File 2976/1916 Pt 1 'Persia Bunder-Abbas-Kerman telegraph and road' [‎296v] (296/452)

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I then enquired why, if heavy guns were dragged up the Tang-i Zagh,
route 144, in former years, the carriages for the Governor three or four years
ao-o were taken by route 141, for preference, and they replied that route HI,
although more difficult than 144, was taken owing entirely to the lear of
attack by Bakarlus on the latter route.
They also said that although nowadays the Tang-i-Zinclan route, 14*3, was
most frequented, it had only become popular in the last 20 years as it was the
best protected from Baharlu attacks on caravans, but that previous to that
time the Tang-i-Za^h route, 144, was the usual route at all the seasons of tne
year’whilst the Tang^i-Zindan and Khanu routes, 143 and 141, were in those
days hardly ever used except by caravans having business alonsr them between
Bunder Abbas and Kerman.
I w r as very insistent as to the difficulties which X had heaid existed
through the Tang-i-Zagh, as recorded in the description of route 144 in the
Boute Book, but they all said that the difficult portion was only for a short
distance and was nothing like as bad as the difficulties on the lang-nZindan ;
it looks therefore as if the Boute Book had much exaggeiated tnc difficult
portion of the Tang-i*Zagh. Thorn this enquiry, it therefore appears that the
Tausr-i-Zindan route, 143, is the moss frequented route at present, being safest
from raiders ; that in the absence of raiders, route 141 via the lang-i-Zagn
would be the one most used as wms the case 20 years ago ; that the route
through Khanu, 141, which is now used when route 143 is closed by snow is
only 'used owdng to the dangers on route 144 ; that wffieeled vehicles have
actually been taken in the past througu both the iang-i-Zagh and Khanu
routes but never through the Tang-i-Zindan, except once when a light carnage
w as carried through with w heels removed.
4 As my personnel consisting of Mr. Murphy and Khan Bahadur
Sher Jung w r ith four surveyors and 32 khallasis and all my instruments and
equipment were not expected to reach Bunder Abbas tor a week or ten days
after my arrival (they actually arrived on November 27th), I decided in
order to save time to make a reconnaissance of the road through the Tang-i-
Zindan to last ten days and left Bunder Abbas on November 18th returning
there on November 27th.
5. I found that the road from Bunder Abbas for 48 miles as far as Nian,
between stages 3 and 4 of loute 143, requires very little work to make it fit
for motor lorries, as it goes over the open plain with a surface of hard gravel
for 50 per cent, of the distance, the remaining surface being sand or shingle
over which a lorry could travel slowly without difficulty. The road goes along
no stream beds and practically the only work to be done would be
(a) the approaches to two nallahs require widening and cutting to an
easy slope for a distance of 20 yards ;
tussocks of grass and sand wmuld have to be removed in the sandy
. portions;
boulders must he moved to one side across three stream beds. Local
unskilled labour w ould be sufficient, I think, to do this work in a
month or six weeks at a cost of under 1110,000 though I have
not w orked out actual estimates,
6 . From Nian onwards for 12 miles to the entrance of the Tati g-i-Zirdan
the track goes along the wide bed of the Ahniadi river. The first seven miles
of this track is covered with big boulders which would have to he cleared to
one side, an unsatisfactory piece of wmrk as the first flood would move tnem
back again to their original position. The surface is then easier for two miles,
being covered with fine shingle followed by a mile of big boulders; the river
bed then narrows to 50 yards but the going is good for the remaining two miles
at the end of which the tract leaves the Ahmadi river and enters the Tang-i-
Zindan. T’rom Bunder Abbas to* this point a motor lorry could be taken
without much difficulty.
7. At the entrance to the Tang-i-Zindan, the track narrows to 8 yards
between high walls of crumbly sandstone of a slope of about 1 and 2 , mteis-
persed with loose gravel cut into by deep fissures. The road surface of sma