‘Railway Policy, 1880–84’ in Note on the Administration of the Public Works Department of the Government of India during the Viceroyalty of … the Marquis of Ripon (Calcutta, 1884), pp. 53–65. British Library, shelfmark B.P.7/13.

By 1880 the construction of what became the extensive railway infrastructure of India was well under way. Certain problems, however, remained to be resolved, most notably the role of private and public fi nance in meeting a recommendation by the 1884 Select Committee on Railway Communication in India to construct 3,000 miles of track immediately. In the aftermath of the devastating Madras famine, the government response to which Lytton determined, General Fraser was asked to provide an outline of railway policy. Th is minute does that. Its broad arguments were accepted by Lytton, who put into eff ect an extension of 2,000 miles to the railway system, ostensibly on the grounds of preventing further famines. Th e responsibility for construction was placed in the hands of provincial governments, and in a reversal of policies on the fi nancing of public works, capital was raised from the private sector.