Bombay Railway History Group
http://bombayrailway.blogspot.in/
Weaving a nation together
As a Google Doodle celebrates 160 years of India's first passenger
train journey Indian Railways on April 16 and Mumbai playing host to the
national programmes on railways. Here’s a story of how it all started.
If it was trade of wool that prompted the journey of the first ever
passenger train in England between Stockton and Darlington in 1825, it
was trade of cotton, among other things, that prompted the journey of
the first ever train on the Indian sub-continent.
Indian Railways, which had a modest beginning in 1853, has since then
been an integral part of the nation -- a network that has held together a
population of one billion. A self-propelled social welfare system that
has become the lifeline of a nation, Indian Railways has woven a
sub-continent together and brought to life the concept of a united
India.
The railways in India are the largest rail web in Asia and the world’s
second largest under one management. With a huge workforce of about 1.65
million, it runs some 11,000 trains everyday, including 7,000 passenger
trains. The tale of how railway communication gained foothold in India,
where the locomotive was once considered as a “fire-spitting demon”, is
indeed an interesting one.
World premiere
The earliest recorded illustration of a railway dates back to 1320,
showing a small wooden mine trolley running in recessed stone guides,
possibly originating in ancient Greece.
The railway, in its true sense, emerged in the early seventeenth century
when the first wooden tracks were laid at Wollaton, England, in 1604 to
be used for running of horse-drawn carriages.
It was only in February 1804, a good two centuries later, that Richard
Trevithick, an engineer, ran the world's first steam engine successfully
on rails. The locomotive, with its single vertical cylinder, 8-foot
flywheel and long piston rod, managed to haul ten tonnes of iron,
seventy passengers and five wagons from the ironworks at Penydarren to
the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal. This was, however, a trial run and cannot be
termed as first railway passenger service train.
In 1821, Edward Pease, a wool merchant, during his travels of buying and
selling wool, felt that a railroad with wagons drawn by horses to carry
coal from the collieries of West Durham to the port of Stockton would
be of great help. The same year, Pease and a group of businessmen formed
the Stockton & Darlington Railroad company.
However, Nicolas Wood, the manager of Killingworth Colliery and his
engineer George Stephenson, had a better idea. They met Pease and
suggested that he should consider building a locomotive railway instead.
And after some thought Pease did agree.
The Stockton & Darlington Railroad was opened on 27 September, 1825.
The engine, built by George Stephenson, pulled 36 wagons, including
twelve wagons of coal and flour, six of guests and fourteen wagons full
of workmen. This has been recorded as the first passenger train in the
world.
But, this is disputed and some claim the Liverpool-Manchester Railway of
1830s as the first passenger railway. However disputes apart, railway
communication gained popularity in the 1830s and since then there has
been no backward journey.
Evolution in India
In 1846, there was a major failure of cotton crop in America. Following
this, textile merchants at Manchester and Glasgow in Great Britainhad to
seek alternative markets. It was then that traders in the UK turned
their attention on the cotton crop in India, one of British colonies
then, rich in cotton crop.
However, cotton was produced in various parts of the Indian
sub-continent and it took days to bring it to the nearest port to
transport it toEngland through ships, the only major means of
international communication then. The British then had to build a link
from the hinterland toIndia’s major ports for quicker transport of
cotton and other goods as demand soared. This expedited matters for the
British to introduce a railway in India.
The British also felt that organising and dispersing the growing native
population faster deployment of troops could be better handled by a
railway.
As early as 1843, Lord Dalhousie had first conceived the possibility of
opening up of India by means of railway communication. He had proposed
to link the three ports of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras by a railway.
The same year he sent George T. Clarke, an engineer, to Bombay to assess
the possibility. A few years later in 1845, a strong lobby in Bombay
supporting railway communication formed a body called the Bombay Great
Eastern Railway. As matters started to gain momentum, the Bombay Great
Eastern Railway locally prepared plans for constructing a railway line
from Bombay to the Deccan. But the British already had a concrete plan
in their minds and soon things began to take shape.
The earliest proposal for laying railways in India was made some time
around in the 1830s. Inspired by the railway mania in England, some
eminent citizens in Madras had proposed the idea of a railway but plans
remained on paper and the project did not see the light of the day then.
Conditions in India were quite different from those in Britain. Many
British and Indians, who had a better understanding about India’s
topography and geography, opposed the construction of railways as a
"premature and expensive undertaking" and a "hazardous and "dangerous
venture". Certain opponents doubted the feasibility of introduction of
railways in India citing poverty, extreme climate with torrential rains,
violent storms, high mountains, sandy deserts and dense forests.
But the process of building a railway network that would one day not
only captivate the nation but the whole world had already begun.
