Busting the myth of "British Railway Gift" and other gifts to India

[kurup]

The British made India. They semi-civilized the Indians.

Every Indian owes its relevance to the British monarchy.

You mean just like chinese owes it to the mongolians .

 

[IND151]

Where can I get information about Indian rail network? Can somebody point out differences in management of Railways between India and Pakistan? We have very similar culture and economic conditions, then why does Pakistani railways fails and what is that our Indian friends do better that they successfully maintain a huge network?

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 (now Bangladesh). 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 was 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 Nizam Railway, the ScindiaRailway 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 Sourashtra Railway, 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 a Railway 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 gauges still 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/narrow gauge 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.



Former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had 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

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CC0QFjAB&url=http://www.dnaindia.com/blogs/post-the-complete-story-of-indian-railways-1822868&ei=CWLnUr__G83GrAeNmICYCQ&usg=AFQjCNE4I0WvAf120-0_12N9X8Jo_Iq-jw&bvm=bv.59930103,d.bmk

 

[livingdead]

Where can I get information about Indian rail network? Can somebody point out differences in management of Railways between India and Pakistan? We have very similar culture and economic conditions, then why does Pakistani railways fails and what is that our Indian friends do better that they successfully maintain a huge network?

pakistan is a small country may be thats why your leaders focussed on road network.
Your road network was much better than Indian one till very recently. (or may be even now)

 

[fast]

Indian revisionists are hard at work.

 

[Kloitra]

Without British colonization the Indians would still be in the midst of proto-history.

Nothing changed with colonization. While it is true that India lagged in industrialization, but thats because the industrial revolution started in Europe. The princely states were not far behind in getting tech and knowledge from the west. As you can read in the OP, most railway lines were owned by those princely states. I fail to see what it was that could not be done without British.

India was first invaded in 1763. When Brits got the taxation rights of Bengal. Britain left at 1947, almost 200 years.

India was under Muslim rule for a long time. But as Indian subcontinent was divided into many kingdoms, there was not a time when the while India was completely under Muslim rule. But you can say that part of India was under Muslim rule for 800 years.

Read up on Mahmud of Ghazni

Mahmud of Ghazni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He invaded India in 997AD. Ravage most of land. The truth is that India was under the control of Muslims and British for a longer period of time than you stated above.

Ghazni only plundered, not controlled. First muslim ruler came in 1200. The only regions of ancient India that Muslims got control of by 1150 was what is now Pakistan. And your 800 and 200 cannot go parallel, can they? It was in 1850 that last Mughal emperor died, so either India can be under control of Mughals or Muslim rule ended even before that.

Much before British, the Mughals had lost all their glory, Marathas and other had started to gain control over large parts of land. Only time Muslims were in control of majority of India, was within a span of 4/5 rulers, even than some parts of south were not in their control. From Akbar to Aurangjeb. Mughals declined greatly afterwards.

The British, started expanding during the Mughal rule, but if you call them in control for 200 years, than that time would be deducted from the Mughal rule, would not it?

India was primarily Dravidian; the Indo-Aryans descended from Central Asia to colonize the subcontinent. They came from Eastern Europe and were White.

Kurgan hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indo-Aryan migration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indo-Iranians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indo-Aryan peoples - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indo-Aryan languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was expecting some kind of 'invasion'..

And he was unable to reply, even the state of Indian civilization at that time. There was a neat little civilization called Indus valley civilization, that existed even before the so called Aryan migration.

 

[faithfulguy]

Without British colonization, Ind



Ghazni only plundered, not controlled. First muslim ruler came in 1200. The only regions of ancient India that Muslims got control of by 1150 was what is now Pakistan. And your 800 and 200 cannot go parallel, can they? It was in 1850 that last Mughal emperor died, so either India can be under control of Mughals or Muslim rule ended even before that.

Much before British, the Mughals had lost all their glory, Marathas and other had started to gain control over large parts of land. Only time Muslims were in control of majority of India, was within a span of 4/5 rulers, even than some parts of south were not in their control. From Akbar to Aurangjeb. Mughals declined greatly afterwards.

