The Gazetteers Department

During the last 70 years, vast improvements in the means of transport and communications have taken place. The old Gazetteer mentions that new roads of 300 miles were made during 1845 and 1854. It goes on " At present (1883), besides several small roads, Kolhapur has four main lines of communication, one the Poona-Belgaum road running north and south, and three the Kolhapur-Amba pass, the Kolhapur-Phonda pass and the Sankeshwar-Parpoli pass Roads, running west towards the coast." At present (1957-58) excluding village roads Kolhapur has a total of 998 road mileage. Besides increase in the total number of miles there is a striking change in the surface of roads. All the national highways and state highways have at least black top surface and are motorable throughout the year. The condition of major district roads has also improved considerably.

It was on April 21, 1891, that a meter guage railway line between Miraj and Kolhapur was opened for traffic. This line, about 30 miles in the district, serves Kolhapur district. Sugar and gur are transported by the railway. Moreover, during the months of monsoon when country craft cannot ply the railhead at Kolhapur serves admirably for passenger as well as for goods traffic between Ratnagiri and Bombay.

In the matter of postal communications, the district is fairly well served. From 17 post offices (two chief disbursing offices, one town sub-office and 14 sub-offices) in 1886 the number has now gone up to 148 of which one is head office, 15 sub-offices and 132 branch offices. At present there are 14 telegraph offices. In addition to this, there are telephone exchanges, with trunkline alignment, at Kolhapur, Jaisingpur and Ichalkaranji.

A new landmark in passenger transport is the advent of the Bombay State Road Transport Corporation, set up by Government in pursuance of their general policy of nationalising road transport. The Kolhapur division of the Corporation covers the entire district and exclusively undertakes passenger transport.

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