First Railway Company
The bill to incorporate India’s first railway company, the Great Indian
Peninsular Railway Company [G.I.P.R] (later it was rechristened
asPeninsula), came up before the British Parliament twice. First in
March 1847 and later in 1849.
In March 1847, the East Indian Company, which then ruled India, opposed
the bill on certain clauses forcing it to be withdrawn. Matters dragged
on till 1849 when Lord Dalhousie, who had experience in railway matters
in England, took over as the Governor-General of India. On August 1,
1849, the Act to incorporate the Great Indian Peninsula Railway came
into being.
The original contract made on August 17, 1849, between the East India
Company and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway stated that the capital
of the GIP Company shall be 5 lakh pounds, but can be subsequently
increased to one million pounds in case the railway line has to be
extended beyond Callian (Kalyan) and across the Thull and Bhor Ghats.
The railway line has been referred to as an “Experimental line of
Railway” throughout the contract.
The first train in India
The line in Bombay was ready by November 1852 and on November 18, 1852, a
few engineers and directors of the GIP Company had a trial run between
Bombay and Thane. However officially, the first train in India (and in
Asia) was flagged off on April 16, 1853, a Saturday, at 3:35 pm between
Boree Bunder (Mumbai) and Thane, a distance of 34 kms. The importance of
the day can be gauged from the fact the Bombaygovernment declared the
day as a public holiday.
The train, hauled by three engines -- Sindh, Sahib and Sultan -- carried
as many as 400 passengers in its 14 coaches on its debut run. The Great
Indian Peninsula Railway had ordered a set of eight locomotives from
Vulcan Foundry, England, for the purpose. A suit of DurbarTents erected
at Thane welcomed the first train and a cover for four hundred persons
was built with tables laid with menu literally groaning under every
delicacy of the season.
India had, however, spotted one of its earliest locomotives as early as
December 22, 1851. The first steam engine, Thomason, hauled some wagons
containing mud and earth during the construction of the Solani aqueduct
near Roorkee. The second one, Lord Falkland, named after a Bombay
governor, was seen a year later near Byculla, Bombay, doing shunting
duties. The third one was used for the trial run of the passenger train
in November 1852. And it was only after all this that the
much-publicised “official” first train saw the light of the day onApril
16, 1853. Wasn’t it a long, long journey before the “official” first
train saw the light of day.
And since then there has been no looking back.
The north, south and the east
By late 1850, agreements had been signed to prepare trial lines to run
inland in Bombay (The Great Indian Peninsula Railway), Calcutta (East
Indian Railway) and Madras (Madras Railway).
Calcutta, the then capital of India, on the western coast of the
sub-continent was also in the race to be first to introduce railway into
India. The survey from Calcutta to Delhi for the East Indian Railway
was carried out during 1945-46. But the construction of railway line
fromHowrah to Raniganj was sanctioned only after three years.
But fate denied Calcutta the privilege of being the first city to have a
railway in India. Locomotive and carriages for Bombay and Howrahwere
despatched from England almost at the same time. But the ship carrying
the loco for East Indian Railway, HMS Goodwin, was misdirected to
Australia. The other ship carrying carriages for Howrah sank at the
Sandheads.
Yet another problem that besieged east India was the dispute over the
French territory of Chandernagar (Chandannagar) through which the
railway line was to be aligned. The settlement of this dispute with
French rulers took considerable time and Bombay won over Calcutta in the
railway race.
It was finally on August 15, 1854 that the first passenger train in the
eastern section ran between Howrah to Hooghly (24 miles). The section is
soon extended to Pundooah.
In the south, the Madras Railway Company was formed in London as early
as July 8, 1845. The shareholders held a general body meeting in
February 1846 to construct a railway line from Madras to Arcot , known
as Wallajah Nagar.
But matters were delayed and the actual construction begun on June 9,
1853. The first train between Royapuram and Wallajah Nagar steamed out
on June 26,1856. The Bangalore section was opened an August 1, 1864.
Railway lines to Nagari, Raichur, Bellary were completed subsequently,
In the north, the first train ran between Allahabad and Kanpur, a
distance of 180 km, on March 3, 1859, six years after the first train.
The railways then were built on a Guarantee System, which meant that the
railway companies were guaranteed a certain rate of interest on its
capital investment. The guarantee was to be honoured by the East India
Company.
Battle of gauges
Lord Dalhousie, while formulating the railway policy for India, had
suggested that a uniform gauge system should be adopted for the entire
Indian Railway network. The gauge, the distance between the two inner
faces of the rails of a railway track, selected for India was of 5 feet
six inches.
