Light
at the end of the tunnel
On a chilly morning in December 1907, Weld and Srinivas made
for the riverbed where the Subarnarekha crossed the Bengal
Nagpur Railway branch. After plodding downstream for a while,
they sighted a black trap-dike crossing the river diagonally,
thereby making a perfect pick-up weir. They were wandering
in the vicinity of Sakchi - at the confluence of the rivers
Subarnarekha and Kharkai which together would never run dry
- and a few kilometers away could be sighted the Kalimati
railway station. This brought the triumphant end of the 25
year long saga.
On 27th February 1908, the first stake was driven into the
soil of Sakchi. |