and general goods traffic, while the line itself may yet be extended over the hills, to which it now runs, into the heart of Orissa, a project involving this being under consideration. It is a concern with a future before it and an energetic management should make it the financial success it certainly deserves to be".
Messrs. Orenstein and Arthur Koppel supplied locomotives for this line. The line also possessed a beautiful saloon built by Messrs. Burn & Co. at their Howrah Workshops. "The saloon 15 ft. 9 in. long, 6 ft. 4 in. wide and 6 ft. high inside is divided into two compartments, the saloon proper and a servants room. The former is upholstered in dark green pantasote, the floor being covered with green linoleum to match".
Shri C.K. Jafer Sharif, Hon’ble Minister of Railways laid the foundation stone for gauge conversion of Rupsa-Bangriposi line. The publicity brochure mentions:
"With this gauge conversion and consequent removal of bottlenecks and increase in traffic density, the two tribal and agrarian belts will witness a spurt in economic and commercial activities. They have remained during the better part of the century, under-developed though rich in natural resources. The Rupsa-Bangriposi line, which was declared, as an uneconomic branch line would now prove to be a lifeline for the thousands of migrant, alienated poor flocking to the cities and commercial centres away from their roots in search of livelihood.
Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts at whose heart sacred rivers of Subarnarekha and Budhabalang flow and which with their varied flora and fauna, temples and monuments are the treasure houses for tourists and connoisseurs of history and archaeology, will now have a prideful place among the community of the Orissa districts."