Lord Dalhousie had stated that an intermediate gauge between 4'-8 ½" and
7'-0" was the best gauge especially for India which would substantially
command all the possible benefits of the latter." The Court of
Directors accepted 5'-6" as the gauge for India and the Government of
India further confirmed their decision in favour of 5'-6" and in 1851,
it was accepted as the standard gauge for the railways in India.
An official change in gauge
The uniformity of gauge was maintained till 1862. But Lord Mayo, the
then viceroy of India, was a great enthusiast of the metric system. He
encouraged the building of metre gauge lines in India during his tenure.
It was seen as a compromise between proposals for narrow gauge for use
in areas with limited traffic.
It was decided that the subsidiary lines to the main railway system, on
which large traffic was not expected, should be constructed on narrow
gauge light system and subsequently connected to a broader gauge. Thus,
the metre gauge came into existence.
Such was the craze of Lord Mayo for metric systems that he even wanted
to replace other existing systems in the country, but was prevented by
doing so by strong British bureaucracy. In fact, it was his predecessor,
Sir John Lawrence, who had initiated the process of laying the metre
gauge lines in India, which Lord Mayo took up with such zeal.
Now, each time a railway line was proposed in India, fresh controversy over the gauge to be adopted arose.
By 1889, the mileage of different gauges was -- broad gauge (5 feet six
inches) 8,000 miles, metre gauge (I metre) 5,000 miles and narrow
gauge250 miles.
Today, India has four major gauges -- broad (five feet six inches),
metre (three feet three inches), two feet six inches (narrow gauge) and
two feet (narrow gauge).
The Gaikwad Baroda State Railway
In 1863, just ten years after the first train ran in India, the Gaikwad
of Baroda state built a railway, which was of just two and a half
feetgauge. Baroda was rich in cotton and following the American Civil
war during1861-1865, the Gaikwad decided to grab the opportunity of
exporting cotton from his state to the markets in England.
The maiden line of the Gaikwad Baroda State Railway (GSBR) was
constructed quickly between Dhaboi and Miayagam. The Durbar of Barodahad
financed the project. The Gaikwad was in such a hurry to commence the
project to export cotton that he employed bullocks --bullmotives -- as
engines to run trains instead of waiting for the actual steam
locomotives to arrive from England.
In those days, it took days to transport goods from England to India as
the only international mode of communication was ships, which followed
the time-consuming sea route round the Cape of Good Hope. GSBR’s steam
locomotives arrived in India only in 1873. This was the first narrow
gauge railway in India.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, opened in 1880, is an engineering
feat. This little railway has a gauge of 2 ft. and a length of fifty-one
miles, with steep gradients and amazing loops.
Work on building the line began in May 1879, and in March, 1880, the
Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, had a journey on the train. In August
1880, the line was opened for passenger and goods traffic as far as
Kurseong, 4,864 ft. above the sea and thirty-two miles from Siliguri. In
July 1881, the line was opened throughout to Darjeeling station.
On December 2, 1999, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway became the second
railway site in the world to be designated a World Heritage site. The
railway has been added as a world heritage site with “outstanding
universal value” by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, also known as the Blue Mountain Railway,
is a 46-km long 1000 mm gauge railway connecting Mettupalayam(1,069 ft)
to Ooty (7228 ft). Its first section up to Coonoor was completed in 1899
by the Nilgiri Railway Company and was extended to Ooty in 1903.
This railway has a gradient of 1 in 12 with curves as sharp as 18
degrees. Due to the gradient and the curves, the permanent way had to be
built of the Abt Rack type. This means that two steel racks, the teeth
of which break pitch, are laid in the centre of the track and are
carried by pedestals, which are firmly bolted down to the sleepers. This
is the only rack railway in India.
Patiala State Monorail
In 1907, the first section of an unusual railway on the "Ewing System"
connecting Bassi and Sirhind (6 miles) started in Patiala state. Colonel
Bowles, who designed the system, was the state engineer. He was
responsible for laying the Patiala State Monorail Train ways. The line
was laid for about 50 miles between Sirhind to Alampura and Patiala to
Bhawanigarh. The track was a single rail along one side of the road.
Today, one can ride this train at the National Railway Museum,
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Railway raj
Between 1854 and 1860, India had eight railway companies – Eastern India
Railway, Great India Peninsula Company, Madras Railway, BombayBaroda
and Central India Railway, Scindia Railway, Eastern Bengal Eastern
Railway and Calcutta and South Railway Company. In the years between
1869 and 1881, the British government took up the responsibility of
laying railway lines in India from the East India Company. And
thereafter, things began to move rapidly.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus/Victoria Terminus - country’s pride, neighbour’s envy
The building has been considered as one of the finest station buildings
in the world and architecturally one of the most splendid and
magnificent Italian Gothic edifices existing.
Old records mention that some stone work for the building was done by
Indian craftsmen and students of the Bombay School of Arts.