The British, started expanding during the Mughal rule, but if you call them in control for 200 years, than that time would be deducted from the Mughal rule, would not it?



I was expecting some kind of 'invasion'..

And he was unable to reply, even the state of Indian civilization at that time. There was a neat little civilization called Indus valley civilization, that existed even before the so called Aryan migration.

Is there any written record at the time of Aryan invasion? if not, we'll need to rely on other sources such as linguistic study. And those studies pointed to an Aryan invasion.

 

[Kloitra]

Is there any written record at the time of Aryan invasion? if not, we'll need to rely on other sources such as linguistic study. And those studies pointed to an Aryan invasion.

Those studies show a gradual migration. And India had a well developed civilization by the time Aryans started streaming in. The whole premise of India being civilized by Aryans (they are as Indian as Indians can be, comprising large % of the population) falls flat. Just like your claim of India being ruled by Muslims for 800 years.

 

[Butchcassidy]

Is there any written record at the time of Aryan invasion? if not, we'll need to rely on other sources such as linguistic study. And those studies pointed to an Aryan invasion.

genectic studies show that there has been hardly any gene flow into the subcontinent since the last couple of millenia, so aryan invasion theory is as bogus as any.

 

[Fattyacids]

Those studies show a gradual migration. And India had a well developed civilization by the time Aryans started streaming in. The whole premise of India being civilized by Aryans (they are as Indian as Indians can be, comprising large % of the population) falls flat. Just like your claim of India being ruled by Muslims for 800 years.

Indus civilization had perished, the language wasn't even deciphered. India's civilization is Vedic Aryans.

 

[INDIC]

Indus civilization had perished, the language wasn't even deciphered. India's civilization is Vedic Aryans.

It didn't perish but Late Harappan culture evolved as Vedic culture after Saraswati river dried.

What happened after 1800 BCE? | Harappa

 

[Fattyacids]

It didn't perish but Late Harappan culture evolved as Vedic culture after Saraswati river dried.

What happened after 1800 BCE? | Harappa

1) Indus language was not deciphered, without language there's no civilization.

2) What kind of an authority is harappa.com? Exercise some intelligence.

 

[INDIC]

1) Indus language was not deciphered, without language there's no civilization.

We have archaeological excavations and proof that Saraswati river once flowed parallel to Indus river.

2) What kind of an authority is harappa.com? Exercise some intelligence.

Its an authentic website from renowned scholars about Indus Valley civilization containing copyrighted contents.

about us | Harappa

 

[Fattyacids]

We have archaeological excavations and proof that Saraswati river once flowed parallel to Indus river.

Its an authentic website from renowned scholars about Indus Valley civilization containing copyrighted contents.

about us | Harappa

So does the infamously ridiculous Out-of-India theory? Save it for your India's amusement.


Without language, one cannot be civilized. Indus language was not deciphered. Vedic sanskrit is Aryans.

 

[Kloitra]

Indus civilization had perished, the language wasn't even deciphered. India's civilization is Vedic Aryans.

The point was that India didn't need Aryan migration to get a civilization. I don't argue that Aryans created a civilization and that is major part of India now as the Aryans have the numerical superiority, but at the same time the Dravidian developed there own civilization. You can understand the concept better if you know that south Indian/Dravidian languages bear no similarity to Aryan ones.

I sometimes feel that India has been a comfort zone, not much of predators, easy availability of food and shelter, not much of a hard time for anyone. People living in such conditions get a lot of time to develop a basic civilization. I think it was similar case with eastern regions of China. How advanced that civilization goes to be is a different matter, though Indians did a good job.

 

[INDIC]

So does the infamously ridiculous Out-of-India theory? Save it for your India's amusement.


Without language, one cannot be civilized. Indus language was not deciphered. Vedic sanskrit is Aryans.

Are you saying people of Indus valley couldn't speak. Stop amusing up with your crap theories.