Mumbai: Celebrating a monumental milestone, Indian Railways commemorates 171 years of remarkable service, tracing its illustrious journey back to April 16, 1853, when the first train in Asia, traversing from Mumbai to Thane, embarked on its historic voyage from Boribunder, the present site of CSMT.
Over the years, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, pioneer of this momentous journey, merged with the Indian Midland Railway Company in 1900, expanding its reach from Delhi in the North to Kanpur, Allahabad, and Nagpur in the Northeast and Raichur in the Southeast.
"This amalgamation paved the way for a network that not only connected cities but also facilitated the growth and development of the nation," said an official of CR.
"On 5 November 1951, Central Railway was formed by integrating Nizam State, Scindia State and Dholpur State Railways. Presently Central Railway with its 5 divisions i.e. Mumbai, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune has a network over 4,275 route km in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. CR serves these states through 466 stations," he said.
"From the first train in April 1853 to the most modern train of India, Vande Bharat Express, Railways have successfully expanded its network to the huge area in last 171 years. Presently Central Railway runs 6 Vande Bharat Express trains, viz. CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi, CSMT-Solapur, CSMT-Madgaon, CSMT-Jalna, Nagpur-Bilaspur & Nagpur-Indore Vande Bharat," said another senior officer of CR.
According to Nila, Central Railway is also at the forefront with achievement of many firsts. Some notable achievements among them are: first Shatabdi Express, first Jan Shatabdi Express, first Tejas Express to name a few. It has definitely come a long way with some of the oldest trains like Punjab Mail still running and popular among its passengers even after 100 years.
"Running the first electric train service in India between Bombay VT and Kurla Harbour on 3rd Feb 1925 laid the foundation of Electrification of Railways and Mumbai's suburban services which today have become the lifeline of Mumbai city.
Today, Central Railway has achieved 100% electrification and the suburban network has also steadily increased. Presently Central Railway has five suburban corridors.
The suburban services which started from 3 coaches have gradually increased to 9 coaches, 12 coaches and some services with 15 coaches. AC suburban services have also been introduced to make travel more convenient and comfortable" further added officials.
According to CR, the originating loading which was 16.58 million tonnes at the time of formation, has now increased to 89.24 million tonnes in the year 2023-24 which is the best ever.
Apart from this, infrastructure works like construction of new railway lines, doubling, construction of bridges, construction of new stations etc. are being done at a fast pace which includes the highest volume of 348 kms of Multi-tracking work achieved in this financial year
Apart from that Neral-Matheran Light Railway has also completed its glorious 117 years ( 15 April 1907). The Neral-Matheran railway construction started in 1904 and the two feet gauge line finally opened to traffic in 1907.
As a precautionary measure, the line used to be closed during the monsoons, however, shuttle services between Aman Lodge and Matheran were introduced from 29th September 2012, to run even in monsoon.
Central Railway has undertaken several infrastructural works on this section to ensure a safe and comfortable ride to its passengers and services on Neral – Matheran Narrow Gauge line.
"From 1853 to the present, Central Railway has always been and will always strive to be the pioneer in providing the best services and is committed to providing a safe, comfortable and convenient journey to its esteemed passengers" said an official.