When the first train ran between Bombay and Thane on April 16, 1853, the
place from where the debut train initiated its journey was known as
Boree Bunder. It was a small place for the landing of country boats. The
original structure of Boree Bunder station from where the first train
ran was somewhere near the existing imposing Victoria Terminus station
building. To build the new building, land had to be reclaimed from the
sea.
Work on the building began in May 1878. During the first half of 1879,
the foundations for booking and administration offices were considered
and detailed estimates for the whole project were sent to the Government
of India for a sanction.
The cost of the construction of the terminus was Rs 16,35,562. The first
ones to occupy the new building were establishments of chief engineer
and police superintendent. The booking hall, the station master’s office
could not be brought into use for some time initially for want of
connection with the municipal sewer.
The building took ten years for completion and was officially renamed as
Victoria Terminus after Queen Victoria on Queen’s Golden Jubilee Day on
June 20, 1887. Today, the terminus has been renamed as Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus.
An all-Indian locomotive
It was as late as 1895 that India saw the birth of its first locomotive.
The locomotive, an F class 0-6-0 metre gauge numbered F-734, was built
at Ajmer for the Rajputana Malwa Railway. It weighed 38 tonnes. The
locomotive, to be used for hauling mixed trains, was built at a cost
ofRs 15,869.
This locomotive has outside connecting rods and side rods. It was also
used on the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) network.
Today, the locomotive has been stored as one of the outdoor exhibits at
the National Railway Museum, New Delhi.
Electrifying the network
In 1904, the idea to electrify the railway network was proposed by W.H
White, chief engineer of the then Bombay Presidency government. He
proposed the electrification of the two Bombay-based companies, the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the Bombay Baroda and Central India
Railway (now known as CR and WR respectively).
Both the companies were in favour of the proposal. However, it took
another year to obtain necessary permissions from the British government
and to upgrade the railway infrastructure in Bombay city. The
government of India appointed Mr Merz as a consultant to give an opinion
on the electrification of railways. But Mr Merz resigned before making
any concrete suggestions, except the replacement of the firstVasai
bridge on the BB&CI by a stronger one.
Moreover, as the project was in the process of being executed, the First
World War broke out and put the brakes on the project. The First World
War placed heavy strain on the railway infrastructure in India. Railway
production in the country was diverted to meet the needs of British
forces outside India. By the end of the war, Indian Railways were in a
state of dilapidation and disrepair.
By 1920, Mr Merz formed a consultancy firm of his own with a partner, Mr
Maclellan. The government retained his firm for the railway
electrification project. Plans were drawn up for rolling stock and
electric infrastructure for Bombay-Poona/Igatpuri/Vasai and
MadrasTambaram routes.
The secretary of state of India sanctioned these schemes in October
1920. All the inputs for the electrification, except power supply, were
imported from various companies in England.
And similar to the running of the first ever railway train from Bombay
to Thane on April 16, 1853, the first-ever electric train in India also
ran from Bombay. The debut journey, however, was a shorter one. The
first electric train ran between Bombay (Victoria Terminus) and Kurla, a
distance of 16 kms, on February 3, 1925 along the city’s harbour route.
The section was electrified on a 1,500 volts DC. The opening ceremony
was performed by Sir Leslie Wilson, the governor of Bombay, at Victoria
Terminus station in presence of a very large and distinguished
gathering.
India's first electric locos (two of them), however, had already made
their appearance on the Indian soil much earlier. They were delivered to
the Mysore Gold Fields by Bagnalls (Stafford) with overhead electrical
equipment by Siemens as early as 1910.
Various sections on the railway network were progressively electrified and commissioned between 1925 to 1930.
In 1956, the government decided to adopt 25kV AC single-phase traction
as a standard for the Indian Railways to meet the challenge of the
growing traffic. An organisation called the Main Line Electrification
Project, which later became the Railway Electrification Project and
still later the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification, was
established. The first 25kV AC traction section in India is
Burdwan-Mughalsarai via the Grand Chord.
The first railway budget
In 1920, a committee was formed headed by William Acworth, who was a
world-renowned authority on railways, to suggest administrative changes
in the expanding railway network of the sub-continent.
The Acworth Committee consisted of 10 members, all experts either in
Railway matters or finance and administration. The committee supported
the case for state management of the Indian Railways in their report
published in September 1921. The landmark decision about the separation
of railway finances from general finances was also the outcome of this
report. The railway board was also subsequently expanded to have a
financial commissioner, a member in-charge of ways, works, stores and
projects, and a member in charge of administration, staff, and
traffic.All this eventually led to the presentation of the first ever
railway budget in 1925.
Another war
In 1939, World War II put the Indian Railways under immense strain
again. Locomotives, wagons, and track material were ruthlessly
dismantled and taken from India to the Middle East. Railway workshops
were used to manufacture military equipment.
