Short History of Indian Railways

Railways in India

Indian railway is world's second largest railway network and Asia's first largest both in terms of size and man power. But this mammoth network started as a humble project once. The history dates back to 1800s when the British started this project for their own profit which turned out to be a huge success.

History

During British colonial days cotton was an important commodity for textile industry. United States disagreed to make business deal with British which lead British's focus on India. To transport cotton from far away lands to major ports they needed a fastest transport, hence they started thinking of building railways in India. April 16, 1853 was the birth of Indian railways as the first passenger train set off 34 Km journey from Bombay Bori Bunder station to Thane station. It carried 400 passengers in 14 carriages. The culmination of East India company and the Great Indian Peninsular Railway made this feat possible. Marking this success another two routes were laid out - Calcutta-Delhi line and Allahabad-Jabalpur line. Both these lines were merged with GIPR to create approximately 6000 km of network. The initial routes were focused for British elites and gradually 8 such railway networks were created between 1855 and 1860.

During 1880s British crown took India into its hands and started acquiring these private railway companies. Under British government approximately 14,000 km railway lines were built connecting hinterlands to major cities at that time like Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. As railways became more popular basic amenities like toilets, proper lighting were also introduced.
GIPR was first company to get acquired by government in 1900s and was fully state-owned. New railway board was set up and officials were recruited for governance of railways. But railway development was somewhat slow during world war times.
3 Feb, 1925 saw first electric train between Bombay and Kurla. Followed by that success many lines were electrified. By 1930s, 66,000 km of railway line was laid out and close to 600 million passengers travelled by train.
In 1947 when British divided India and Pakistan, 40% of railway network was lost to Pakistan and Bangladesh. No matter what, Indian Railways was set up and controlled the extensive railway network. Samajhauta Express began its service between Amritsar, India and Lahore, Pakistan in 1976. 1980s to 2000s saw increase in usage of railway network, replacement of better engines with colonial engines and advent of online reservation in 1990s. 1984 was the year when first metro in India was launched at Kolkata.

Present

Now currently we have 18 railway zones in India. Indian railways carries approximately 1 Billion passengers everyday and runs 11,000 trains daily.

Future

Indian Railways will evolve into more sophisticated network in the coming years and apart from traditional trains we are focusing on alternative rails like lite rails, metro, sky bus and others which will help public transportation grow making travel flexible to passengers.


Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter