The history of rail transport in India

The history of rail transport in India

The history of rail transport in India began in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1842,  not a single kilometer of railway line there in India. By 1929, amazingly there were 66,000 km (41,000 mi) of railway lines serving foreign government in the country. The military engineers of the East India Company, later of the British Indian Army, contributed to the birth and growth of the railways which gradually became the responsibility of civilian technocrats and engineers. However, construction and operation of rail transportation in the North West Frontier Province and in foreign nations during war or for military purposes was the responsibility of the military engineers

Start of Indian Railways

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai is the busiest railway station in India. It is also a World Heritage Site

Following independence in 1947, India inherited a decrepit rail network. About 40 per cent of the railway lines were in the newly created Pakistan. Many lines had to be rerouted through Indian territory and new lines had to be constructed to connect important cities such as Jammu. A total of 42 separate railway systems, including 32 lines owned by the former Indian princely states existed at the time of independence spanning a total of 55,000 km. These were amalgamated into the Indian Railways.

In 1952, it was decided to replace the existing rail networks by zones. A total of six zones came into being in 1952. As India developed its economy, almost all railway production units started to be built indigenously. The Railways began to electrify its lines to AC. On 6 September 2003 six further zones were made from existing zones for administration purpose and one more zone added in 2006. The India Railway has now sixteen zones.

In 1985, steam locomotives were phased out. In 1987, computerization of reservation first was carried out in Bombay and in 1989 the train numbers were standardized to four digits. In 1995, the entire railway reservation was computerized through the railway’s internet. In 1998, the Konkan Railway was opened, spanning difficult terrain through the Western Ghats. In 1984 Kolkata became the first Indian city to get a metro rail system, followed by the Delhi Metro in 2002 and Bangalore Namma Metro in 2011. Many other Indian cities are currently planning urban rapid transit systems.