The Eastern Bengal Railway Company was formed to give accommodation to the densely populated and prolific districts lying north and east of Calcutta. Its length is 114 miles; but in August, 1865, it was determined to extend the line forty-five miles farther, to Goalundo, at the confluence of the Bramapootra and the Ganges, with the view of intercepting the traffic from Assam, Bhotan, and the more distant north-eastern countries. The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway Company was established in 1857 for the construction of a line, twenty-nine miles long, in a south-eastern direction, to a town and harbour which it was determined to establish on the Mutlah estuary, the object being to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Hooghly. The necessary wharves and jetties required at “Canning Town” have been constructed; but unfortunately, just as the traffic was beginning to make progress, the bed of the river shifted, in consequence, it is supposed, of certain operations on the shore close by, and it was partly carried away. The “Port Canning Company,” which has already expended £600,000 at the place, is re-establishing the jetty. A new town is now gradually rising at the place; “so that,” says Mr. Juland Danvers, “when the dangers and difficulties of its infancy are passed, the whole scheme of establishing a port on the Mutlah will be in a more promising condition. Upon the whole, we may look with hope, if not with confidence, to the future.”[98] The Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway exhibits a deficit in its revenue accounts. The Great Southern of India Railway was constituted in 1857, its objects being to construct railways in the southern provinces of India. The line runs from the east coast of the Great Indian Continent, by Tanjore to Trichinopoly, through a country extensively cultivated with rice and cotton crops. Seventy-nine miles were opened in 1862. An extension of eighty-seven miles has been since authorised, by which a junction will be effected with the Madras Railway at Errode.