The Indian railways had a modest beginning in 1853 when the journey of the first railway train commenced from Mumbai to Thane covering a distance of 34 km. This was followed by the opening of another line between Kolkata and Raniganj (180 km) in 1854 and between Chennai (Madras) and Arkonam (70 km) in 1856. A detailed railway development plan was chalked out under Lord Dalhousie to connect all major cities of the country and by 1871 the three presidency towns of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai were interlinked through railway.
The railway-development was very fast and by 1900 the total length of railway line increased to 39,835 km. The growth was slowed down during the next 50 years so that the total length of rail line was 53,596 km in 1950-51. Originally the railways were operated by private companies owned by Britishers. In 1925 the Government of India took over the first railway company and up to 1950 the entire management came under the hands of Government.
During the post-Independence period with the beginning of planning era new strategy was chalked out for the development of railways.
This included expansion in route length, gauge conversion (from narrow/meter gauge to broad gauge), electrification of tracks, modernisation of the system to improve efficiency of operations, conversion of steam locomotives to diesel and electric traction, improvement of signaling and telecommunication, improvement in passenger amenities and safety, self sufficiency in rolling stock, remove traffic bottleneck, better management of freight and passenger traffic, high priority to the development of freight terminals, introducing high speed passenger trains, use of computer in railway reservation and railway operation and expansion of railway traffic to remote and backward areas.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Accordingly the route length has increased from 53,596 km in 1950-51 to 63,221 km in 2003-04 exhibiting a growth rate of 17.77 per cent during the last 53 years. Table 25.VI shows the progress of Indian railways after 1950-51 in respect of route length, electrification of route length, passenger and goods movement, number of locomotives, coaches, and wagons.
A look at the table shows that the progress is slow but steady. Also the railway is concentrating on modernisation including conversion of meter gauge/narrow gauge track to broad gauge, electrification of tracks and phasing out steam locomotives by diesel and electric ones. Infect the progress of the Indian railways has almost reached its plateau stage.
That is why there has been very little increase in the route length in recent years. Railways are now facing stiff competition from the road transport and their share in freight and passenger traffic has declined from 89 per cent and 80 per cent in 1950-51 to 39 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2003-04.