Indian Railways and Right to Information Act

Indian Railways

The first railway on Indian sub-continent ran over a stretch of 21 miles from Bombay to Thane on 16 April 1853. The idea of a railway to connect Bombay with Thane, Kalyan and with the Thai and Bhore Ghats inclines first occurred to George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay Government, during a visit to Bhandup in 1843. During the formal inauguration ceremony, 14 railway carriages carrying about 400 guests left Bori Bunder at 3.30 pm "amidst the loud applause of a vast multitude and to the salute of 21 guns".

The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station destined for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15 August 1854. Thus the first section of the East Indian Railway was opened to public traffic, inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the sub-continent. In South, the first line was opened on 1 July 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between Veyasarpandy and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the North, a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3 March 1859.

The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19 October 1875. These small beginnings in due course developed into a network of railway lines all over the country. By 1880, the Indian Railway system had a route mileage of about 9000 miles. When India became independent in 1947, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951, the systems were nationalized as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. Thus Indian Railways (IR) was torn.

Today, Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world. It transports 20 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily and is one of the world's largest commercial employers, with more than 1.6 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometers. In terms...