The partition
In 1947, the British quit India dividing the nation into two countries,
India and Pakistan. As a country was divided, so was its railway system.
Two big railway systems, Bengal Assam Railway and North Western
Railway, were broken up.
A part of the Jodhpur Railway was given to West Pakistan. Much of the
Bengal Assam Railway went to the then East Pakistan (nowBangladesh). The
Assam Railway was isolated from the rest of the Indian system. Much of
the railway infrastructure was damaged in the partition process as
violent mobs attacked railway stations and trains carrying refugees.
Following is the statistics of the division of railway infrastructure:
Locomotives Passenger coaches Goods wagons Kilometres
India 7,248 20,166 2,10,099 54,376
Pakistan 1,339 4,280 40,221 11,133
Post-partition developments
After the horror of partition, things slowly began to come on track
after two years. On January 26, 1950, an indigenous locomotive workshop
was set up in West Bengal, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW). It had
plans to manufacture 120 steam locomotives annually. The first of the
successful WG class steam engines (8401 Deshabandhu) was commissioned on
November 1, 1950.
Getting things organised
It was in June 1950 itself that the Railway Board put forward a plan to
divide the railways in India into six zones to get things organised.
However, after some formalities, the actual plan was implemented a year
later, by April 1951.
On April 14, 1951, the Southern Railway was formed by merging the Madras
Railway, the South Marhatta Railway, the South Indian Railway and the
Mysore Railway.
On November 5, 1951, the Central Railway was constituted by bringing
together the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), the NizamRailway,
the Scindia Railway and the Dholpur Railway.
On the same day, the Western Railway was constituted by merging the
Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI), the
SourashtraRailway, the Rajasthan Railway and Jaipur Railway.
The merger of Eastern Punjab Railway, the Jodhpur Railway, the Bikaner
Railway and some upper divisions of the East India Railway led to the
formation of the Northern Railway on April 14, 1952.
Oudh Railway, Tirhut Railway and the Assam Railway formed the North
Eastern Railway and the remaining divisions of the East India Railway
and the Bengal Nagpur Railway constituted the Eastern Railway on the
same day.
These were the first six zones of Indian Railways.
First exports
In the late seventees, the Indian Railways, for the first time ever,
bagged an export contract for the supply of 15 YDM (metre gauge)
locomotives (to be built in Diesel Locomotive Workshop, Varanasi) to
Tanzania in January 1976
The steam theme
With the advent of high speed electric and diesel engines, the glory of
steam was slowly coming to an end. In 1970, the last steam locomotive,
Antim Sitara, (WG-10560) rolled out of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works. By
late 1973, CLW had put a halt on the production of all steam
locomotives.
In fact, the oldest working locomotive in India -- built in 1855, two
years after the inception of railways into India, -- is still hale and
hearty. It is still functional. Titled the Fairy Queen, the broad gauge
locomotive, is one of the oldest working steam locomotives in the world.
It was built by Kitson & Co. in January 1855. Historical records
also state that this locomotive was used by British troops during the
Indian uprising of 1857. It was in 1909 that the Queen, having done
yeoman service, was taken out of operations. In 1996, the National Rail
Museum took up the challenge of getting the locomotive restored in
heritage interest thereby making it the oldest working locomotive in the
mainline anywhere in the world.
The restoration and maintenance work took an entire year and in 1997
began to function as a moving train. An exclusive tourist train for a
journey back into time was conceived and the Fairy Queen took its first
load of delighted passengers on a maiden restoration run.
Much later, it was stored at the National Rail Museum at New Delhi. The
Fairy Queen was revived by steam enthusiasts in 1996, and by 1997 it
began regularly hauling a tourist train between Delhi and Alwar. The
Fairy Queen has found a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records
for being one of the oldest working locomotives in the world. In 1999,
the Fairy Queen bagged the National Tourism Award for most innovative
and Unique Tourism Venture. When the Queen resumed operations for
1999-2000, the International Council of Pacific Area Travel Writers
Association (PATWA) also selected the engine as a heritage venture for
award at ITB Berlin on March 14, 2000. On January 13, 1998, the Guinness
Book of World Records certified the Queen of Indian Railways as the
"oldest working steam locomotive.".
Rail museum
In 1977, the country’s first railway museum was set up at Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi. The first of its kind in the country, this unique museum
covers a land area of over 10 acres, comprising an elegantly designed
octagonal building housing nine display galleries and a large open area
laid out to simulate a Railway Yard.
With constant emphasis on improvements and additions, the museum can now
boast of being one of the finest rail museums in the world and a very
popular tourist attraction of the country’s capital. On an average, this
museum has around 1,000 visitors daily.
