The Advancements Of Railways During the British Raj  

Although a British program for railway expansion in India had first been proposed in 1832, London was the driving force behind the construction of railways in the 1840s. Private businesses were allowed to start a railway system under Lord Hardinge, the Governor-General of India, in 1844. The railway era began in India on April 16, 1853, when the first train went from Bori Bunder in Bombay to Thane, a journey of 21 miles, which was commemorated with a 21-gun salute. The length of India’s rail network increased from 838 miles in 1860 to 15,842 miles in 1880, with the majority of the lines stretching inland first from three major ports of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.

Industrial railways, 1832–1852

In 1832, the first railway plans in India were presented in Madras. In 1837, the Red Hill Railways, the nation’s first train, operated from Red Hills to Madras’ Chintadripet Bridge. It was pulled by a William Avery locomotive with a rotary steam engine. The railway, constructed by Arthur Cotton, was primarily used to deliver laterite rock for road construction in Madras. The Godavari Progress Of construction Railway was built in Dowleswaram, Rajahmundry, in 1845. Cotton also built a dam across the Godavari River, which provided stone for the dam’s construction.

Passenger railways and expansion, 1853–1924

Lord Dalhousie dedicated the nation’s first train line, which travelled through Bombay’s Bori through various stations in Thane on April 16, 1853. The three steam locomotives- Sahib, Sindhi, and Sultan, pulled the 14-car train. The railway carried 400 passengers over a distance of 34 kilometres (21 miles). The Great Indian Peninsula  (GIPR) built and operates the passenger line . It was constructed in the broad gauge of 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in), which has become the country’s norm for railways. The Bombay–Thane line was completed to Kalyan in May 1854, with the Thane causeways (India’s first railroad bridges) over the Thane creek. On August 15, 1854, the first commuter train in eastern India operated from Howrah (Calcutta (now Kolkata)) to Hoogly, located at a distance of 24 miles (39 km). The East Indian Train Company built and operated the railway. The GIPR held its initial workshops in Byculla that year. 

In British India, railways had a significant impact

On April 16, 1853, the British introduced the first passenger train, which ran through Mumbai to Thane. Indian Railways has risen to become the world’s most extensive railway system.

The railway has benefited British India in a variety of ways, including:

• It aided in developing the Indian economy by providing the government with a 5% return on investment.
• It transformed India’s internal and international trade position by allowing raw and agricultural items to be transported quickly.
• Expanding the market to an international level became a forerunner of industrial progress.
• It raised agricultural output, grain exports, and grain imports and elevated agriculture to a commercial scale.
• It reduced the cost of transportation for everything.

Conclusion

The Koochpurwanay Railway (KPR) was a line and a fictional railway town. Its Koochpurwanaypore Swadeshi Railways, a satirical notebook, was published anonymously in the late 1910s. The unnamed author claimed the book “may assist to delight the Railwaymen of India and the public” in the background of the First World War and swadeshi-influenced anti-colonial ideology. A cursory examination reveals that the main goal was to humiliate Indians among all ranks and classes for their technological and organizational abilities. Those who would shortly be in charge of the government’s trains were deemed inadequate. Kooch purwa nay means ‘it doesn’t matter at all’ or ‘no one cares.’ As a result, Koochpurwanaypore was a place where nothing mattered. The top management was sleeping by the calm wind of a pakh while the lead engineer was sipping nachts inside his office. The K.P.R. Pioneer Corps, on the other hand, was founded by railway subalterns with instruments ranging from a simple machine to the conventional broom and baskets.