Indian Railways and Its History

Indian Railways, a historical heritage, are a very important force in our economy. The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran from Bombay (Mumbai) to Thane on 16th April 1853. Covering a distance of 34 km, it was hauled by 3 locomotives, Sahib, Sindh and Sultan. This was the authorized birth of railways in India. By 1875, about £95 million were invested by British companies in Indian railways. The route mileage of these networks was about 14,500 km by 1880, regularly glowing inward from the 3 major port cities of Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai) and Calcutta (Kolkata). By 1895, India railway had started building their own locomotives, and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the Uganda Railway.

The plan to launch a railway network, transformed the entire Indian history. This revolutionary plan of action was introduced in 1832, but no measures were taken into consideration. It is interesting to note that though the railways were introduced to facilitate the profitable interest of the British it played an important role in unifying the country. In 1844, the private industrialists were acceptable to initiate a railway organization Governor General of India. Lord Hardinge projected this plan to bring in the railway system. East India Company along with two private companies initiated the establishment of rail system.

Railways are perfectly suited for long distance travel and movement of bulk supplies. Regarded better than road transport in terms of energy efficiency, land use, environment impact and safety it is always in vanguard during national emergency. Indian railways carry huge variety of goods since very long time such as mineral ores, fertilizers, petrochemicals, agricultural produce and many more.

Indian Railways make enormous profits and most of its profits are from the luggage sector and uses these profits to enhance the loss-making passenger sector. Indian Railway is one of most effective networks in India that keep together the social, economical, political and cultural textile of the country together.

There are few Indian railways achievements such as: On October 19, 1875, the train between Hathras Road and Mathura Cantonment was started, in winter of 1880-81, the Kanpur-Farukhabad line became operational and further east and the Dibrugarh-Dinjan line became operational on August 15, 1882, underground railway began operating in Calcutta in 1995 and many more.