LAHORE: Lahore’s Harbanspura Railway Station, which was at its pinnacle once, saw the evolution of Pakistan Railways and also witnessed the British Raj, has reduced to ruins today. The doors and walls are in a state of disrepair.
Harbans Singh, younger brother of Teja Singh who was a general during the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, settled a village in the east of Lahore named Harbanspura. The area was located in a strategic location – it was on route from Lahore to India and had weapons depots and workshops of the British Air Force. In light of this significance, the British Raj founded the momentous Harbanspura Railway Station in 1890.
Read more: Pakistan Railways’ journey toward modernisation and growth
Let’s fast forward to today, it has been 150 years since the foundation of this station. The grandeur has been lost somewhere but the ruins showed a painful yet poignant story of the structure that it was.
Neither the bells ring on the platform now nor does a train whistle from the open window of the ticket house.
In 1930, 16 water pumps were installed here to fill the trains with water and cool the steam engines coming from Amritsar. The activity of this station before partition was so busy that 48 vehicles used to come and go on the three platforms and 16 railway lines daily but when the line was drawn, this station also gradually became deserted.
At the time of the partition, the first convoy of refugees from India reached this station. After that, thousands of refugees from India used to drop at Harbanspura station and settle in the adjacent villages and towns.
Its building was made of little but strong bricks which included the ticket house, the gate room and the station master’s room. The rooms where the stories and tales of the passengers once echoed stand now with hollow silence. Today the walls and doors are crumbling, the roofs rotting. With no attention to the site, the booking office and the staff rooms have changed into cattle sheds.
After the creation of Pakistan, a few trains carrying goods and the Samjhauta Express – only twice a week – passed through the station until the 1990s. On March 13, 1991, the last train set off on this and after that the ticket office closed and the passengers left Harbanspura station, once and for all.
Out of the 16 railway lines, only two tracks are operational for the passage of vehicles which were built in 1906. The remains of a water pump have also been preserved as a historical monument.
When one cast one’s eyes around the station, the burnt or accident-prone train coaches of the railway are standing on the tracks, lamenting the past era. With little government interest, most of the area adjacent to the station has been occupied by people.
Read more: From Beijing to Guangzhou: A journalist explores China’s economic growth
Even if historical buildings remain inactive, they still are worthy to be counted as national heritage. The Harbanspura railway station is a 150-year-old monument and the first stopover for refugees coming to Pakistan. Hence, it goes without saying that it must be preserved so that the new generation can remember it in the annals of history.