#bahawalpur #sutlej #indus
Indus Queen I Dying Love of Bahawalpur Nawabs I Yesterday’s Royal Ship Become a Myth

Videography: Muhammad Javed, Waqas Gul
@explorepakistanbywaqasgul2776
Music: Binu Kumar, Kerala, India [Sound SFX]

In 1867, Nawab Subh Sadiq of Bahawalpur State built a magnificent ship which the Nawab family used for sightseeing in the Sutlej River that flowed between the state and the British territory of Multan.
The ship had three portions. The lowest part was where the ship's crew lived, the middle part was reserved for the Nawab family, where a bar room was also established, while the upper part, which was connected to the open yard, housed a mosque and the captain's room. A generator system was also installed for the ship. A powerful diesel engine was installed to run the ship.
When river water agreements were signed after the creation of Pakistan and the Sutlej started to decrease in water and the construction of the bridge began, the Nawab sent it to Ghazi Ghat in 1957 where this Dera Used to transport passengers between Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh.
However, in view of the rapid flow of water, Nawab Sahib presented it to the service of Khawaja Ghulam Farid, where it was used to carry devotees and other passengers between Chachadan Sharif and Kot Mithan Sharif.
Its captain was Kadir Bakhsh, who was also an employee of the highway department. when the water in the Indus River was reduced in winter and a bridge for boats was built to make a way for traffic. Due to running in the river Indus, its name was changed from Sutlej Queen to Indus Queen. Until 1998, this ship operated in the Indus River.
It was shut down and anchored away from the bridge between Rajanpur and Kotmithan, thus ending the journey of a magnificent ship that used to carry around 400 people at a time, much of its cargo was stolen. A picture of its helplessness sunk in the sand, if not taken care of, it will become a myth.

Empress Bridge
The Sutlej Bridge, which on inauguration in 1878 became the Empress Bridge was also known as the Adamwahan Bridge .

The bridge carried the Indus Valley State Railway(IVSR) broad gauge(BG) and linked Bahawalpur and Adamwahan over the Sutlej River. The bridge was opened in 1878 and completed the link between Kotri and Mooltan (Multan).

The opening of the 'Empress Bridge' completed the rail BG connection from the port of Karachi to Lahore (With the exception of the crossing of the Indus River in Upper Sind between the towns of Sukkur and Rohri. This crossing was provided by a steam ferry that transported eight wagons at a time and remained operational until the opening of the Lansdowne Bridge in 1889.)

The IVSR, which included the ‘Empress Bridge’, was merged with other railways in January 1886 to form the North Western Railway(NWR).

The ‘Empress Bridge’ was the first rail bridge to span the Sutlej River (Until the opening of the Kaisar-i-Hind Bridge some 110 miles upstream which was opened by the North Western Railway(NWR) in 1887)

The initial designs were based on using the be metre gauge(MG) and trial walls were made in 1872. Construction commenced in 1873 but in 1874 it was decided to change the entire IVSR line to 5-foot 6inches broad gauge(BG). After a small hiatus to redesign for BG the work continued and 7 more foundations were built. A contract for the Girder work had been entered into with two firms in England, who shipped the girders out to India. The violent oscillations from which the River Sutlej at Adamwahan had been comparatively free for two seasons this year the violent floods the main stream moved from the P-Q span to Q-R and scoured along the west bank. The girder work started to arrive from England to Adamwahan in December 1876. Problems with the Flotilla meant that some of the spans were re-routed via Bombay and Calcutta and transferred by rail. By March 13 spans had arrived and put into place. The bridge was completed by March 1878 and tested where there was hardly any movement as a train passed back and forward.

Supplies were carried for the Sutlej Bridge by a metre gauge(MG) and was operated by 3 MG tank locomotives and initially 10 wagons with 150 more wagons manufactured at Adamwahan. A large timber depot with steam swing machinery was also set up at Hamdi. In 1875 this was extended to 63 miles(100km) of MG tramway to the ‘Sutlej Bridge’. The line was now being operated by 5 tank engines with 70 wagons and more added as the 150 became available. When in 1876 the tramway was finished it had carried 50,000 tons of stone for the bridge, 4,600 tons of iron permanent way material, 6,000 tons of sleepers, 15,000 tons of miscellaneous material, and 20,000 tons of ballast. The equipment was dismantled and transferred to construct the IVSR ’ Ghotki Tramway’.

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