The idea of preserving the long and glorious heritage of the Railways in
India took root in the year 1932 when it was proposed to set up
aRailway Museum at Dehradun. The first President of India, Dr Rajendra
Prasad, had also reiterated the idea to set up a railway museum during
the Indian Railways centenary celebrations in 1953. But the idea could
take shape as late as 1968 when the Ministry of Railways finally took a
decision to set up a Railway Museum at Delhi. The foundation stone of
the museum was laid on October 7, 1971 and was formally inaugurated on
February 1, 1977.
Consolidating the network
On March 31, 1978, the railways were split into nine zones. The Northern
zone with its headquarters at Delhi (Delhi junction), the North Eastern
zone with its headquarters at Gorakhpur, the North East Frontier with
its headquarters at Maligaon (Guwahati), the eastern zone with its
headquarters at Kolkatta (Howrah junction), the south eastern zone with
its headquarters at Kolkatta again (Howrah junction), the south central
zone with its head offices at Secunderabad, the southern zone at Chennai
(Chennai Central) and the Central and Western Railways with their
administrative headquarters at CST and Churchgate respectively.
Moreover, each zonal railway has a certain number of divisions, each
having a divisional headquarters. The Indian Railways are today divided
into nine zones and 59 divisions
The Kolkatta Metro is worth a mention here as it is owned and operated
by the Indian Railways but does not belong to any of the zones. It is
administratively considered to have the status of a zonal railway. The
Konkan Railway, running along the western coast of the sub-continent and
an example of engineering feat, is the latest one to join the IR
bandwagon.
Kolkatta metro
Kolkatta metro railway line, running from Tollygunje to Dum Dum, was
introduced on September 27, 1995, exactly one hundred and seventy years
after the Stockton and Darlington railway in England. The length of the
route is around 16.45 kms and initially ran 106 services. The decision
to build a metro railway for Kolkatta was taken to provide an efficient,
fast, safe and pollution free mass rapid transit system to the people
of Kolkatta. The Indian Railways spent over Rs 1,600 crore for the
project, which took two decades to complete. The trains here run on
third rail of 750 V DC.
Konkan Railway
Work on the line running along the western coast of India began as early
as 1964 when a line was laid between Diva and Panvel. It was further
extended to Apta two years later in 1966. But then matters got delayed
due to political and technical reasons and it was only after twenty
years that the route was further extended. The Apta-Roha line was opened
in 1986.
But after this, things did gain momentum and two years later in 1989, work on the Konkan Railway officially began.
After nine years of labour, the Konkan Railway was opened for public and
the first passenger train along the picturesque sea route was flagged
off on January 26, 1998. At present, the route consists of a single line
non-electrified 760 kms from Roha to Mangalore along the western coast
of India.
Konkan Railway, the largest railway project in this part of the world in
the last five decades, threw up a whole range of difficulties
technical, financial, emotional and psychological. The rocky Sahyadris
had to be bored through, 1,500 rivers had to be forded, a railway line
had to be built out of nowhere
The route has India’s longest ever tunnel at Karbude, which is 6.5 km.
in length, longer than any other tunnel built in the country before. The
route also has a viaduct over the Panval river, a 424m long railway
bridge for a single line of broad gauge track, another record.
The other important breakthroughs achieved by Konkan Railway are the anti-collision device and Sky Bus Metro.
Battle of gauges revived – Project Unigauge
It all started in February 1971 when the railways announced that all new
lines would be constructed as broad gauge only and that the existing
metre gauge would be progressively converted to broad gauge so as to
achieve unigauge. But the conversion speed was slow due to the
non-availability of resources.
In 1975, a decision was taken to upgrade the metre gauge system,
selectively, as an alternative to gauge conversion. But the break of
gaugesstill hampered development and its advantages could not equal
those of broad gauge and failed to attract people and investments.
In 1991, a policy decision was taken to expedite the conversion work,
which had been progressing at a very slow speed for forty years.Project
Unigauge was launched in 1992 and it was made a high priority project.
It was aimed at selective conversion of metre gauge/narrowgauge lines to
broad gauge in a phased manner based on considerations of capacity
requirement, developmental potential and on strategic considerations.
Priority lines for conversion from metre gauge to broad gauge were
identified from the view of operational requirements and also to help
the development of the backward areas.
For each route, a techno-economic study was done to determine the
approximate cost of conversion and the return on capital. An action plan
was formulated for conversion of 13,117 km. of metre gauge/narrow gauge
lines out of which 6,000 km was targeted to be completed during the
eighth five-year plan and the rest during the ninth five-year plan.
Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation
The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, a special purpose body, was
established on July 12, 1999 in Mumbai to provide safe, reliable and
punctual journey for suburban commuters of Mumbai. The Corporation has
an equity of Rs 25 crore subscribed by the Indian Railways and the state
government of Maharashtra.
