(2) More about Late Mr. DPR Cassad and his donation: The Mysterious Steam Engine at SGSITS Indore.
(Posted on 2/11/2024)
Pankaj Khanna
9424810575
(Continued from the First article: Engine No.17--A Mysterious Industrial Steam Engine kept at SGSITS, Indore.)
(From Photo Gallery of SGSITS, a few yrs ago)
A few days after writing the First Part ( Link given above) on the mysterious Steam Engine no.17 resting at our College SGSITS Indore; managed to have a heart to heart discussion with Mr. Nanu Cassad, Late Mr. DPR Cassad's son. He is a kind, courteous and affectionate elder to say the least. Luckily he turned out to be a raconteur so it was sheer joy to listen to him!
(Having been born, brought up and spoiled in Parsi Mohalla of Indore; it is specially nostalgic to listen to a benevolent 'Parsi Bawa'! What to say about the conversation! Imagine, an aspiring 'Bawa' listening to an eloquent 'Bawa' narrating stories about his great Father; a grand 'Bawa' of those halcyon days; who left for heavenly abode more than fifty years ago!)
Mr. Nanu Cassad is a contemporary of Rajiv Gandhi and Kamalnath (Ex Chief Minister of MP) from Doon School, Dehradun. He was one or two years senior to them in Doon School and they all three passed out from there in early sixties. Now he resides in Goa after spending many years in UK where his two sons are settled as Solicitors.
He gave a lot of information about Late Mr. DPR Cassad and the donated Mysterious Steam Engine. Mr. DPR Cassad was Managing Director of CP Syndicate Pvt. Ltd which had two non-coking Coal Mines in Damua and Kali Chhapar in Chhindwara District which produced Grade 1 Coal.
Late Mr. DPR Cassad also owned Nagpur Electric Light and Power Company which supplied electricity to the City of Nagpur till somewhere in the Sixties. Their forefathers established Byramji Town; a famous and posh locality of Nagpur.
The Damua and Kali Chhapar mines are around 65 kms from Chhindwara and the distance between the two mines is around 3 kms. They had railway track of approximately 10 kms and had six to seven such Industrial Steam Locomotives to carry Coal from Damua/Kali Chhapar to the Railway siding at Hirdagarh Railway Station (under Central Railway). These small locomotives used to haul one or two wagons at a time. Our Mystery Engine Number 17 operated on the above route for many years in tandem with five or six more siblings. He also does not know what happened to all these steam locomotives used in their mines.
Mr. Nanu Cassad spent a few years in these mines supervising the job for family after completion of his education. They had around 5000 employees at that time to look after and also had to run the business professionally and profitably. Understandably, such Steam Locomotives were a very tiny fraction of their busines and not the focal point of their business or lives!
It appears from the discussion with him that the Engine or the Locomotive was donated by his father much before the nationalization of the coal mines in 1973 under 'The Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973'.
Late Mr. DPR Cassad was highly educated and President of Institution of Engineers in India in the year 1957-58. He was highly qualified as can be seen from the following screen shot from a very old report.
It appears he had contacts with certain SGSITS Professor/s which led to this interesting donation of the Steam Locomotive to SGSITS Indore.
He had Vision to donate the engine to an Engineering College for the benefit of future generations. One feels he might have donated a few more such locomotives to other colleges where they might have been dumped or condemned or scrapped or may be, who knows, kept on a Pedastal too!
The year of donation of this Mysterious Engine is not clear so far. This information can be obtained from College records only. Efforts are on to get more information from college.
There has to be more to this story!
To be continued.....
[ Click here for the Third Article: Steam Locomotives at Academic Institutes. (Posted on 7/11/2025).
Click here for the 4th Article : Who built the Mysterious Steam Engine kept at SGSITS Indore? (Posted on 16/11/2024)
Click here for the fifth Article: Future Plan?! The Bawa has to sing and whistle! (Posted on 25/11/2024)]
Click here for the Sixth Article: Director SGSITS Indore agrees to shift the Engine... ( Posted on 26/12/2024)
Pankaj Khanna
Indore (MP)
Email: pankajharbans@gmail.com
Mobile: 9424810575
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My other Blogs:
हिन्दी में:
तवा संगीत : ग्रामोफोन का संगीत और कुछ किस्सागोई।
रेल संगीत: रेल पर फिल्माए गए गाने सन 1941के बाद से।
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In English:
Love Thy Numbers : Recreational Maths for all. May be useful for CAT-IIM aspirants too.
Epeolatry: For those who love the Languages.
CAT-a-LOG: About CAT-IIM Coaching. Useful for Students and Parents.
Corruption in Oil Companies: It is all about HPCL where I worked from 1984 to 2007.
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