It is basically a government company that would execute the suburban
projects identified under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and
other railway projects under its jurisdiction in and around Mumbai.
It changed the face of Mumbai when they introduced the new-age Siemens powered violet coloured local trains.
Rakesh Mohan Committee
One of the recent important developments is the presentation of the
Rakesh Mohan Committee report on railway restructuring. The committee
has recommend splitting up Indian Railways into an operations and a
regulatory body, rationalising fares, closure of unprofitable lines, a
corporate approach to finances, manpower reductions, and an aim of
privatisation after 15 years.
Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has accepted a few major suggestions of
the Rakesh Mohan Committee report. The first one to be implemented was
levying a safety surcharge on railway. A committee, appointed to suggest
ways to use the collected safety fund, has recently submitted its
report. The panel has recommended using most of the money for track
renewal and upgradation. But how much safety would the new fund actually
generate still remains to be seen.
Moreover, the coming railway budget is said to be a “tough one”.
Kakodkar Committee on Safety
The high level safety
review committee of Indian Railways constituted under the chairmanship of
Dr Anil Kakodkar has said that the situation of deaths on tracks in Mumbai
is grim and needs to be addressed on a war-footing.
The report said that the estimate is that almost 15,000 people die on
tracks due to unlawful trespassing on tracks every year of which about
6,000 are on the Mumbai suburban section.
‘’Reluctance of the Indian Railways to own the casualties , which do not
fall under the purview of accidents, but are nevertheless accidents on
account of trains, can by no means ignored. No civilised society can
accept such massacre on their railway system,’’ the committee that had
railway expert E Sreedharan as its advisor, added.
The committee, which also suggested a fare hike among other things,
comprised eminent persons/experts in technical and high end technology
related fields with expertise, was constituted in September 2011 to
provide an independent perspective of the system. A recent RTI had
revealed that nearly 40,000 people had died on Mumbai’s tracks and an
equal number injured between 2002-2011.
Nevertheless, 160 years later the railways continue to chug non-stop
Rajendra B Aklekar (Courtesy-IRFCA and railway archives)
12 April 2013
Mumbai terror train on tracks
Travelled in 864-A, back home from office late night… For starters,
864-A is the only surviving, restored and refurbished train coach of
11/7 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. It still runs smooth, ferries as many
people as any other coach and no one is knows about or wants to know
about its legacy. A silent and fitting reply to terrorism!
I remember faces of Chandrakant Mhatre, the team leader at the railway workshop and Abdul Hamid, the welder who put back life into this coach. They were excited and explained how the entire roof had been severely damaged, besides widespread internal damage. The main frame of the coach, which is the skeleton of the structure, had sagged and needed replacement. Frames of the outer shell and the supporting rods were procured from original manufacturers in Kolkata. The coach ran exactly a year after the blast with painting of two doves on it signifying peace, flagged off by a railway babu from Churchgate station. The coach had been filled with more media men than commuters. This was in 2007.
A few years later the coach was forgotten, the doves vanished and so did its legacy from public memory. A few years ago, the coach was transferred to Central Railway and runs without any doves or markings. I have travelled in this coach several times now. Every time, I get into, I get memories of that stench, but am put off by the lively crowd and the dense rush crowd that gets into this coach, unaware of what it had been through. And such restoration is a rare thing…not done even to the coaches of the London subway trains that were hit by similar blasts. 864-A runs as national pride, I should say.
rajendraa (at) gmail.com
bombayrailway (at) gmail.com
864-A was badly hit at Matunga. It was a part of the 5.57pm
Churchgate-Virar train that day. The blast happened as the train on the
fast corridor passing Matunga station. The first class coach had been
originally manufactured in Kolkatta.
I remember first seeing the coach, ripped open and mangled standing
still at the site under the Matunga bridge. The area had been cordoned
off and politicians and VIPS, including Sonia Gandhi, had visited the
station at Matunga to be with Mumbaikars. The coach reflected the horror
that had unfolded on the city’s lifeline, leaving 186 dead.
The next time I saw the coach, it was at the railway workshop.
Investigations were over and the coach had been handed over to the
railways by the cops. A peep inside and it still smelt of blood, burnt
flesh and scorched metal and I vividly remember slippers and shoes were
strewn and some bits of LIC insurance policy documents of some
passenger who hoped to live.
The third time I saw the coach it was being refurbished. Of the seven
blast-affected coaches, five were restored in one year at a total cost
of Rs 1 to 1.2 crore but were slowly phased out in all these years. Two
coaches had been immediately “condemned” as they were beyond repair.
864-A was the first to get back in tracks. It then smelt of fresh-cut
metal and welding arcs, unlike the stench of blood and flesh of a year
ago.I remember faces of Chandrakant Mhatre, the team leader at the railway workshop and Abdul Hamid, the welder who put back life into this coach. They were excited and explained how the entire roof had been severely damaged, besides widespread internal damage. The main frame of the coach, which is the skeleton of the structure, had sagged and needed replacement. Frames of the outer shell and the supporting rods were procured from original manufacturers in Kolkata. The coach ran exactly a year after the blast with painting of two doves on it signifying peace, flagged off by a railway babu from Churchgate station. The coach had been filled with more media men than commuters. This was in 2007.
A few years later the coach was forgotten, the doves vanished and so did its legacy from public memory. A few years ago, the coach was transferred to Central Railway and runs without any doves or markings. I have travelled in this coach several times now. Every time, I get into, I get memories of that stench, but am put off by the lively crowd and the dense rush crowd that gets into this coach, unaware of what it had been through. And such restoration is a rare thing…not done even to the coaches of the London subway trains that were hit by similar blasts. 864-A runs as national pride, I should say.
rajendraa (at) gmail.com
bombayrailway (at) gmail.com
03 July 2012
Port trust yard may have city’s oldest rail wagons
Rajendra Aklekar
Mumbai: A rare set of century-old wagons, which were a part of cargo
exchange with old British steamships, have been lying abandoned at the
Mumbai Port Trust rail yard and could be one of the oldest ones in the
city.
Railway officials said the four-wheeled old wagons belong to an era
before the port trust lines were commissioned, and could be a part of
the old British railway companies that operated in Mumbai then.
According to the book, The Port of Bombay — A Brief History, issued by
the trustees of the Port of Bombay to mark the first centenary of
Bombay, the port railway was commissioned from January 1, 1915. The port
trust lines were not just used for conveying cargo, but also carry
passengers and troops during wartime.
“1912
was the time when the docks were not yet completely developed. It was a
time when cargo was ferried from and to British steamships and the port
rail lines were its sole linkages,” said city historian Deepak Rao.
A
scheme for construction of a port railway was first mooted in 1894.
However, the project was later referred to a commission of inquiry
headed by Sir Arthur Trevor in 1900, who recommended a line from Kurla
to a goods depot at Mazgaon, with a connection to Mahim and linkages to
the Prince’s and Victoria Docks, with a yard at Wadala. These wagons too
were lying at the same yard.
“I
think they can be preserved as national heritage. These wagons have
been a part of history and witnessed the changeover of the city. I shall
try to get the attention of the Mumbai Port Trust chairman and see what
can be done,” said Prakash Binsale, former trustee, Mumbai Port Trust.11 June 2012
British Bombay
A rare photograph of Bombay Municipal Corp headquarters taken from Victoria Terminus station, Bombay
19 May 2012
Oldest-ever relics of Indian Rlys found in Mumbai?
By Rajendra Aklekar, Mumbai: Officials of the Central
Railway, the country's oldest railway line, have found treasure in their
junkyard. A team of Matunga workshop officials, while going through the junk at Currey Road yard, stumbled upon old Manglorean tiles which date back to 1853, making them the oldest rail relic ever of Indian Railways. The first train in India had run in 1853.
"We have also found a 1930s diesel-fired Morris fire engine and rail bogies of the old era. We have set up a small heritage gallery of all these items inside the Matunga workshop," Jogendra Yadvendu, deputy chief materials manager, carriage and repair workshop at Matunga, told DNA.
Manu Goel, executive director (heritage) railway board, in New Delhi said, "This is an interesting piece of news. We will surely check them out."
The oldest surviving relics on Indian Railways as of today include a steam locomotive called Fairy Queen dated 1855.
These tiles have inscriptions of Alvares and Company, Mangalore. The company was named after Simon Alvares who had bought it in 1878. The Manglorean tile industry dates back to that era and was first set up at Jeppo, Mangalore, in mid 1850. The raw material for the tiles, namely clay or feldspar, was abundantly available on the banks of Netravati river.
Companies back then were known to manufacture tiles with special features, during their preparation in gas-fired kilns and with salt glazes, that would make them last longer. Tiles were transported throughout India, British East Africa, Aden, Basra, Sumatra, Borneo and Australia.
The earliest buildings of the railways had tiled roofs, and Manglorean tiles were a common part of rail infrastructure back then. Recently, during the restoration of Mumbai CST, officials had found similar Manglorean clay tiles, dated as early as 1865 and manufactured by Basel Mission Tile Works with its stamp on them.
"The fire engine was to be scrapped, as were the other bogies, but we took them over and restored them. Another interesting feature on display is the signal lamps that were used in the olden times," Yadvendu said.
